Team Spirit and SAW qualify for BLAST Premier: Spring Final

BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown had 16 participants and many of them were highly respected teams. Complexity, HEROIC, Cloud9, and Team Liquid are just some of them. The list also includes Imperial Esports, Ninjas in Pyjamas, BIG, and Team Flacons.

However, there were only two spots available for BLAST Premier: Spring Final and none of these teams managed to qualify. Instead, the winners were Team Spirit and SAW.

Team Spirit’s success

We are going to BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024 🔥

The tournament will be held from June 12th to June 16th.
See you, London 🇬🇧#SpiritCS #CS2 #BLASTPremier pic.twitter.com/67cQsLMhmE

— Team Spirit (@Team__Spirit) March 10, 2024

Spirit were expected to win because of their performance at IEM Katowice, where they easily defeated everyone. With donk in great shape and looking like the next s1mple, ZywOo, or NiKo, this team is definitely going places this year.

Their first match was against Elevate and they won without too many problems. The scores, 13 – 9 on Vertigo and 13 – 6 on Mirage, briefly tell the story of this battle, in which donk did what he always does. His individual score was 40 – 26.

The second match, against BIG, was a bit more challenging but Spirit still won quite easily. I say challenging because BIG nearly completed an epic comeback on the first map, Anubis, and eventually lost 13 – 11 after losing the first half 10 – 2. On the second map, Vertigo, the score after the first half was once again 10 – 2. But this time, Spirit won 13 – 3.

Donk’s performance in this match was even more impressive than in the first: 46 – 27 / 115.2 / 1.80.

It was now time for Spirit to win the last match of the tournament and qualify for BLAST Premier: Spring Final. But their opponent, Metizport, had defeated Team Falcons and Monte, and looked very strong. This fact was quickly confirmed on the first map, Vertigo, lost by Spirit 13 – 8. But on the next two maps, the CIS team proved to be much better, winning 4 – 13 and 8 – 13.

SAW’s success

OFF TO LONDON! 🇬🇧

Ultrapassámos todos os obstáculos e estamos qualificados para a @BLASTPremier Spring Final 2024.#StayAWarrior pic.twitter.com/pjp0QATn3q

— SAW (@sawggofficial) March 10, 2024

SAW were the dark horse of this tournament. Despite their performance in PGL Major Copenhagen European RMR A, where they finished in the top eight and qualified for the tournament, they started BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown with very low chances of winning.

The situation was made even more difficult by the fact that they encountered three serious teams: Team Liquid, Cloud9, and OG. But in every single case, they fought hard and eventually won. Only Liquid managed to win a map against them.

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