The BLAST Premier: Spring Finals Preview

The next big event in the 2021 CS:GO circuit is about to commence. Natus Vincere and Gambit are coming along for the ride. After the most recent events, they should both be contenders for the title. However, they’re being surrounded by many strong teams at BLAST.

Without any real break, they’re back in the fight. The Intel Extreme Masters have barely been over, but the teams are getting back onto the server already. For the Ninjas in Pyjamas, this is particularly unfortunate. The young team would surely profit from being able to digest and analyse their most recent matches properly. However, the same holds true for the other contenders at IEM Summer.

The Evil Geniuses are surely celebrating right now. After they had failed to compete in NA just a few weeks ago, they have made the playoffs at IEM Summer. The roster finally seems to be working out. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that they didn’t make the cut versus Gambit considering the latter’s dominant performance in the Grand Finals. But now, EG are facing Gambit again. It stands to question whether Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz and his men have learned from their defeat, or whether Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov and his troops can secure an even easier 2-0.

Complexity were among the few teams to even remotely hold a candle to Gambit. They dropped out of the Lower Bracket with a 14-16 on the third map. The Ninjas struggled a lot more against Virtus.pro, but they’re still in an early phase of team development. Their full lineup isn’t even set in stone yet. But Linus “LNZ” Holtäng has already proven himself and would probably make a great addition to the team.

A CLEAR FAVORITE BETWEEN G2 AND BIG

One team has made the playoffs of four consecutive events – the other one is BIG. As much as it pains the German fans, their team isn’t doing so well right now. Between highly inconsistent and shaky performances, they have mounted a few decent tournament runs. At Spring Sweet Spring, they made second place, but OG were the only real opponents there anyways. So how much damage are they supposed to do against a team that has been going strong for so many events? While G2 haven’t secured any trophies in the meantime, the number of teams able to contend with them is shrinking with every event.

FaZe Clan is bringing back Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer. The legendary Swede is coming back from the bench and is taking Marcelo “coldzera” David’s place. If Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken’s words are anything to go by, this is going to be a more permanent solution. After all these troubles, Finn “karrigan” Andersen deserves some time to play with a set lineup.

The Clan’s chances against Natus Vincere are looking astronomically slim. The winners of DreamHack Masters: Spring hold all the cards and will likely make quick work of karrigan and his men. Their bad performance at the CIS RMR event was likely due to the sketchy circumstances at the event. After all the cheating accusations and the horrible tournament execution, it’s hard to trust the results of EPIC League.

GAMBIT VS. NATUS VINCERE?

All things equal, the fight for the trophy will probably take place between these two sides. After all, sh1ro and his men have repeatedly made Grand Finals, while Natus Vincere were the ones to win their last international event. Our hopes for BLAST should be high given NaVi’s decisive victory over Gambit at DreamHack Masters. On top of that, they also won their RMR match against the Gambit boys. So if G2 and Evil Geniuses have no way to make it past the best team in the world, maybe Natus Vincere actually stand a chance!