What did we see at BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2021?

Group A

Astralis did something wrong

Astralis were the main favorites in their quartet before the start of BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2021, but after the first meeting, fans of the red star of Denmark wondered about the likelihood of their favorites reaching the final of the competition. In the opening fight Astralis could not take a single card from NiP, and in the lower bracket they defeated OG. First and last. The next fight against BIG was not crowned with success on any map, and the Germans successfully took an invite to BLAST Premier Spring Series 2021 Finals, leaving gla1ve and his teammates behind.

BIG who could

The first fight with the participation of the German team was intense and ended with a victory for BIG. Despite this, the fans of the team were unlikely to be very impressed, as OG turned out to be outsiders of the group. Nevertheless, tabseN with his teammates was still able to make noise. At first, the team lost in the fight against NiP, and, entering the lower bracket against the main grandeur of the modern CS: GO scene, BIG made a mini-sensation. They did not give a single card to the Danes and made it to the grand final. Having caught the courage, the Germans did not stop there and also beat NiP with a similar result. As a result, the team, not endowed with the status of a favorite, was able to show a good performance and took 1st place in their group.

Group B

Vitality without apEX

In their debut duel, Vitality could not beat Complexity Gaming without taking a single card from the latter, and went down to the lower bracket. After that, the coach of the team announced the temporary departure of apEX from the team to resolve urgent personal problems. It is difficult to say for this reason whether the French could not beat Evil Geniuses either, but as a result Vitality took the last place, which, to put it mildly, was a surprise both for the fans of the club and for the rest of the audience.

Complexity Gaming

Earlier we talked about the fact that Complexity Gaming beat Vitality. Did we mention that they then defeated G2 Esports and Evil Geniuses without losing a single map in the tournament? Now yes! Such a performance, of course, could not fail to please the fans of the European team, and RUSH and its friends provided themselves with a ticket to BLAST Premier Spring Series 2021 Finals with a prize pool of $ 425,000, which is quite good.

Group C

Domination NAVI

Natus Vincere 's performance can only be called a domination at a stretch, since in the first two matches the team won over MIBR and FaZe Clan, but the triumphs were not easy for the Born to Win. That in the fight with the Brazilians, that in the fight against FaZe, the team gave up one card each. FaZe Clan were able to reach the final through the lower bracket, but their attempt to take a rematch was in vain - NAVI defeated Twistzz and his teammates 2-0.

S1mple, by the way, was once again named the best player of the event, this time only within Group C for obvious reasons. You can read more about this here.

And what about FaZe Clan?

And FaZe Clan has had some interesting lineup changes! After the end of the championship, the club's management announced olofmeister's departure to inactive. The player himself called this action a "step back" in order to think about what to do next. His teammate coldzera recently confirmed rumors that the legendary Swede and the best player of 2015 intends to retire, but the latter is in no hurry to announce his retirement. But, as they say, a holy place is never empty and karrigan, who represented the interests of the organization in the period from 2016 to 2018, has already replaced olofmeister. This episode of FaZe Clan was called "Homecoming", with which Finn Andersen readily agreed. Now, as former coach of Janko 'YNk' Paunovich said, FaZe have finally assembled a squad in which everyone sits in their place and plays their favorite role. Now we will expect an interesting performance from this team at BLAST Premier Spring Series 2021 Finals, where they were able to break through thanks to the victory over Team Liquid in the final of the lower bracket in Spring Groups 2021.

Championship results