A breakdown of all the results from the three groups ahead of the Play-In Stage.
With the end of summer nigh and fall fast approaching, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s BLAST Premier Fall Groups are upon us. A lead-up to the Fall Finals in November and the World Final in December. The tournament might not have much in the way of a cash prize on the line, but the amount of BLAST Premier points on offer is an enticing prospect. There were plenty of exciting matches that demand attention, so without further ado, let’s get into it.
BLAST Premier Fall Groups Format
The Fall Groups are held between the 12 BLAST Partner teams, and these 12 teams were divided into three Double Elimination Bracket groups. Vitality, OG, Ninjas In Pyjamas, and Astralis were in Group A; Natus Vincere, Complexity, G2, and Team Liquid were in Group B; FaZe Clan, Evil Geniuses, Heroic, and Berlin International Gaming were in Group C.
The third and fourth teams from each group would have to start from the quarterfinals of the next round, with the top two teams joining the fray in the two subsequent rounds.
Group A
Group A started off with Vitality vs OG. Vitality somewhat controversially let go of Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier a few days ago, and whether the incoming Lotan “Spinx” Giladi was a worthwhile investment for the French team. As it turned out, the Israeli was more than up to the task, coming second on the scoreboard as Vitality took out a relatively new OG squad 16-11 on Dust 2. They then proceeded to thump NIP 16-12 on Inferno, sending the latter into the Lower Bracket to seal their spot in the Group Final.
In the second game of the group, Astralis were beaten convincingly by NIP. However, they bounced back with resounding 16-9 wins against OG and a fallen NIP on Mirage and Ancient respectively. The sweet taste of revenge perhaps spurred them on, because they went on to beat Vitality 19-17 on Mirage in the Group Final. After being down 10-5 as the CT in the first half, they managed to claw their way back into a tie and win the match in Overtime, with Asger “farlig” Jensen leading the score charts.
Group B
The first match of Group B produced the second-most-shocking result of the tournament as COL took down Na’ Vi 16-9 on Overpass. To be fair, the Ukrainian side was playing without the talismanic Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, with academy player Daniil “headtr1ck” Valitov getting the first-team call-up. Na’ Vi went on to defeat G2 in a nail-biting 16-14 match on Mirage before avenging themselves with a 16-3 thrashing of COL on Overpass, booking a spot in the Group Final.
Liquid was the first team to beat G2 (16-12, Mirage) in the second match of the group to send them on a collision course with Na’ Vi. Liquid then edged COL out in a 16-14 thriller on Vertigo, but fell absolutely flat against Na’ Vi in the group final, losing 16-4 on Dust 2 as Valerii “b1t” Vakhovskyi and Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy carried the Ukrainians through.
Group C
FaZe opened the third day by butchering EG 16-8 on Inferno, while Heroic was able to secure a 16-13 win over BIG on Nuke. FaZe would then go on to defeat Heroic 16-10 on Nuke, relegating the Danish squad to the second bracket. Meanwhile, EG was massacred by BIG with a 16-6 scoreline on Mirage.
Facing BIG on Nuke once again, Heroic took the game on an even closer margin — 16-14. The boys under Casper “cadiaN” Møller then got their rematch against a dominant FaZe Clan, and it became the second Danish team to experience revenge as they beat fellow Dane Finn “karrigan” Andersen’s team 16-10 on Inferno to become group champions.
There will be a slight lull of about three days as the player’s rest and recuperate, but be sure to check out our coverage of the Play-In Stage once it begins on August 25.
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