This BLAST Premier World Final has been full of twists and turns. From NAVI unexpectedly dropping out in last place to Astralis rising into the top four, we’ve now arrived at the Semifinals. Four teams remain in the hunt for the penultimate Counter-Strike trophy of the year.
Astralis vs Team Spirit
Yep, no one saw this coming. Astralis was seen as the weakest team at the entire event coming into it. Then, they swept the best team in the world, NAVI, without giving up more than six rounds in a map.
As if that wasn’t crazy enough, they swept studio merchants MOUZ right afterwards in the group final. Astralis hasn’t given up double digits yet, and their previous matches were both more difficult on paper than this one. If there’s any time for the Danish org to make a big stage, this is it right here.
Team Spirit took down a stand-in wielding Vitality in the first round of their group before falling to G2 Esports in the winners’ match. They then bested a struggling FaZe in the quarterfinals. This has all been within expectation for Team Spirit. Confidence in them at these BLAST Premier World Final Playoffs isn’t any higher or lower than usual.
Now, they face a wildcard in Astralis. We guarantee that they didn’t do any prep for this team coming into the event, so they likely only had one day to watch tape and study their strats. On the other side, Astralis has a big advantage with their first round bye.
Even though Spirit is the favorite on paper, this one really could go either way. We’re going to put faith in Astralis. This is BLAST after all. Memes aside, Astralis simply looked dominant in their matches against much better teams than Spirit are.
Team Vitality vs G2 Esports
The clash of number two and three in the world is here, just a couple days later than expected. As mentioned earlier, Vitality is playing this event without William “mezii” Merriman. Their stand-in Audric “JACKZ” Jug is no stranger to high pressure environments like this, making rust and synergy the main worries.
That said, JACKZ and Vitality haven’t looked that much worse after a couple days of acclimation. They easily dispatched the playoff-shy MOUZ in round one to make it here. Now they face a G2 Esports that is likely on their last dance tour. Rumors of Nikola “NiKo” Kovac leaving the squad at the end of the year are looking more credible by the day.
G2’s run at the BLAST Premier World Finals has been swift so far. After giving up a 13-0 to Liquid on Ancient, they’ve won four maps straight. They swept a Spirit who swept Vitality earlier in group play, so the confidence should be there.
This G2 lineup is (for now) star studded and in a trophy window. They’re hungry for every title they can get, and with NAVI out of the picture, they are the frontrunners in the BLAST Premier World Final Playoffs. Losing here to Vitality would be a huge disappointment. It shouldn’t happen, but with Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut on the other side of the server, you can never be too careful.
