NAVI and Vitality head straight to BLAST Open Rotterdam 2026 Semi-Finals

NAVI and Vitality have won out in their respective Upper Bracket clashes to head straight to the BLAST Open Rotterdam 2026 Semi-Finals. By beating Aurora and PARIVISION respectively, they have ensured that they don’t have to worry about the Quarter-Final stage of the event.

NAVI take down Aurora to continue momentum

If there’s any team that looks as though they can challenge Vitality right now, it’s NAVI. After winning ESL Pro League earlier this month, they have continued to build their momentum into BLAST Open Rotterdam 2026, securing their Semi-Final berth early in a win over Aurora.

NAVI‘s crowning moment in this series came in the first map. Anubis – Aurora’s home turf. The Turkish outfit have arguably been the best CS2 team in the world on the map since its return to the Active Duty pool. Prior to this, it was only NAVI who had beaten them on it back at PGL Cluj-Napoca. They were able to prove it wasn’t a fluke, winning out a slightly more comfortable 13:8 map with a 1.95-rated iM playing a starring role, especially on the CT side.

With that advantage secured, NAVI just had to tap it in on their Nuke pick. Aurora fought well, but another stellar CT side (this time from w0nderful and makazze) ensured a 13:10 win for NAVI, locking in a spot in the BLAST Rotterdam Semis. Another impressive result guaranteed, another big step in the right direction for a team that deserves to be in and around the trophy contention.

Vitality stay dominant in win over PARIVISION

Well over a year into their dominant period as the number one team in Counter-Strike, the gulf in class between Vitality and everyone else is only widening. A 2:0 win over PARIVISION was a stark reminder of just how far ahead of the competition Vitality are right now, as they did the job expected of them to reach the Semi-Finals of this event.

We started this series on Mirage, and PARIVISION came out of the gates with some momentum. They drew the first half 6:6, but a joint effort on the T side from double act flameZ and mezii was too much for Jame‘s young team to handle. Vitality saw it home in 13:9 fashion, extending their map win streak right now to 16 consecutive.

Inferno was as back-and-forth a map as you’re likely to see this year. Neither team could truly find momentum and PARIVISION did very well to drag the map to overtime. While you’d always fancy Vitality in these kinds of scenarios, it felt as though Jame’s approach was finding some success. But in the first round of OT, a 1v5 from ZywOo completely broke PARIVISION. It is one of the best clips you will see all year. Even for ZywOo, across his vast array of highlights, this may be top of the pile. Nothing flashy. Just pitch-perfect duel isolation in how he takes fights, how he uses utility. If you want to get better at CS2, you watch this 1v5 over and over. Perfect.

WHO ELSE THAN THE GOAT

1vs4 from @zywoo pic.twitter.com/f6wSAfqTP4

— Team Vitality CS (@TeamVitalityCS) March 23, 2026

From that point, PARIVISION couldn’t find a single round win, and could you blame them? They spent the rest of overtime looking shellshocked at the 1v5 loss, and Vitality got the job done with a 16:12 win.

This was the result always expected of Vitality. We expect it of them at this point. But make no mistake – that they continue to do this with unmatched consistency is a remarkable achievement.