FURIA and Mousesports Qualify for BLAST Premier Fall Finals

FURIA Make It Through

The upper half of the bracket at the BLAST Fall Showdown consisted of teams from Europe, CIS, and the Americas. In a surprising turn of events, both European teams in FaZe Clan and MAD Lions fell in round one. In the meantime, FURIA’s first match was against the Argentinian Isurus squad.

Isurus opened up with a dominant performance on FURIA’s least favorite Overpass. Their T side earned a 12-3 lead. A quick six round second half solidified a 16-5 victory for Isurus in which every player broke a 1.00 HLTV rating.

FURIA would answer right back on their Mirage pick. Despite losing the opening pistol round, they proceeded to go on a 12 round win streak on offense. Henrique “HEN1” Teles put together an amazing half, earning a 17-3 K-D ratio and 101.9 ADR for a 2.03 rating. The result was a 12-3 lead for FURIA. One even shorter second half later and the series was evened up.

Inferno was the tiebreaker. After falling to a five-round deficit, Isurus brought the score back to 6-9 at the half. They even won the second pistol. Unfortunately for them, FURIA stole the momentum with a force buy. The Brazilian side then streaked up to a 15-7 match point. Isurus tried their best to make the comeback happen, but they fell short at the finish line. FURIA would take the series with a narrow 16-14 win.

Many wondered if FURIA’s below average performance in round one was a sign of weaker play to come. Instead, it would prove to have just been a warm up. Next up was Virtus.pro. FURIA opened up with an Inferno pick and stomped VP out of the game early. A crushing 13-2 CT half was defined by amazing play from all of FURIA and VP being unable to capitalize on advantages.

Map one would go to FURIA 16-6. Virtus.pro at least made the series look closer on paper thanks to their Mirage pick. A tight 8-7 first half led into a good enough T side effort for VP to take a 16-13 equalizer. The third map would once again come into play.

Train was the decider after FURIA removed Overpass. The first half looked to be fairly standard with FURIA taking a 9-6 lead on the CT favored map. Things could have been a lot worse if not for a 1v4 clutch out of Dzhami “Jame” Ali which put VP on the board.

Without more plays like that, VP fell behind in the second half. FURIA’s T side proved too strong as they ran away with the match. A 16-9 victory sent FURIA through to the final qualification match.

Awaiting them was Team Liquid. FURIA have an insane win rate against the American side this year, having won nine of their previous 10 matchups. That 90 percent would increase yet again after this performance.

Liquid did start out with an Overpass pick knowing FURIA disliked the map. That choice would pay off as they fought their way to a close 16-13 victory. From there, it was all downhill for Liquid. FURIA pulled their second straight 13 round opening half on Inferno, this time from the T side. Liquid’s defense got embarrassed as no player broke a positive K-D. A 16-6 finish saw the series brought to one map apiece.

Mirage was the final battleground. FURIA’s T side once again shot out of the gate by winning seven of the first eight. Liquid did manage to pull back six rounds to earn a workable 6-9 score. However, FURIA wouldn’t give them a chance. Another pistol round victory would set the Brazilians on a five of six round win streak.

FURIA proved too much for Liquid for the 10th time this year as they took the series victory and a spot at the BLAST Fall Finals.

Mousesports Cruise to Finals

In comparison to the other side of the bracket, this all European affair was very straightforward. Mousesports started off their run with a clean 2-0 against GODSENT. Inferno was a quick one as mousesports earned a 10-5 CT start before having a near perfect second half to close out map one 16-6.

Train was hardly any better for GODSENT. Mousesports took a narrow 8-7 advantage from the less favored T side before shutting down their opponents entirely. A dominant 8-1 half was capped off by a Chris “chrisJ” de Jong 3K to end the map 16-8.

Mousesports now had to go against the favorite to win their side of the bracket in Heroic. Map one on Mirage was tight the whole way through. Although both teams were playing well overall, one man proved to be the difference maker. Rene “TeSeS” Madsen carried Heroic across the finish line with a 33-15 K-D and 98.2 ADR. Heroic barely took map one 16-14.

Even after losing their map pick, mousesports remained unfazed. Nuke was supposed to be Heroic’s chance to close out the series. Instead, mousesports took control from the get-go. An 11-4 CT side lead quickly turned into a 16-7 result for mousesports. Every player hit a 1.00 rating on their way to the equalizer.

It was time for Train which mousesports had just beaten GODSENT on 16-8. This time, they would repeat that performance against a much better team. Mousesports’s T side started off hot, taking double digit rounds off of Heroic.

David “frozen” Čerňanský was massive for the squad, earning 28 kills and 106.1 ADR overall. One quick CT side later and mousesports had taken down the favorites 2-1.

The final showdown was against another surprise in Cloud9. The Colossus had come alive in their previous matches, taking down Ninjas in Pyjamas and Complexity on their way here. When it mattered most however, they were unable to deliver.

C9’s opening Vertigo pick went awry after a favorable start. Despite starting with a large 6-1 T side lead, they allowed mousesports to stabilize and win the last eight rounds in a row. That win streak continued in the second half after a pistol round win. C9 only managed one round on defense before mousesports stole their map 16-7.

It was a similar story on Inferno. C9 started off hot with an even bigger 8-1 CT side opening. Once again, mousesports won six rounds to close out the half and bring the score back to an even 7-8. This time, Cloud9 even won the second pistol round to bring their score to 11. It would matter little once mousesports got their guns. A seven round win streak gave mouz their first lead of the map. Four rounds later, they had taken the 16-13 victory and the final spot at BLAST Fall Finals.

With the Showdown out of the way, the eight competitors at the BLAST Fall Finals have been solidified. OG, Team Vitality, G2 Esports, Natus Vincere, BIG, Astralis, FURIA Esports, and mousesports will all be competing for a massive $425,000 prize pool and a spot at the BLAST Global Finals. Matches kick off on December 8th. Even if a team doesn’t win the entire thing, there are still valuable BLAST Points on the line making every match important.