Eternal Fire and Natus Vincere advanced to the Group B upper-bracket final with victories Saturday in BLAST Open Spring event in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The $400,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event starts with the 16 teams divided into two groups for double-elimination play. The group winners move into the playoff semifinals, the group runners-up head to the quarterfinals as high seeds and the third-place teams in each group become the low seeds in the quarterfinals.
All group-stage matches are best-of-three.
The single-elimination playoffs, to be held in Lisbon, Portugal, begin March 28. All playoff matches are best-of-three until the grand final on March 30, which will be best-of-five. The winning team will earn $150,000.
The Group B upper-bracket final will be contested on Monday.
Eternal Fire swept G2 Esports 2-0 in the Group B upper-bracket semifinal, winning by matching 13-10 scores on Anubis and Inferno. Ali “Wicadia” Haydar Yalcin was the only player on the all-Turkish squad with a positive kill-death differential (plus-10 with 41 kills). G2 was led by Nikita “HeavyGod” Martynenko of Israel and Nemanja “hunter” Kovac of Bosnia and Herzegovina, each at plus-6.
Natus Vincere worked for a 2-1 victory over The MongolZ in the other upper-bracket semifinal. Natus Vincere won on Dust II 13-7, fell 13-1 on Inferno and battled for a 16-13 win in overtime on Mirage.
Ukraine’s Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov was the lone player for Natus Vincere with a plus K-D (plus-3 with 40 kills). The all-Mongolian MongolZ were led by Munkhbold “Senzu” Azbayar (plus-12 with 51 kills), Garidmagnal “bLitz” Byambasuren (plus-10 with 50 kills) and Usukhbaya “910) Banzragch (plus-6 with 45 kills).
Team Liquid knocked out Imperial Esports 2-1 in the lower quarterfinal, winning 13-4 on Dust II, falling 13-11 on Nuke and securing the victory with a 13-5 rout on Anubis.
Every player for Team Liquid had a positive K-D differential, led by Canada’s Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken with plus-13 and 49 kills. Imperial’s Santino “try” Rigal of Argentina was the lone member with a plus-2 (42 kills).
M80 dropped the first map, Dust II, by a 13-7 score to FURIA before rallying to a 2-1 victory. M80 won on Train 13-10 and on Inferno in a 19-17 marathon. German’s Fritz “slaxz” Dietrich led M80 with a plus-9 KD (56 kills). The all-Brazilian FURIA were topped by Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato with a plus-18 (62 kills).
Play resumes Sunday with four matches:
Group A
Lower-bracket semifinal: Virtus.pro vs. Team Falcons
Lower-bracket semifinal: Team Spirit vs. FaZE Clan
Group B
Lower-bracket semifinal: The MongolZ vs. Team Liquid
Lower-bracket semifinal: G2 Esports vs. M80
BLAST Open Spring prize pool
1. $150,000
2. $60,000
3-4. $40,000
5-6. $20,000
7-8. $10,000
9-12. $7,500
13-16. $5,000 — The Huns Esports, Astralis, Imperial Esports, FURIA
–Field Level Media