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One of the recent BLAST series CS: GO championships is under its full way. The ongoing BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2021 event is a BlAST Premier series tournament.
Fall Groups 2021 event
The Fall Groups 2021 championship is an online CS: GO event featuring the top 12 CS: GO teams in the world and $150,000 prize pool.
The BLAST event is played using the double elimination group format, with four teams playing in each three groups.
Two winning teams in each group advance straight to the BLAST Premier: Fall Finals 2021 event, which will be held in November.
Two remaining rosters will compete in the BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown 2021 championship in October.
Group A
The Fall Groups BLAST tournament started on September 16, when the opening round of the CS: GO matches was played in the first group A. The games continue for 10 more days.
Group A of the BLAST series tournament consisted of the top CS: GO teams, such as Danish Astralis, US‘ Evil Geniuses, Team Vitality from France, and America’s second representative in the group, Netherlands-based Team Liquid.
Astralis vs Evil Geniuses
On September 16 play day, two matches in the first group of the championship were played.
In the first match of group A, team Astralis ended up being stronger than their opponents from EG. The final score of the match was 2:0 in favor of the Danish team. There were two sets played in this match.
Even though Evil Geniuses were picking first, and they picked Dust2, the US organization managed to lose the game on their pick with the 16:11 score.
The second map of the match, Nuke, which was picked by Astralis, ended with the score of 16:10. Even though team EG had some highlights, clutches and multikills in some of the rounds on the second map, the Danes ended up being a more stable and methodical team.
Astralis went through to the upper bracket final of the group, and EG fell down to the first round of the lower bracket, where they needed to wait for their opponent, the losing team from the next playing pair of the evening.
Vitality vs Team Liquid
The second match of the day featured France versus USA — Team Vitality vs Team Liquid. Both teams showcased decent performance in the match, so the full Bo3 series was played.
The first set was played on Inferno, Team Liquid’s pick, where the Frenchmen ended up being stronger than their opposition. The French team played really well and had numerous highlight moments during the game, including multiple triple kills and clutches. The first set ended with the 16:6 score in favor of the Vitality team.
The second map was Vertigo, the map picked by Team Vitality. The first half of the second map ended with the comfortable 3:12 score in favor of the Americans. This round handicap helped them close the game with the 5:4 score after switching sides. On this map, Liquid ended up stronger than their opponents — 16:8.
The third map was Mirage. It was left over as the final map of the match. Vitality started on CT side in the first half. 10:5 and 6:6 — the French organization closed the game and the match with the 16:11 score on the third map of the Bo3 series.
Astralis vs Team Vitality
One the next game day, which aired on September 17, there were the next two matches played in the same group A.
The first match of the day was the upper bracket fight of Astralis against the other winning team — Frenchmen from Vitality, who ended up victorious against the Danish CS: GO team. It was a really great game.
One of the Danish players, Andreas “Xyp9x” Hojsleth, had some great individual highlight moments on both maps, featuring some quick kills and one clutch. His teammate Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen scored 50 kills, but Astralis could not make it in this time.
The first map was Overpass, which was picked by Vitality. Astralis picked Nuke as the second map of the match. In the end, 16:12 on Overpass, 16:14 on Nuke — the incredibly close matchup between the two CS rosters ended up with the 2:0 score in favor of Team Vitality.
EG vs Liquid
The lower bracket finals between the two US teams were not that spectacular in terms of the quality of the match.
Team Liquid won without serious opposition, with the 16:6 and 16:7 scores on Mirage and Vertigo maps, respectively.
One of the players, Michael “Grim” Wince from Liquid even had two clutch moments during the first map, as a CT player after the post-plant situations.
Evil Geniuses competed in this tournament with two stand-ins in their roster. Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz and Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte decided to take a break from professional competitions due to their mental exhaustion.
It is also rumored in the Counter-Strike community that the US team’s roster will change after the event due to their quite unimpressive results.
Astralis vs Liquid
Today, on September 18, two matches were on the schedule. First one was the first group’s LB or consolidation final. The winner of the match earned his slot for the BLAST Premier: Fall Finals 2021 event.
First map was Vertigo, a Liquid’s pick. The NA team started on the T side during the first map. In the first half, they managed to take 11 rounds on the attacking side. After the swap, the game ended with the 16:9 score in favor of the team from the United States.
Nuke was picked by Astralis and it was the second map of the match. The Danish team managed to score the same 11 rounds on the attacking side of the second map. 5:7 score in the second half led to the Danes’ 16:11 victory and the map score was equalized.
The third and final map of the set was Dust2, which was left over after the initial map vetoing procedure finished. 5:10 and 11:3 — really close halfs with heavy dominance of both attacking sides on the map.
Even though Liquid’s star player Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski had a few highlight moments on the third map, the Danes ended up strong as a team and finished the map and the match in their favor, with the final 16:13 score on Dust2. In the end, 2:1 — Astralis through to the grand finals of the group.
Vitality vs Astralis
The last and final match of the day was the upper bracket finals match, where the French Team Vitality competed against the likes of the mighty Danes from the Astralis team. The match was played to decide the absolute winner of the group.
The group A final match started its way from the first map, Nuke. Even though the 18-year-old talent Kevin “misutaaa” Rabier and his teammate, Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen Van, were the main highlight players of the map, the Astralis’ map pick ended up in their favor, as the Danes won the map with the 16:10 score against the French opposition — 9:6 and 7:4 in the first and second half, respectively.
The second map was Vertigo, picked by the French team. They started on the Terrorist side. Even though the Danish 23-year-old rifler Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen managed to score an ace on the third round of the map, when the opponents played eco round, the score was 11:4 after the first half of the map.
Team Vitality were also the first squad to reach the map point, and the game quickly ended in their favor with the 16:10 score. The map score was equalized and the teams headed to the final, third map of the match.
Vitality’s player Kyojin showcased some incredible highlights on Dust2. The 22-year-old French managed to score four kills during the pistol round. He also aced the opposing team and managed to clutch as a safety player in the 1v2 post-plant situation against Xyp9x, who already had four kills in the round.
BLAST continues
The BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2021 tournament continues, with the next matches played in group B. The games in the second group of the BLAST event go live on Monday, September 20.
The international roster of G2 Esports, the Spanish multigaming esports organization, face Brazil’s MIBR team in the first match of the day. In the second upper bracket matchup of the first round, one of the best Swedish CS: GO teams, Ninjas in Pyjamas, will compete against the German organization BIG.
The final group games will be played in group C, where the first matches start next week on Friday, September 24.
In the final group, CIS powerhouse Na’Vi from Ukraine face Denmark’s EU roster of team OG in the first matchup, and US’ FaZe Clan play against the organization of the same origin, Complexity, as the second pair of the teams in the event’s group.