ENCE beat Astralis to Qualify for BLAST Premier Spring Finals 2022

EZ4ENCE!!! Well, apart from the first map, at least.

BLAST Premier Spring European Showdown just ended, and it’s ENCE that won it, despite teams like Heroic, Astralis, and NiP being in the mix.

With this match, ENCE has now defeated 17 Danes in this tournament. 6 from both CPH Flames and Astralis, and 5 from Heroic. That’s a fact that you can’t push under the rug. Sad turn of events for Danish CS:GO fans.

ENCE vs Astralis

The Grand Final started on ENCE’s pick of Mirage. Since it was their pick, they surely must’ve hoped to show some thick skin on the dusty land, but instead, they got completely humiliated. Astralis defeated ENCE 16-3 to kickstart a Grand Final that was on course to be one of the quickest ones ever. Ah well, you know it wasn’t.

I don’t even understand why ENCE picked Mirage, given how Astralis blew away NiP 16-1 on it literally one match prior. Perhaps it was a surprise pick? Perhaps they thought they can counter Astralis’ CT aggression, the one they used to wipe the floor with NiP.

Astralis took an early 3-0 lead, but ENCE won the eco round that came next. It was a great round, actually. ENCE had gained some important map control. They were boosted in Window, snuck under Palace, and were ready to execute their plan. It was a sight for sore eyes. ENCE won the following two rounds to make it 3-3 and give us hope that this would be a competitive affair.

Astralis won the next 13 rounds uncontested.

blameF was the real hero of this map. 31 kills, 151 ADR, 2.53 rating. He was everywhere. He was killing everyone. He had more kills than all of ENCE excluding dycha got. He won 5/6 opening duels; he wasn’t baitF by any sense of the word.

Using hades and his AWP to get opening kills by punishing aggression or mistakes was a fix ENCE never managed to apply.

Mirage is truly yours @AstralisCS ?#BLASTPremier pic.twitter.com/GeRWX4hQdD

— BLAST Premier ? (@BLASTPremier) May 1, 2022

The next map was Ancient, and it’s Astralis strongest map. They had played on it 13 times since February, and only lost it twice: one to NaVi and one to the ex-Gambit squad. ENCE were pretty damn strong on Ancient as well, but it was surely a tall task to beat the Danes here.

Despite that, ENCE started their CT side in a dominant fashion, rushing to a 7-0 lead. Astralis had to change things up after going down 3-0 or 4-0. Perhaps a fast A exec. But they didn’t and well, it was a little too late. They did manage to salvage a 10-5 half. The Danes made it 10-6 by winning the pistol, but lost the forcebuy and that all but sealed the deal for ENCE.

ANCE defeated Astralis 16-13 on Ancient, winning 15-14 on the opening duels.

If k0nfig isn’t shining on the T side, then Astralis clearly lack the depth to put out a good T-sided half. That is something the Danes will be working on come this Major.

Props to maden’s phenomenal CT side and dycha’s great T side. And of course, props to Snappi’s IGLing.

DECIDER IN THE FINAL
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS#BLASTPremier pic.twitter.com/C32v44RYXh

— BLAST Premier ? (@BLASTPremier) May 1, 2022

The deciding map was Nuke, a map where both teams had ~80% win rate. It was the perfect map to settle the debt, and as we know it, it was ENCE to bag it home.

hades’ 1.49 rating performance was definitely something to talk about. dycha had very high impact as well, putting 97 on the board. ENCE’s ability to win those forcebuy rounds were really the highlight all map. Not that it mattered in the first map, but it was indeed a forcebuy win that helped ENCE get 3 on the board.

ENCE was great in capitalizing on the small mistakes that Astralis were making. Snappi made some great calls, and that’s a solid IGL I’d love to look forward to.

WELCOME TO SPRING FINAL IN LISBON, @ENCE ?? #BLASTPremier pic.twitter.com/IPiCbSmg7l

— BLAST Premier ? (@BLASTPremier) May 1, 2022

Just the fact that ENCE bounced back from that 16-3 loss to reverse sweep this match and progress to the Spring Finals shows strong character and top-tier mentality.

It was a match for the ages in BLAST, and I wish both these teams a great sword to carve Ls in the scalps of some big shots in the CS:GO world.