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The second day of the BLAST Premier Fall Final featured the last four series of the group stage, which would give us the six Counter-Strike teams that would advance to the playoffs and the first two teams to be eliminated.
Early on Thursday, Ninjas in Pyjamas clashed with Natus Vincere in the first elimination game of the Fall Final in Group A, and it would be the latter that would claim a resounding 2-0 victory.
The series began on Overpass, which was the pick of NiP; however, NaVi looked very much at home on their opponent’s pick, as they jumped out to a quick 10-2 lead at halftime after a dominant CT side.
Led by Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke, NiP would return serve with its own dominant CT side, claiming nine of the next 11 rounds to bring the scoreline back to 11-12 before NaVi wrapped up the series with a 13th round win.
Unfortunately for NiP fans and neutral Counter-Strike viewers, the second map wasn’t even close, as NaVi closed out the series with a 13-6 win on Mirage to close out the series and send the Ninjas packing.
With Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev taking a break from competitive play, Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy and Justinas “jL” Lekavicius had to stand up and carry the team, and they did, recording an equal server-high rating of 1.34.
.@natusvincere secure the win on Mirage to continue their Fall Final journey! ✅
Unfortunately, this means @NIPCS will be heading home from the Royal Arena#BLASTPremier pic.twitter.com/Tbm3McrQgs
— BLAST Premier 💥 (@BLASTPremier) November 23, 2023
The second of the elimination matches featured Danish rivals Astralis and Heroic, with both teams seeking a playoff berth to play in front of a sold-out Royal Arena in Copenhagen.
Heroic, who are playing this event with three stand-ins, went into the matchup as clear underdogs; however, they went on to claim map one (Vertigo) 13-8.
Heroic’s new signing, ex-Astralis player Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, topped the server in multiple categories, finishing with the highest rating (1.48), most kills (20) and best kill/death difference (+6).
The second map of the series would be Astralis’ pick of Overpass, which would turn out to be much closer than Vertigo, with the teams trading 8-4 halves to take the game into overtime.
However, after just four rounds, Heroic wrapped up the map with a 16-13 victory to claim the all-Denmark series 2-0 and advance to the quarter-finals.
.@heroicgg win the Danish Derby and continue their journey at the Fall Final! 🇩🇰#BLASTPremier pic.twitter.com/1YYRclSEjz
— BLAST Premier 💥 (@BLASTPremier) November 23, 2023
Meanwhile, FaZe Clan and Cloud9 met in the upper-bracket final of Group A, where FaZe completed another comeback victory to book their place in the semi-finals, while Cloud9 advanced to the quarter-finals with the loss.
The final match of the day featured Team Vitality and Complexity, and even though the North American organisation pushed the world number five to three maps, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and his team claimed the series 2-1.
Friday’s quarter-final matches
- Cloud9 (-250) vs Heroic (+175) @ 3:30pm CET
- Natus Vincere (-120.48) vs Complexity (-120.48) @ 6:30pm CET
