BLAST Premier: Fall Group A Recap and Predictions
Published: Oct 29, 2020 - Last Updated: Jul 11, 2023
With the BLAST Premier Fall Series 2020 well underway, we’ve already got two teams that have booked their ticket to the Fall finals.
Both OG and Natus Vincere’s CS:GO squads have come out on top from Group A to qualify for the tournament that starts on December 8th.
Two more groups are heading our way this week and will feature some long overdue matchups between the world’s very best. They say that fortune favors the bold, but what can teams do when the odds are stacked against them?
Group A Recap
From its very beginning, Group A was poised to be a matchup between the consistently dominant roster of Na’Vi and the surging squad of OG. Ninjas in Pyjamas was seen as a worthy threat, with North American hopefuls Evil Geniuses looking like the complete outsider.
Natus Vincere defeated NiP during the group’s opening match, mostly on the back of an incredible performance by Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev. S1mple finished the series with a 1.49 rating.
In the group’s second opening round match, Evil Geniuses showed heart but fell short against OG in a three-game series that could have gone either way.
The upper bracket finals were definitely more close than the scoreline would suggest. OG defeated Na’Vi with a 2-0 sweep. Despite another monstrous performance by s1mple, Polish AWPer Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski was the man of the series, finishing with a 1.46 rating.
Group A’s lower bracket pretty much went as expected, with NiP eliminating EG from the tournament with a clean sweep, but ultimately falling to Na’Vi in the losers bracket finals. Despite winning the first map, NiP was utterly outclassed by the Ukrainians on the back of another insane performance by, you guessed it, s1mple.
The Group A grand finals were more or less a repeat of the upper bracket, with OG defeating Na’Vi with mantuu once again looking miles above everyone else. The Pole was a crucial factor in shutting down Na’Vi’s T-side, ending the series with a 1.27 rating.
With the grand finals matchup, both teams have secured their place at the BLAST Premier Fall Finals, with OG banking $25.000 to Na’Vi’s $12.500 respectively.
Group B
Group B looks to be the most straight-forward of the two remaining groups at BLAST Premier Fall Series.
Vitality is a top-three team in the world for a reason, while BIG are not too far off themselves. The addition of FaZe at first made the group competitive, but with the team losing its best player yesterday, their chances are looking like slim-to-none.
Complexity Gaming is looking like the complete outsider of the group.
Vitality is the heavy favorite heading into the group’s opener, while will be BIG looking to clean sweep the decimated FaZe squad in the second match of the first round.
Predictions:
- Team Vitality
- BIG
- FaZe Clan
- Complexity Gaming
Group C
With MIBR debuting its new lineup, Group C was already set to make headlines. However G2’s acquisition of Nikola “NiKo” Kovač yesterday has managed to one-up the Brazilians.
With Astralis and FURIA rounding up the teams participating, Group C is definitely looking as BLAST Fall’s group of death.
Despite the roster moves, Astralis is still the heavy favorite, with second place looking to be a toss-up between G2 and FURIA.
MIBR’s new roster is looking outmanned and outgunned, as the CSGO odds seem to be stacked against them. The organization will likely have to settle for the title of the second-best Brazilian team participating.
The group’s opener between Astralis and MIBR looks to be a done deal for the Danes, but the second first-round match between G2 and FURIA could give us an insight on what the final standings might look like.
Predictions:
- Astralis
- G2 Esports
- FURIA
- MIBR
