Blast Premier World Final Day 2: NaVi and Team Liquid sent packing

Continuing our coverage, the Blast World Final's second day in Singapore delivered high-stakes Counter-Strike action as two crucial matchups determined who will leave the tournament in joint last place.

The two teams, NaVi and Team Liquid, saw their tournament runs come to an end after losses to FaZe Clan and Vitality respectively. Meanwhile, Astralis continued their impressive run with a commanding victory over MOUZ, while G2 maintained their winning ways against Spirit to secure a semifinal spot.

NaVi bowed out of Blast World Final with a 2-1 loss to Faze Clan

The first of the two elimination games held today saw Faze Clan up against NaVi to secure their spot in the playoffs. The series began with NaVi looking in form on Faze’s pick of Inferno where they convincingly took the map 13-6. b1t and jL were at the forefront of the scoreboard with the latter pulling off an amazing 1 vs 4 clutch on the last round to close off the game. 

Moving onto Mirage, a tight first half saw NaVi win out the first half with a 7-5 lead. However, it was a different affair in the second half with Faze winning eight out of nine rounds to clinch the map 13-8. 

Finally, Ancient saw Faze coming out firing on all cylinders as they quickly got to a 6-0 lead before NaVi responded with one of their own. After struggling on the first map, Frozen was lighting up the server alongside Ropz leaving NaVi no room to breathe ending the game 13-6 with a 20-12 K/D.

With this win, Faze secures the third seed from Group A and will continue their journey in the Blast World Final, while NAVI sees their tournament runcome to an end.

Astralis beat Mouz 2-0 to claim semi-final berth

Is Astralis back? The Danish team secured a decisive 2-0 victory over Mouz, punching their ticket to the tournament semi-finals in Singapore. The series, played on Vertigo and Nuke, saw Staehr emerging as the top performer who ended the series with 37 kills and a 1.50 rating.

Astralis got off to a commanding start on the first of their map pick, Vertigo, winning 10 rounds in the half against Mouz’s two rounds on the Terrorist (T) side. Despite a brief resurgence from Mouz who clawed their way to seven rounds, it was Jabbi who sealed the map with a 1 vs 2 clutch to secure match point and game. 

Nuke seemed like it was going in the favour of Mouz as they got to a 4-1 lead, but heroics from Jabbi and the team brought back the game to a 7-5 scoreline in favour of the Danish team. Following the pistol and conversion rounds from Mouz, they only managed to garner two more rounds in the half before Astralis won the match 13-9. To add salt to the wound, in-game-leader for Astralis, Cadian, was playing with an elbow injury and even managed to win a 1vs1 clutch against Brollan though the pain was etched on his face as he winced after the play. 

With this win, Astralis is guaranteed a top four position, having previously eliminated NaVi in the opening round. Mouz, meanwhile, will need to start their playoff journey from the quarter-finals.

Vitality eliminates Liquid 2-1

The second elimination game sees the French squad up against the international mix roster of Team Liquid. 

The series started well for Liquid on their map pick of Anubis, winning the series 13-10 thanks to a good T-half with the team winning the force-buy to go five in a row to go up 11-7 against Vitality. From then on, Vitality was only able to pick up three individual rounds off the back of their timeouts leaving Liquid to close the game 13-10.

Liquid’s fortunes were quickly reversed as the series moved onto Vitality’s pick of the map Dust2. The French team dominated Team Liquid on both halves of the game ending the game with a 13-3 scoreline. Finally, Nuke was the deciding map with Liquid putting up an abysmal T-side to go down 4-8 in the first half. Going into the CT side, the international team’s brief resurgence threatened to force overtime but a 1v3 clutch by Zywoo on an eco round and a triple-kill from stand-in Jackz on the last round meant that Liquid will leave the tournament in joint last place alongside NaVi.

The French squad’s victory was powered by yet another good performance from ZywOo, who topped the server with a 1.33 rating. Perhaps more importantly, he had flameZ to thank, who found his form after a difficult October, posting a 15-8 K/D, 1.63 rating on Dust2  and a 22-19 K/D, 1.35 rating on Nuke. 

Vitality will now move on to face Mouz in the quarter-finals, while Liquid will use its early exit to prepare for the upcoming RMR.

G2 secures semi-final spot with 2-0 victory over Spirit

G2 have bounced back from their disappointing performance at IEM Rio by securing a semi-final berth at the Blast World Final 2024, defeating Spirit 2-0 (16-13 on Anubis, 13-10 on Mirage) in a series that seemed closer than the scoreline might suggest.

On Anubis, G2 built a sizable 11-5 lead before Spirit mounted a serious comeback attempt. G2’s struggles started to show when malbsMd's aggressive play backfired when he went for a quick pick from huNter-, dying in Pop while huNter- fell at B site. Spirit's comeback was aided by some fortunate moments, including a pivotal round where Magixx managed to secure two kills through smoke – first on malbsMd and then on NiKo while going full blind. Additionally, Donk was impactful during this period, transforming from a quiet 7-14 start to finish with an impressive 26-22 scoreline and over 100 average damage per round. However, G2 were able to close out the map  16-13, despite Spirit's best efforts with m0nesy pulling off an amazing sequence of shots in the first round of overtime. 

Play

Moving onto Mirage, it was a similar affair with G2 establishing early control with strong T-side executions and individual plays, especially from malbsMd who had several multi-kills. Spirit, however, wasn’t going to let this be another one-sided affair by fighting back from a 5-11 deficit. The momentum shift put immense pressure on G2's CT side, especially on their B site defence which repeatedly fell to enemy hands. Ultimately, G2 were able to close out the game 13-10 despite yet another strong showing from Donk. 

malbsMd was a crucial factor in G2's victory, posting an impressive 1.27 rating across the series. On the other side, despite the loss, Spirit's donk put up a great performance, leading all players with a 1.49 rating and 111.0 ADR. However, his individual brilliance wasn't enough to overcome G2 with three G2 players posting ratings above 1.10.

The victory continues G2's dominance over Spirit, extending their map record to 8-1 against the current Russian roster. G2 will now await the winner of Mouz vs Vitality in the semi-finals, while Spirit drops to the lower bracket where they'll face FaZe Clan for a chance to meet Astralis in the next round.

That concludes the second day of the Blast World Finals in Singapore (and if you missed day one highlights, they are here). If you’re interested in watching the games for yourself, you can find the live stream of the second day of games here.

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