Blast Premier World Final kick-off in Singapore: Day 1 delivers explosive Counter-Strike action
In case you missed it, the world's top Counter-Strike teams are playing live here in Singapore this weekend.
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Day one has concluded. Image: Blast
After 9 hours of Counter-Strike matches, all the games for Blast World Finals Day One have concluded.
In case you missed the memo, the World Finals is held at the Resorts World Sentosa Convention Centre, Singapore, this time. There's still time to score tickets, which are available and can be purchased here.
Astralis dominates NaVi with a quick 2-0 victory
The decider of Inferno was not needed in this matchup. Image: HLTV
After 15 minutes of technical difficulties, the first game of the day got underway and began on Nuke - Astralis’ map pick. The Danish Squad got off to a hot start with a 5-0 lead on the traditionally harder Terrorist (T) side. Despite a short resurgence from NaVi, thanks to a clutch from Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy, the Danish squad maintained control throughout the map finishing the first half 7-5.
Moving onto the Counter-Strike Team (CT) side, a triple kill from Martin “Stavn” Lund in the second half’s pistol round proved to be too much for NaVi to handle with the team only able to muster another round to lose the game 13-6.
The game continued on Mirage, where it has historically been a strong map for the team. Despite showing signs of life with a strong 4-0 start, Astralis quickly turned the tables, stringing together seven consecutive rounds and ultimately replicating the same 13-6 scoreline from Nuke.
This marks Cadian's first best-of-three victory in the Astralis jersey. Image: Blast
All in all, the Danish duo of Stavn and Jakob “Jabbi” Nygaard was too much to handle for NaVi with the pair posting a 1.60 HLTV rating across the series. Nicolai “device” Reedtz wasn’t too far behind contributing a respectable, yet impressive 1.50 rating. On the other side, NaVi only had b1t managing a positive K/D (kill/death) ratio of 30/27, with the rest of the team lagging behind.
The victory sees Astralis going to the upper bracket, where they will compete for the playoff seeding while NaVi will fight for their tournament lives in the lower bracket.
Mouz sees off Faze Clan in a 2-0 win
Inferno and Nuke were chosen with Dust 2 left as the decider. Image: HLTV
In what was a revenge matchup between the two teams since IEM Rio, the series kicked off on Faze’s map pick of Inferno, where there were a bunch of rounds exchanged between the two teams. However, Mouz’s star player, Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin shined having multiple clutch plays and impactful frags to lead Mouz to a 16-13 overtime victory in the opening map.
Moving on to the second map onto their map pick of Nuke, Mouz got off to a good start converting the first three rounds of the map. Despite their slow start, Faze responded with a few rounds of their own, though the half was ultimately won by Mouz 7-5. Now on the CT side, Mouz found themselves behind for the first time on the map at 7-8, though it wasn’t long as they put up four rounds in a row to lead 11-8.
In the end, despite Faze Clan’s best efforts to mount a comeback, Mouz were able to secure a 13-11 victory thanks to a 4v2 fumble by Faze Clan against Mouz's Five-Sevens.
Brollan tops the scoreboard for Mouz. Image: Blast
Throughout the two maps, the standout performer for Mouz was undoubtedly Brollan, who finished the series at the top of the scoreboard with 46 kills across the two maps. Surprisingly it was Mouz’s in-game-leader Kamil 'siuhy' Szkaradek who was second on the scoreboard and contributing the most during their win in Nuke.
On the other hand, FaZe struggled to find their footing, with only David "frozen" Cernansky managing to go positive throughout the series (42-34). The defeat now sends FaZe to the lower bracket, where they will face a do-or-die matchup against NaVi. Mouz on the other hand, has secured playoffs where they will face Astralis in the upper bracket final with the winner advancing directly to the semi-final.
G2 pulls off a reverse sweep against Liquid to win 2-1
G2 managed to pull of the reverse sweep despite being 13-0. Image: HLTV
Starting on Liquid’s pick of Ancient, there is not much to discuss as the Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski-led team were left hopeless against a Liquid team who dominated the game in a 13-0 blowout.
Moving to Inferno was where things quickly changed for the European squad as NiKo and m0NESY led the charge to a 4-1 start with NiKo securing a quad-kill in the pistol round to finally put a round on the board in the series. Throughout the first half, it was a hotly contested game with both sides going on streaks of rounds to end the half in a draw at 6-6. That was all Liquid could muster though as the European squad didn’t look back and were clinical in their defence en route to a 13-6 victory on Inferno.
NiKo played particularly well alongside m0NESY in Map two and three. Image: Blast
The decider map, Mirage, was another closely contested affair, but G2 seized control in the second half, riding the momentum of a clutch play from huNter in the pistol round. NiKo and m0NESY continued to shine, combining for 25 kills as G2 closed out the series with yet again another 13-6 scoreline.
Team Spirit wins against a Mezzii-less Vitality
Team Spirit secured their spot in the Blast Premier World Final playoffs with a 2-0 victory over Vitality, who was playing with stand-in Audric "JACKZ" Jug in place of William "Mezii" Merriman. The win sets up an intriguing quarter-final matchup against G2 Esports, with whom Spirit has a 1-6 map record since July.
The series, while ending in a clean sweep, was far from straightforward. On the opening map of Anubis, JACKZ showed promise early on, leading the scoreboard as Vitality built a 7-5 T-side lead. However, Spirit's dominant CT-side performance in the second half proved too much for the French squad, as they closed out the map 13-9.
Mirage was an even more competitive affair, with both teams trading rounds throughout the match. Star player performances from both Danil "Donk" Kryshkovets and Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut kept their respective teams in contention, but a crucial mistake in the final round cost Vitality the game. In a 5v3 advantage, Vitality left the B bombsite open, allowing Spirit to capitalise on the empty site and secure a 13-11 victory before overtime.
Sh1ro topped the server with a 1.31 rating, while Donk and ZywOo ended the series with 39 kills each. Despite ZywOo's best efforts (1.22 rating), Vitality struggled to find consistent contributions from their other players, with the remaining roster all scoring below a 0.90 rating.
That wraps up the first day of the Blast World Finals in Singapore. If you're interested in watching the games for yourself, you can find the live stream of the first day of games here.
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