Astralis advanced to the Fall Final while GS Esports eliminated Evil Geniuses on Saturday in the play-in stage of the BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023 in Copenhagen.
Two more berths remain for the Fall Final, with upcoming second-round matches slated for Sunday as Team Vitality meets BIG, and Natus Vincere faces G2 Esports.
The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event began with a double-elimination group stage, with the field split into three groups of four teams.
All matches were best-of-three and the winners of each group advanced straight to the Fall Final. The remaining nine teams moved to the seeded play-in stage to compete for three more Fall Final berths.
On Saturday, Astralis defeated Team Liquid 2-0, winning 16-11 on Overpass and 16-9 on Inferno. The all-Danish Astralis was led by Nicolai “device” Reedtz with 41 kills and a plus-13 kills-to-deaths differential. Johannes “b0RUP” Borup contributed 39 kills and a plus-7.
G2 won 16-7 on Inferno before Evil Genuises evened the match with a 16-13 victory on Nuke. G2’s 19-15 battle on Mirage decided the outcome.
G2’s’ Nikola “NiKo” Kovac of Bosnia and Herzegovina dominated with 89 total kills and a plus-45 K-D differential. Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov of Russia was the only teammate with a positive differential, plus-1 at 57-56.
The play-in stage continues Sunday with two qualifier matches:
–Team Vitality vs. BIG
–Natus Vincere vs. G2 Esports
BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023 Final prize pool and points distribution:
1-3. $27,500, 2,400 BLAST Premier points, qualifies to Fall Final — Ninjas in Pyjamas, Heroic, FaZe Clan
4-6. $17,500, 1,800 BLAST Premier points, qualifies to Fall Final – Astralis, TBD
7-9. $8,500, 800 BLAST Premier points, qualifies to Fall Showdown – Team Liquid, TBD
10-12. $5,666, 300 BLAST Premier points, qualifies to Fall Showdown — OG, Evil Geniuses, Complexity Gaming
–Field Level Media