FaZe Clan, G2 Esports and Ninjas in Pyjamas earned the final three available berths into the Fall Finals on Sunday by winning close 2-1 results in the last-chance matches at BLAST Premier Fall Groups in Copenhagen, Denmark.
FaZe beat Astralis, G2 defeated Team Vitality and Ninjas knocked off Heroic to conclude the Fall Groups’ Play-In Stage.
Twelve teams were split into three double-elimination, best-of-one groups to determine seeding for the Play-In Stage, which featured best-of-three matches. The top six finishers secured berths into the $425,000 Fall Finals in November, with the bottom six settling for the Fall Showdown.
Astralis and Heroic — who won their respective groups in the previous stage to clinch double-byes to the finals — failed to win in either the finals or the last-chance matches, so they failed to qualify and will play in the Fall Showdown instead, along with Vitality.
FaZe sandwiched wins of 16-9 on Inferno and 16-10 on Nuke around a 19-16 overtime loss on Ancient. Helvijs “broky” Saukants of Latvia had a game-high 71 kills and a plus-16 kills-to-deaths differential for FaZe, while teammate Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken of Canada also went plus-16 on 66 kills.
G2 eked out a 16-14 win on Vertigo before Vitality tied the match with a 16-13 win on Dust II. The decisive map was Mirage, where G2 barely hung on, 16-13. Russia’s Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov was the star for G2, tallying 75 kills on a plus-26 K-D.
Ninjas in Pyjamas narrowly won 16-14 on Inferno. After Heroic countered with a 16-9 victory on Mirage, NiP took Overpass 16-7. Hampus “hampus” Poser of Sweden led NiP with 55 kills on a plus-9.
Joining Sunday’s three winners at Fall Finals are OG, Natus Vincere and Team Liquid, who won in the finals Saturday.
BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022 prize pool
1-3. $27,500, 2,400 BLAST Premier points (Fall Finals) — OG, Natus Vincere, Team Liquid
4-6. $17,500, 1,200 BLAST Premier points (Fall Finals) — FaZe Clan, G2 Esports, Ninjas in Pyjamas
7-9. $8,500, 900 BLAST Premier points (Fall Showdown) — Astralis, Team Vitality, Heroic
10-12. $5,666, 600 BLAST Premier points (Fall Showdown) — Complexity Gaming, BIG, Evil Geniuses
–Field Level Media