Fluxo and MIBR each reeled off semifinal sweeps on Saturday at the BLAST Premier Fall American Showdown, setting the stage for the two to go head-to-head in Sunday’s grand final.
Fluxo took down 00 Nation 2-0, while MIBR ousted Sharks Esports by the same 2-0 final score.
The $67,500 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event features eight teams vying for one of two remaining berths in the $425,000 BLAST Premier Fall Finals, scheduled for Sunday through Thursday in Copenhagen, Denmark. Another spot will go to the winner of the Fall European also being contested this week.
The eight American Showdown teams are competing in a single knockout bracket consisting of quarterfinals, semifinals and final. All matches are best-of-three, including the championship round on Sunday.
In an opening map that included four lead changes, Fluxo finished with a 7-1 run to claim Ancient 16-11. They then jumped out to a 10-4 lead before cruising to a 16-10 win on Mirage for the sweep. Joao “felps” Vasconcellos led Fluxo’s all-Brazilian unit with 51 kills while Lucas “Lucaozy” Neves had a match-best plus-20 kills-deaths differential.
MIBR used a mid-map 7-0 spurt to help claim a 16-8 victory on Vertigo, then fell behind 12-7 before rallying to a 16-13 triumph on Nuke to advance. Jhonatan “JOTA” Willian posted a match-high 48 kills for the all-Brazilian squad, with Raphael “exit” Lacerda produced a plus-20 K/D differential.
BLAST Premier Fall American Showdown prize pool and points distribution:
1. $20,000, 1,600 BLAST Premier points, qualification for BLAST Premier Fall Finals — TBD
2. $12,500, 800 points — TBD
3-4. $7,500, 500 points — Shark Esports, 00 Nation
5-8. $5,000, 150 points — Complexity, LOS + oNe, Evil Geniuses, VERTEX Esports Club
–Field Level Media