Heroic avenged an earlier loss to FaZe Clan by winning the grand final to claim first place in Group C Sunday at BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2022 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Heroic’s 16-10 win over FaZe on Inferno clinched the team the final double-bye into the finals of next week’s Play-In Stage. FaZe will start in the semifinals while BIG and Evil Geniuses, also out of Group C, will have to play in the opening round.
Twelve teams were split into three double-elimination, best-of-one groups to determine seeding for the Play-In Stage, which will feature best-of-three matches. The top six finishers next week will earn berths into the $425,000 Fall Finals in November, with the bottom six settling for the Fall Showdown.
Heroic joined Astralis (Group A winners) and Natus Vincere (Group B winners) in claiming the double-bye into the Play-In finals.
The all-Danish club got its day started with a 16-13 win over BIG on Nuke. Rene “TeSeS” Madsen and Casper “cadiaN” Moller each scored 23 kills for Heroic, with TeSeS posting a game-high plus-5 kills-to-deaths differential.
In the other first-round match in Group C, FaZe Clan beat Evil Geniuses 16-8 on Inferno. Latvia’s Helvijs “broky” Saukants starred for FaZe with 23 kills on a plus-14 K-D.
FaZe went on to beat Heroic in the upper-bracket final, 16-10 on Nuke. Robin “ropz” Kool of Estonia had a game-high 21 kills for FaZe. The result sent Heroic into the lower-bracket final.
After BIG blew out Evil Geniuses 16-6 on Mirage, Heroic won a close 16-14 contest on Nuke to beat BIG in the lower-bracket final. Martin “stavn” Lund posted 28 kills on a plus-8 for Heroic, while Germany’s Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz had game highs of 30 kills and a plus-9 K-D to lead BIG.
In their rematch with FaZe in the grand final, Heroic ran out to a 6-4 lead and never trailed again. Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard took his turn leading Heroic with 21 kills on a plus-6, while stavn had 20 kills on a plus-6 and Rasmus “sjuush” Beck scored 19 kills on a game-high plus-7. Nobody finished with a positive K-D for FaZe.
The Play-In Stage will begin Thursday with three quarterfinal matches:
–OG vs. Complexity Gaming
–G2 Esports vs. BIG
–Evil Geniuses vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022 prize pool
1-3. $27,500, 2,400 BLAST Premier points (Fall Finals) — TBD
4-6. $17,500, 1,200 BLAST Premier points (Fall Finals) — TBD
7-9. $8,500, 900 BLAST Premier points (Fall Showdown) — TBD
10-12. $5,666, 600 BLAST Premier points (Fall Showdown) — TBD
–Field Level Media