Imperial Esports was joined by paiN Gaming as semifinal winners on Saturday, teeing up a head-to-head clash at the grand final of the BLAST Premier: Spring American Showdown 2023.
Imperial won by 2-0 sweep over Evil Geniuses Black in one semifinal, while paiN pulled out a 2-1 victory over Team Liquid.
The $67,500 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament began Wednesday and features eight teams competing in a single-elimination bracket. All matches are best-of-three, including Sunday’s grand final.
Imperial started quickly, bursting to a 14-3 lead before claiming a 16-10 victory on Vertigo. EG Black was up 12-8 on the second map (Nuke), but Imperial stormed back for a 16-14 win. Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo paced the all-Brazilian Imperial squad with 50 kills and a plus-20 kills-to-deaths differential — both tops among both teams.
The day’s other match went down to the wire. Liquid was cruising with an 11-2 lead on the opening map (Nuke) until paiN flipped the map with an 11-0 run en route to winning 16-14. Liquid built a 10-3 edge on Anubis, then held on for a 16-14 victory to even the match. The deciding map (Mirage) saw three lead changes, but paiN pulled away to win 16-12.
Rodrigo “biguzera” Bittencourt led paiN — also an all-Brazilian unit — with 68 kills and a plus-16 K/D differential.
BLAST Premier: Spring American Showdown 2023 prize pool and points pool
1. $20,000, qualification to Spring Final, 1,000 BLAST points — TBD
2. $12,500, 600 BLAST points — TBD
3-4. $7,500, 375 BLAST points — Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses Black
5-8. $5,000, 112.5 BLAST points — Complexity Gaming, FURIA Esports, MIBR, Noun Esports
–Field Level Media