OG and G2 Esports won their respective groups Thursday and secured byes into the playoff semifinals at the BLAST Premier Spring Finals in Lisbon, Portugal.
G2 squeaked out a 2-1 victory in the winners’ match of Group A, while OG swept ENCE 2-0 in their Group B winners’ match showdown.
FaZe Clan, Team Vitality, ENCE and Natus Vincere rounded out the group that will advance to the playoffs, while paiN Gaming and BIG were eliminated from the tournament.
The championship of the $425,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive series is being held at Altice Arena, the largest indoor arena in Portugal and one of the biggest in Europe, with a capacity of up to 20,000. The Spring Final champion will earn $200,000 along with 4,000 BLAST Premier points and a spot in the $1 million World Final in December.
Eight teams were separated into two groups in a double-elimination format, with the top three teams from each group advancing to the single-elimination playoff bracket. All matches are best-of-three.
G2 faced FaZe Clan in the Group A winners’ match and fell behind on the first map, as FaZe won 16-7 on Inferno. G2 earned a 16-13 victory on Ancient before running away on the deciding map, 16-5 on Dust II. Nikola “NiKo” Kovac of Bosnia and Herzegovina led G2 with 65 kills and a plus-22 kills-to-deaths differential.
In Group A’s elimination match, Vitality defeated paiN 2-1. Vitality opened with a 16-3 romp on Nuke before paiN won 16-12 on Dust II. Vitality overpowered paiN on the win-or-go-home map, Overpass, scoring a 16-4 victory. All five Vitality players had positive K-D ratios, with France’s Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut posting a plus-24 with 57 kills.
OG took first place in Group B by beating ENCE 16-13 on Dust II and 16-9 on Vertigo. Abdul “degster” Gasanov of Russia had 48 kills and a plus-20 for OG.
In Group B’s elimination match, NaVi defeated BIG 2-0, earning a 16-10 triumph on Mirage and a 16-8 win on Dust II. Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev of Ukraine led NaVi with 47 kills and a plus-24.
The playoffs begin Friday with two quarterfinal matches:
– ENCE vs. Team Vitality
– FaZe Clan vs. Natus Vincere
BLAST Premier Spring Final 2022 prize pool and points distribution
1. $200,000, World Final berth, 4,000 BLAST Premier points — TBD
2. $85,000, 2,000 BLAST Premier points — TBD
3-4. $40,000, 1,250 BLAST Premier points — TBD
5-6. $20,000, 500 BLAST Premier points — TBD
7-8. $10,000, 250 BLAST Premier points — TBD
–Field Level Media