Team Vitality, FaZe Clan, G2 Esports and BIG won do-or-die lower-bracket finals during group stage at the BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024 event on Friday in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Those four teams grabbed the final four berths into Saturday’s grand finals, with the play-in stage to follow Sunday.
Vitality rallied past Team Falcons 2-1 in the Group A lower-bracket final; FaZe Clan outlasted GamerLegion 2-1 in Group B; G2 swept Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 in Group C; and BIG defeated Cloud9 2-0 in Group D.
Sixteen Counter-Strike 2 teams are competing this week in four groups. The four group winners will advance to the $425,000 Spring Final in London June 12-16. The four second-place teams will meet in Sunday’s play-in stage, with the two winners advancing to the Spring Final. All matches are best-of-three.
The competition started Monday in Groups A and C. Groups B and D began play on Wednesday.
On Friday, Falcons pulled out a 19-16 overtime win over Vitality on Nuke to open their match. Vitality then answered with a 13-9 win on Vertigo and a 13-8 clincher on Anubis. France’s Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut went off for Vitality, scoring 74 kills on a plus-26 kills-to-deaths differential.
In Group B, FaZe won 13-5 on Ancient, absorbed a 16-12 overtime loss to GamerLegion on Overpass and immediately responded with a 13-5 victory on Inferno. FaZe was led by Estonia’s Robin “ropz” Kool, who posted 54 kills on a plus-19 K-D.
G2 Esports defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas 13-6 on Vertigo and 13-9 on Anubis, powered by Russian Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov’s 39 kills and plus-15 differential.
BIG took down Cloud9 13-9 on Ancient and 13-10 on Anubis. Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski of Poland carried the victors with 52 kills on a plus-26 K-D.
The group stage concludes Saturday with four grand finals:
–Group A: Astralis vs. Team Vitality
–Group B: Team Liquid vs. FaZe Clan
–Group C: Natus Vincere vs. G2 Esports
–Group D: Virtus.pro vs. BIG
–Field Level Media