BLAST Premier Spring Series Group B: NaVi defeats Vitality and advances to the finals

The BLAST Premier Spring Series 2020 Group B was undoubtedly the most anticipated of the competition. Having 3 teams that are in the TOP 10 of the best in the world. Astralis, Natus Vincere, Vitality and Complexity started the games last Friday.

It started with the match between Natus Vincere and Vitality, Vitality chose Inferno and had a good start with Alex “ALEX” McMeekin in a semi-buy of the third round, starting a sequence of five rounds for the French team. Although they kept the pressure on with consistent control, the game started to turn when Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov with several important moves made the Navi team react in the match, and thus, ending the first half with 23 deaths, ensured that Natus Vincere remained in dispute with seven rounds. The second half proved difficult for them, however, Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and Egor “flamie” Vasilyev's clutchs kept them in the game, but a 1v3 from Cédric “RpK” Guipouy secured a match point for Vitality and soon a victory 16-12.

Dust2 saw NaVi do what Vitality had done to them at the start of Hell, Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev's team dominated the path to a 6-2 lead. But, just like the first map, the two AWP setup between Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Richard “Shox” Papillon made the difference. The best player of 2019 added a huge skill to his name to start the second half, where NaVi only managed two more rounds before another Vitality winning streak, ending the match at 16-9, 2-0.

Vitality by Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut wins NaVi on debut. (Image: Premier)

In the other group match, Astralis faced Complexity and in the first map of the series on Dust2, the first half had Owen “oBo” Schlatter and Valentin “poizon” Vasilev dominating Nicolai “device” Reedtz closing 9-6 in the first half . The second half started with a massacre of Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke and a dominance from beginning to end, bringing victory on the opening map of the series.

On the second map, Astralis got off to a good start in Vertigo and reached a 3-0 lead. The European mix ended up advancing 4-3 after two big rounds by Owen “oBo” Schlatter, who showed no signs of panic in this game. , but Astralis recovered and finished half ahead on the scoreboard. After moving to the T side, the Danish team further increased the lead, but Complexity responded. Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke went into action in the final stages of the game with some shocking deaths to help defeat his countrymen and close the series 2-0.

Nicolai “device” Reedtz was completely canceled in his debut. (Image: Premier)

On Saturday, a big game was about to take place between Astralis against NaVi to decide who would play in the repechage. With the right to a historic comeback on the last map of the series in Inferno, they closed the series in a 16-14 with highlight to the number 2 in the world, Aleksandr ‘s1mple' Kostyliev. In the other match between Vitality and Complexity, the French did not find their match and were defeated by Complexity by 2-0 with highlights for William ‘RUSH' Wierzba and Valentin ‘Poizon' Vasilev.

THE WINNING MOMENT!

In the flames @electronicCSGO take down 3 and secure the map ?#BLASTPremier pic.twitter.com/kC2giiqQKI

— BLAST Premier (@BLASTPremier) February 8, 2020

In Group B's last clash, it was life or death for Vitality and NaVi. Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut would face off to decide the vacancy. Natus Vincere started with everything on Vitality's map of choice, with Denis “eletronic” Sharipov making the difference by starting a three-round lead for the Russian squad on the CT side. Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy and Egor ‘flamie' Vasilyev in the final rounds led Natus Vincere to an extensive 11-4 lead at halftime. After Vitality reacted and left the game on a 12-14, Denip “eletronic” Sharipov led and closed the game on 16-12.

The duo Aleksandr ‘s1mple' Kostyliev and Kirill ‘Boombl4' Mikhailov wreaked havoc in the initial rounds of Dust2, with the half appearing to be coming to a dark end, Vitality reinforced its defense to secure three of the last four rounds and save a half of 5 to 10. Natus Vincere entered the second half ready to close the series. Vitality only managed to assemble one round moving forward, as the difference in score proved insurmountable, with a triple death on Kirill ‘Boombl4' Mikhailov quickly finishing the 16-6 map to send Vitality to the Spring Series Showdown stage.

Aleksandr ‘s1mple' Kostyliev led NaVi to win Group B. (Image: Premier)

With that, between Group A and B of the BLAST Premier Spring Series 2020 already disputed, FaZe, Liquid, NaVi and Complexity guaranteed their places for the Spring Finals, NiP, MIBR, Astralis and Vitality will dispute a recap together with two other teams of the Group C that will play next weekend, they are: 100 Thieves, Evil Geniuses, G2 and OG.