Blast Premier Group B Review, Analysis and Exclusive Interviews
Natus Vincere took top seed from the group of death, but surprisingly, were followed by Complexity. Astralis and Vitality will drop down to the BLAST Showdown where they will be given another chance to qualify, while the top two will go straight to the Global Finals.
Yes, Astralis. The Danes got smashed by Complexity on two consecutive maps, with poizon going 11-0 in AWP duels against HLTV’s #3 player of 2019, dev1ce, in the best of three. Let that sink in for a second - dev1ce didn’t win a single AWP v AWP duel in the entire series against Complexity. poizon is the real juggernaut.
Of course, he wasn’t the only one going off, and k0nfig looked like he was back in the mood, too. In truth, everyone on Complexity played extremely well, as you have to to beat Astralis.
In a pre-match interview with GGRecon, RUSH had spoken about being a ‘Slayer of Astralis’, saying “I like it. I’ve definitely beat them in the past a few times,” which ended up looking prophetic.
Complexity also bested Vitality, and indeed on both maps. Despite ALEX’s assertion that the juggernaut was just ‘running around headshotting’, that was enough for poizon and RUSH to dismantle a lacklustre French defence time and time again. It was refreshing to see RUSH back in Major winning form, as people seemed to forget how solid he was as a player on C9.
Even IGL BlameF was amazed at how good poizon played: “I just want to give a lot of respect to poizon because I can see that the way he had to play this team, the way I have tried to help this team is definitely a lot different than he’d done in his past teams. He’s definitely tried to change a lot for the team, for the benefit of the team. He’s actually doing a lot of work right now and I think it’s pretty amazing that he performed that good individually.”
ZywOo was quiet in pretty much every map Vitality played - he was still their best player, obviously, but it’s apparent how weak Vitality are when he isn’t god tier. His best performance was in the first NaVi game, where they won 2-0, but it was RpK who stole the show with a stunning Deagle 1v3.
NaVi dropped down to the lower bracket after that game, to face Astralis. The teams exchanged maps, with a simple win on Train for Astralis, and a similarly dominant win from NaVi on Nuke. Astralis looked to have Inferno sewn up, 13-5 up, but a ridiculous comeback powered by some vintage s1mple and some crazy electronic plays got NaVi the win in regulation. s1mple ended the series with a +32 k/d - he wants his #1 title back.
Zonic didn’t really give too much credit to NaVi, and believed that their destiny was in their own hands. “I think no matter who we would have played it would have been the same. We were a bit shaky and the communication was a bit off.it was better today as I said, but I think electronic had a good game as well so right now it’s two monsters we have to stop in some way.”
From then on, NaVi were insatiable. They battered a lethargic Vitality with flamie and Boombl4 crushing it, even without electronic really going off. The Frenchmen barely got into the game, and though Inferno looked relatively close on the scoreboard, it always felt like the CIS team had it. RpK only got 22 kills, and ZywOo only got 31 - something we’re not really used to.
In the final game, that decides seeding, s1mple once again put in a masterclass to drive NaVi to victory. Back on his trusty AWP, he looks like 2018 s1mple again, tearing teams limb from limb. He ended the Complexity series +21, absolutely murdering the poor souls on Mirage. coL put up a solid fight, getting 10 and 9 rounds respectively, but s1mple in this form is completely unstoppable.
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