Heroic rallied for a 2-1 win over Ninjas in Pyjamas on Wednesday as the BLAST Premier Fall Finals got underway in Copenhagen, Denmark.
FaZe Clan, Natus Vincere and Team Liquid swept their opening matches in group play.
The winner of the eight-team, $425,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament will receive $200,000 and an even bigger prize: a berth in the $1 million BLAST Premier World Final scheduled for Dec. 14-18 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
In the Fall Finals, the teams are split into two groups for the double-elimination opening round. The group-stage winners advance to the playoff semifinals. The group-stage runners-up head to the quarterfinals as high seeds, while the ground-stage third-place teams move to the quarterfinals as low seeds.
The quarterfinals, semifinals and final are single elimination, and all matches throughout the event are best-of-three. The tournament runs through Sunday.
In Group A on Wednesday, Ninjas in Pyjamas earned a 16-13 win on Inferno before Heroic came back to claim Ancient 16-6 and Overpass 16-4.
Martin “stavn” Lund led Heroic’s all-Danish team with 65 kills and a plus-23 kill-death differential. Sweden’s Fredrik “REZ” Sterner posted 50 kills and a plus-2 K-D differential for Ninjas in Pyjamas.
In the other Group A match, FaZe Clan blitzed OG 2-0, winning Ancient 16-3 and Mirage 16-6.
Canada’s Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken registered 41 kills and a plus-21 K-D differential for FaZe Clan. Russia’s Abdul “degster” Gasanov paced OG with 33 kills and a plus-3 K-D differential.
Natus Vincere got past Fluxo 2-0 behind a 16-14 decision on Dust II and a 16-7 win on Mirage.
Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev notched 48 kills and a plus-20 K-D differential for Natus Vincere. Joao “felps” Vasconcellos produced 41 kills and a plus-3 K-D differential for Fluxo’s all-Brazilian squad.
Liquid defeated G2 Esports 2-0, claiming Vertigo 16-10 and Mirage 16-14.
Mareks “YEKINDAR” Galinskis wound up with 48 kills and a plus-10 K-D differential for Liquid. Russia’s Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov finished with 36 kills and an even K-D differential for G2.
The Thursday schedule:
–Group A elimination match: OG vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
–Group A winners match: FaZe Clan vs. Heroic
–Group B elimination match: Fluxo vs. G2 Esports
–Group B winners match: Natus Vincere vs. Team Liquid
BLAST Premier Fall Finals prize pool and points distribution
1. $200,000, 4,000 BLAST Premier points, berth in BLAST Premier World Final
2. $85,000, 2,000 BLAST Premier points
3-4. $40,000, 1,250 BLAST Premier points
5-6. $20,000, 500 BLAST Premier points
7-8. $10,000, 250 BLAST Premier points
–Field Level Media
