Team Vitality and Natus Vincere each swept their way into the grand final of the BLAST Rivals Spring event on Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas.
Vitality blew past GamerLegion while Natus Vincere blanked FaZe Clan, each earning 2-0 victories. They’ll face off Sunday in the final, with the victors receiving $125,000 and two BLAST Frequent Flyer Tokens.
The $350,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament began with eight teams divided into two double-elimination groups for the initial stage. The group winners moved directly to the semifinals of the single-elimination playoff. The group runners-up went to the quarterfinals as high seeds, and the teams that finished third in their groups advanced to the quarterfinals as low seeds.
All matches in the group stage and the playoffs are best-of-three until the grand final on Sunday, which will be best-of-five.
Vitality dominated GamerLegion 13-1 on Mirage and then eked out a 16-14 triumph on Overpass to advance.
Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut of France had both the most kills (42) and least deaths (21) in the match for Vitality, which got a balanced effort with 30-plus kills from each of its five members. Poland’s Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski led GamerLegion with 32 kills and 14 assists along with 34 deaths.
Natus Vincere won both of its matches in regulation, beating FaZe 13-5 on Dust II and 13-11 on Ancient.
Ukraine’s Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov led Natus Vincere with 34 kills and tied for the team lead with 16 assists. Ryan “Neityu” Aubry of France led FaZe Clan with 30 kills and 17 headshots, but also tied for the team lead with 31 deaths.
BLAST Rivals Spring prize pool
1. $125,000, two BLAST Frequent Flyer tokens
2. $75,000
3-4. $40,000 — GamerLegion, FaZe Clan
5-6. $25,000 — Astralis, G2 Esports
7-8. $10,000 — FUT Esports, FURIA
–Field Level Media
