FURIA and Team Falcons finished off sweeps in their respective upper-bracket quarterfinals to open Group A play of the BLAST Open Spring on Wednesday in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Aurora Gaming and Natus Vincere also won their opening matches to remain in the winner’s bracket. TYLOO, FaZe Clan, B8 and NRG each lost their opening matches and will face elimination on Friday.
The 16 teams in the $400,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event were split into two groups of eight that will contest a pair of double-elimination brackets. The top three finishers in each bracket will advance to the six-team playoffs. All matches will be best-of-three until the best-of-five grand final on March 29.
The winning team will earn $150,000 along with three BLAST Frequent Flyer tokens.
FURIA completed its sweep of TYLOO with a 13-8 win on Mirage followed by a 13-11 victory on Overpass. Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato of Brazil had both the most kills and fewest deaths for FURIA, posting a 36-23-12 kill-death-assist ratio.
Team Falcons wrapped their sweep of NRG by following a 13-6 win on Ancient with a 13-8 triumph on Dust II. Russia’s Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov led a balanced win with a 31-24-23 K-D-A ratio.
Aurora Gaming rallied for their 2-1 defeat of FaZe Clan, winning 13-8 on Inferno and 13-10 in the deciding match on Dust2 after dropping the opener 13-11 on Nuke. Ismailcan “XANTARES” Dortkardes led the all-Turkish winners with a 54-37-9 K-D-A ratio.
Natus Vincere opened with a 13-9 victory on Mirage before B8 bounced back with a 19-17 double-overtime win on Ancient. That set up a winner-take-all third map that Natus Vincere handily won 13-7 on Dust II. Drin “makazze” Shaqiri of Kosovo led all competitors with 70 kills on the day, finishing with a 70-57-32 K-D-A ratio.
Group B’s upper-bracket quarterfinals will be contested on Thursday before Group A’s eight teams resume competition on Friday with a pair of upper-bracket semifinals and the lower-bracket quarterfinal elimination matches.
The Thursday schedule:
Group B upper-bracket quarterfinals
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. PARIVISION
Team Spirit vs. Team Liquid
The MongolZ vs. MOUZ
Team Vitality vs. 9z Team
BLAST Open Spring prize pool (cash prize, BLAST Frequent Flyer tokens)
TBD, $150,000, 3
TBD, $60,000, 1
3-4. TBD, $40,000, 1
5-6. TBD, $20,000, 1
7-8, TBD, $10,000
9-12, TBD, $7,500
13-16. TBD, $5,000
–Field Level Media
