The Spring Finals reaches its final phase with its two finalists revealed. Natus Vincere and Team Vitality have secured spots in the Grand Final after beating OG and G2 in the semifinals respectively. NaVi surpassed the European organization with a 2-1, the same result with which Vitality has surpassed G2 Esports. Both matches have been marked by revenge since the two winners were defeated by their respective rivals in the Group Stage.
In this article, we will bring you a small recap of the semifinals matches held in Lisbon. But for those, who are interested in other BLAST Premier: Spring Finals results and stats, we recommend using the https://cover.gg/tournaments/current webpage.
Natus Vincere Secure Spot in the Grand Final
To everyone’s surprise, OG has been largely marked in the Spring Finals. The European organization debuted the tournament by beating NaVi and later securing the first position of Group B by defeating ENCE. The Ukrainian team had to take revenge if it wanted to opt for the title of Lisbon’s champion and did so with a 2-1. Below are listed highlights of these Best of 3 series:
Map 1: Dust2 (16-9)
The series started in a Dust2 chosen by Natus Vincere. The Ukrainian team took the lead in the first half, playing as a terrorists. However, it wasn’t long since the OG roster woke up and managed to set the 7-8 before the change of side. But later the Ukrainian entity was decisive with a large anti-terrorist side by putting the 9-16 on the round scoreboard.
Map 2: Inferno (14-16)
The series began with a victory for NaVi, but the European team managed to force the draw on Inferno. It is worth noting that the two teams had already competed on Inferno in the Group Stage with 16-7, favoring NaVi. This time OG had a great motivation to not stumble twice against the CIS giant. This way, the first half ended with a 10-5 in favor of the European organization. But later NaVi managed to stand up, so OG had to suffer to put 16-14 on the scoreboard.
Map 3: Mirage (16-10)
Finally, the tonic of the first map was repeated in Mirage, where the first part was equalized, but after the change of sides, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and his team prevailed from CT, securing the map at 16-10. Natus Vincere was completely led by s1mple and Denis “electroNic” Sharipov, who seemed not to care about the role of in-game leader to remain completely successful at the mechanical level.
Team Vitality Doesn’t Stumble Twice Against G2
The second semifinal of the day was also marked by revenge. The French organization wanted to surpass G2 for what happened in Lisbon on the first day and has taken advantage of the confidence given to it by the victory against the Finns.
Map1: Dust2 (13-16)
The series started in Dust2 chosen by G2 Esports. Vitality gained the initial advantage but the samurai managed to answer from the terrorist side. However, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut contributed a lot to stop all the possibilities of their comeback. With a 13-16 marked by a great performance from CT side, the French organization put the 1-0 on the scoreboard.
Map 2: Inferno (16-8)
The second map in the series was Inferno, where the samurai were superior from start to finish. Team Vitality became obsessed with attacking point B, where the samurai had dominated positions to be able to defend. The French team was able to offer a little more endurance from the CT side, but the 11-4 advantage was too much to fully catch up with. Therefore, G2 claimed a 16-8 victory on this map.
Map 3: Nuke (13-16)
The decisive map was Nuke as a close battle from start to finish. While Nuke is more a CT-sided map, the French team did not really show themselves from the anti-terrorist side, taking only an 8-7 lead in the first half. However, the bees found themselves dominated after changing to the offense. G2 Esports lacked effectiveness on the part of Kovac, while Vitality was thankful that their Danish duo was accurate at the time when the team needed it most.
Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut was largely responsible for leading his team in the late stages of the map. A decisive three rounds in a disadvantaged situation meant that Vitality closed the Bo3-series and secured a spot in its first grand final of the 2022 season.
