Blast Premier Spring Showdown 2023 Day 1 Recap
Blast Premier Spring Showdown 2023 kicked off on March 29th, as 8 teams from EU and the Americas each went head-to-head to qualify for the Blast Spring Finals.
8 teams from each region took part in an online feud in a last chance qualifier to take a single spot in the Blast Spring Finals. EU and Americas Showdowns were held separately.
EU Showdown:
Game 1: NIP vs OG
NIP towered over OG 2-1, as the RedBull team were playing with a substitute in Owen “smooya” Butterfield. Although OG managed to take map 1 Mirage in a commanding 16-10. But the Ninjas hit hard, as they took the remaining two maps Vertigo and Overpass in dominating fashion at 16-8 and 16-6 respectively. Flamez tried his best to pull OG through to the next round, even managing an Ace on Overpass. However it was not enough to topple the Ninjas. Brollan did a bulk of the carrying for NIP, as he amassed a massive 61 kills over the 3 maps. He sat at the top of the table with a 1.33 rating. While it was the British substitute smooya, who was standing in for Degster, who had the most AWP kills at 23 overall.
Game 2: Cloud9 vs Copenhagen Flames
In the second game of the day, it was Nafany and his boys in blue who moved on to the next round. They managed to beat the Danes from Copenhagen in an astounding 2-0 series. Cloud9 won both maps relatively easily. Ancient was 16-11, and Vertigo was 16-7. After his move to Copenhagen Flames, Farlig has been improving his performance, managing to out-AWP Sh1ro, with 17 total AWP kills. But it was former Major Winner HObbit who laid down the hammer. 43 kills in 2 maps, with a 1.66 rating, he secured his place firmly at the top of the table.
NIP will face Cloud9 in the next round of the Spring Showdown, to see who will advance to the Grand Finals.
Americas Showdown:
Game 1: paiN Gaming vs MIBR
Final game of the day took place on the other side of the world, as paiN Gaming took on and beat MIBR in a 2-1 series. paiN managed to take the first map, Anubis with relative ease at 16-9. But MIBR did not take this sitting down, as they managed to push map 2 Nuke into Overtime. MIBR were the more dominant side in the OT, managing to take the win at a grueling 22-18. Final map of the series was Vertigo, where MIBR again fell short, as they lost against their Brazilian brethren 16-10. Zevy had quite a game, as he was the table leader at 77 kills, 30 of which came from the AWP, and a 1.26 rating.
paiN gaming will face off against the winners of Team Liquid and Nouns Esports in the next round.
Image Source: Blast Premier