Heroic and Astralis clinched the final two available berths in the BLAST Premier Spring Final on Sunday as the play-in stage of the BLAST Premier Spring Groups concluded in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Heroic defeated BIG 2-1 and Astralis rallied to beat OG by the same score.
Six berths in the $450,000 Spring Final, set for June 7-11 in Washington, were up for grabs in the $177,498 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event. The first three went to group winners Team Vitality, FaZe Clan and G2 Esports. The other three were awarded to the teams that emerged from this weekend’s play-in stage, with Heroic and Astralis joining Natus Vincere, who booked their ticket Saturday.
BIG and OG will head to the Spring European Showdown as their consolation prize. The winner of that tournament will qualify for the Spring Final.
Heroic blasted BIG 16-3 on Vertigo to begin their final play-in match. BIG answered by winning 16-12 on Ancient before Heroic sealed the deal with a 16-10 victory on Inferno.
Martin “stavn” Lund led the all-Danish squad with 61 kills and a plus-19 kills-to-deaths differential. Germany’s Florian “syrsoN” Rische led BIG with 59 kills and a plus-11 differential.
OG took the early lead on Astralis in the hotly contested other match by eking out a 16-14 win on Inferno. Astralis tied it with a 16-14 win on Vertigo and needed overtime to outlast OG 19-17 on Ancient.
Benjamin “blameF” Bremer led Astralis, also an all-Danish group, with 76 kills on a plus-11 and Nicolai “device” Reedtz had 73 kills on a plus-14. Abdul “degster” Gasanov of Russia starred for OG, notching game highs of 78 kills and a plus-20 differential.
BLAST Premier Spring Groups prize pool
1-3. Team Vitality, FaZe Clan, G2 Esports — $27,500, 2,400 BLAST points, qualify for Spring Final
4-6. Natus Vincere, Heroic, Astralis — $17,500, 1,200 points, Spring Final
7-9. Complexity Gaming, BIG, OG — $8,500, 900 points, Spring Showdown
10-12. Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses, Ninjas in Pyjamas — $5,666, Spring Showdown, 600 points
–Field Level Media
