Both Imperial Esports and Evil Geniuses Black pulled off comeback victories in quarterfinal play on Friday to set up a head-to-head semifinal matchup at the BLAST Premier: Spring American Showdown 2023.
Imperial defeated Complexity Gaming 2-1 and the Geniuses ousted FURIA Esports by the same score.
The $67,500 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament began Wednesday and features eight teams competing in a single-elimination bracket. All matches are best-of-three, including Sunday’s grand final.
Imperial dropped its opening map on Inferno 16-12 but rallied for wins on Ancient (16-10) and Overpass (16-11) to advance.
Marcelo “chelo” Cespedes carried the all-Brazilian Imperial squad with 66 kills and a plus-18 kill-death differential. The United States’ Michael “Grim” Wince led Complexity with 50 kills.
FURIA took an early lead by using a map-ending 12-2 run for a 16-11 victory on Vertigo. EG Black evened the match with a 16-8 win on Mirage. FURIA built a 13-6 advantage on the final map (Inferno), but the Geniuses ripped off the final 10 points of the match in a 16-13 thriller.
Paytyn “junior” Johnson of the United States was dominant for EGB, producing 72 kills and a plus-36 K-D differential. Yuri “yuurih” Santos logged 64 kills and a plus-12 K-D differential for FURIA’s all-Brazilian roster.
Both semifinal matches are scheduled for Saturday:
–paiN Gaming vs. Team Liquid
–Imperial Esports vs. Evil Geniuses Black
BLAST Premier: Spring American Showdown 2023 prize pool and points pool
1. $20,000, qualification to Spring Final, 1,000 BLAST points — TBD
2. $12,500, 600 BLAST points — TBD
3-4. $7,500, 375 BLAST points — TBD
5-8. $5,000, 112.5 BLAST points — Complexity Gaming, FURIA Esports, MIBR, Noun Esports
–Field Level Media
