Team Vitality clinched back-to-back unbeaten runs through the group and playoff stages by beating Natus Vincere 3-0 in the grand final of the BLAST Rivals Spring event Sunday in Fort Worth, Texas.
After winning the Intel Extreme Masters Rio event on April 19 without dropping a game in the playoffs, Vitality once again had a 2-0 win in the semifinals after receiving a bye for an undefeated group stage. The shutout in the grand final clinched Team Vitality the $125,000 first prize to go along with two BLAST Frequent Flyer tokens.
Natus Vincere claimed $75,000 for the second-place finish as GamerLegion and FaZe Clan earned $40,000 after falling in the semifinals.
The $350,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament began with eight teams divided into two double-elimination groups for the initial stage. The group winners moved directly to the semifinals of the single-elimination playoff. The group runners-up went to the quarterfinals as high seeds, and the teams that finished third in their groups advanced to the quarterfinals as low seeds.
All matches in the group stage and the playoffs were best-of-three until Sunday’s grand final, which was best-of-five.
Vitality kept it close with Natus Vincere through the first two matches, eking out a 16-12 overtime win on Nuke and a 13-11 win on Anubis. It was all but over by the third match and Vitality wasted no time by picking up a 13-3 win on Dust II.
Estonia’s Robin ‘ropz’ Kool led the charge for Team Vitality with a 60-38 kills-to-deaths ratio. Israel’s Shahar ‘flameZ’ Shushan also had a solid showing with 54 kills, including a team-high 26 on Nuke to kick off the grand final.
Ukraine’s Ihor ‘w0nderful’ Zhdanov was the only member of Natus Vincere to finish with a positive kills-to-deaths ratio at 53-42. Kosovo’s Drin ‘makazze’ Shaqiri finished with the most kills on any map during the grand final with 27 on Anubis.
BLAST Rivals Spring prize pool
1. $125,000, two BLAST Frequent Flyer tokens — Team Vitality
2. $75,000 — Natus Vincere
3-4. $40,000 — GamerLegion, FaZe Clan
5-6. $25,000 — Astralis, G2 Esports
7-8. $10,000 — FUT Esports, FURIA
–Field Level Media
