We’re moving swiftly onto the second day of the BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023, and there’s already one massively unexpected matchup. We’re previewing what’s to come on day 2, to see who’ll make it to the Playoffs, and who’s on the plane home from Washington.
Vitality in Trouble
FalleN got the doggo buff to send Vitality to the Lower Bracket. Credit: Stephanie Lindgren | © BLAST
The opening match was the biggest shock of the BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023 so far, as Imperial sent Vitality to the Lower Bracket of Group A. FalleN rolled back the years, hitting some crazy AWP flicks like it was 2016 all over again. When he was in that form, they never stood a chance. We’ve got Vitality vs Cloud9 upcoming today, with both teams fighting for their tournament lives.
Looking at Vitality’s chances, the concern is that this tournament just isn’t important to them. After they won they BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, they’ve already secured their place in the BLAST Premier World Final 2023. To them, the BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023 is about pride and prize money. Both are great to have, but ultimately there’s just less at stake for the team.
Compare this to Cloud9, who seems unable to do anything right at the moment. Falling to G2, the team remains devoid of all confidence in the server at the moment. You can see the individual brilliance shine through in moments, but it isn’t enough to win games. If we had to name a winner, we think the overall greater cohesion on Vitality will be the difference maker.
Astralis Going Home?
Astralis could go straight home. Credit: AstralisCS on Twitter
Vitality and Cloud9 aren’t the only big teams in danger of an early exit in Washington. Astralis also stare down the barrel of elimination, with only Complexity between them and the Playoffs. To be fair, this Astralis isn’t the finished article yet, and an opening matchup against FaZe was always going to be tough. They never really had a chance in a 2:0 clean sweep. Complexity didn’t fare any better in their match against Heroic.
With Astralis, it’s impossible to know which version of the team will show up on any given day. At IEM Dallas 2023, dev1ce was averaging 30 kills per map. Yet in the BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023 opener, he only managed 16 across both maps. For Astralis to stand a chance against Complexity, that must change. Unfortunately, dev1ce has mentioned he’s battling a small bug right now, and hopefully, he can battle through to give them a fair fight.
Complexity are a team that is equally difficult to judge. While playing with stand-in Sonic instead of hallzerk, the team has fared no better or worse than it would have otherwise. In fact, Sonic has been putting up slightly better stats than hallzerk during his stint. This game is a total toss-up, with both teams very much the “best of the rest” in Tier 1. We’re going with Astralis to qualify for the BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023, even though it’ll be close.
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