After months of struggles and heartbreak, Heroic have finished the CS:GO season with the one thing they wanted most – a tournament win. They emerged on top in a close battle with Vitality, taking home the BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023.
Heroic’s passion finally prevails
At the end of it all, you’d have to say that Heroic just wanted it more than Vitality. It was never more evident than in the post-match celebrations. You had cadiaN jumping on the desk in the immediate aftermath, and it couldn’t be more obvious how much this meant. This team has spent so long as perennial runners-up, the taste of victory so close but yet so far. But here, they had enough in the tank to get over the line, earning their first trophy of 2023.
Are there perhaps more prestigious tournaments to win? Perhaps, but try telling that to Heroic. The celebrations resembled that of a CS:GO Major winner, and with the player break it could come at the perfect time. Heroic have the chance to rest and recuperate for a month before the rest of 2023, but with the taste of victory still fresh, it can be a great springboard to more wins in 2023.
Looking at the actual BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023 Grand Final itself, it wasn’t too much to write home about. We’ve certainly seen higher-quality CS:GO played in recent months, but with the incoming player break, that makes sense. Both of these teams have been making deep tournament runs lately in a grueling schedule, and this was the end result. Heroic and Vitality stole each other’s map picks away from each other, going to Inferno as the decider. From there, it was a non-contest. Virtually every round, cadiaN outcalled apEX, an IGL masterclass on the server. 16-9 was the end score, which perhaps even flattered Vitality.
Vitality seems out of sorts
After a few months of pure dominance from Vitality, this was definitely a surprising showing. We know they haven’t exactly been playing their best CS:GO this tournament, but you’d still like to see a little more from them. Even the ever-consistent ZywOo put up a career-worst CT-side on Vertigo, going 2-12.
In the bigger picture, Vitality shouldn’t see this loss as anything major to worry about. They overcame plenty of resilience to get to the BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023 Grand Final in the first place, and simply ran out of steam at the final hurdle. And there’s certainly no shame in losing to this Heroic team, either. As long as they don’t stew on it over the player break, Vitality should see this as nothing more than a blip in their great form.
The main prize up for grabs here was a spot in the BLAST Premier World Final 2023. Vitality’s victory in the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 meant they were already qualified, so there was just a bit less to play for here. Their next big tournament will be IEM Cologne 2023 in the back-end of July, so they have plenty of time to lick their wounds and be back in top form soon enough.