Team Vitality, The MongolZ and Team Spirit finished off sweeps in their respective upper-bracket quarterfinals to open Group B play of the BLAST Open Spring on Thursday in Copenhagen, Denmark.
PARAVISION also won its opening match to remain in the winner’s bracket. 9z Team, MOUZ, Team Liquid and Ninjas in Pyjamas each lost their opening matches and will face elimination on Saturday.
The 16 teams in the $400,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event were split into two groups of eight that will contest a pair of double-elimination brackets. The top three finishers in each bracket will advance to the six-team playoffs. All matches will be best-of-three until the best-of-five grand final on March 29.
The winning team will earn $150,000 along with three BLAST Frequent Flyer tokens.
Team Vitality cruised to a sweep of 9z Team with a 13-3 win on Overpass and a 13-5 victory on Nuke. Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut of France led the way for Vitality with a 37-15-22 kill-death-assist ratio.
The MongolZ took care of business against MOUZ, posting a 13-11 victory on Nuke followed by a 13-3 triumph on Inferno. For the all-Mongolian winners, Sodbayar “Techno” Munkhbold sparked the victory with a K-D-A ratio of 42-24-18.
Team Spirit had to work a little more to earn the sweep, taking down Team Liquid 13-8 on Mirage and 13-11 on Ancient. Russian Danil “donk” Kryshkovets was the star for the winners, notching a K-D-A ratio of 55-31-24.
PARAVISION opened with a 13-11 win on Ancient, but Ninjas in Pyjamas pulled even on Mirage with a 13-6 victory. In the decisive third map, PARAVISION rebounded to close out the match 13-8 on Dust II.
For the all-Russian PARAVISION squad, Ivan “zweih” Gogin posted a team-high 45 kills along with 45 deaths, while teammate Andrey “BELCHONOKK” Yasinskiy notched a K-D-A ratio of 43-41-2.
Friday’s schedule:
FURIA vs. Aurora Gaming (Group A upper-bracket semifinal)
Natus Vincere vs. Team Falcons (Group A upper-bracket semifinal)
TYLOO vs. FaZe Clan (Group A lower-bracket quarterfinal)
B8 vs. NRG (Group A lower-bracket quarterfinal)
BLAST Open Spring prize pool (cash prize, BLAST Frequent Flyer tokens)
1. $150,000, 3
2. $60,000, 1
3-4. $40,000, 1
5-6. $20,000, 1
7-8. $10,000
9-12. $7,500
13-16. $5,000
–Field Level Media
