BLAST Fall Finals 2022 Day 3 Recap
| Tags: CS2
| Author The Old One
Day 3 had some surprises in store for CSGO fans at BLAST Fall Finals Day 3.
The beauty of CSGO, much like the best games or sports out there, is that anything can happen in a given series on a given day. The first day of the Playoffs of BLAST Fall Finals had just two matches, but they both went the distance, contained plenty of rock-solid action and each individual map had results that were about as unpredictable as they come. If you missed out on the games, here’s your chance to catch up.
BLAST Fall Finals – Heroic vs G2 Esports
On one hand, Heroic had a lot to prove after their overwhelming loss to FaZe Clan the previous day. The team has long been struggling to make fans in their Astralis-loving home country of Denmark, and this would be their first opportunity to play at Copenhagen’s coveted Royal Arena in front of a full-strength Danish crowd without an overhanging Astralis presence. G2, meanwhile had shown promise in the Group Stage after a checkered year, and desperately wanted to make it further in the tournament.
G2’s pick of Mirage didn’t really go their way. Despite winning the pistol, they could only pick up 3 rounds on the T-side, with Heroic looking absolutely brutal as the defenders. Despite some good shots by Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov and Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, it was the prowess of Martin “stavn” Lund and Jakob “Jabbi” Nygaard that stood out as Heroic took the map 16-8.
If G2’s map hadn’t gone their way, then Heroic’s pick was an even bigger disaster. Nikola “NiKo” Kovač and Rasmus “huNter-” Nielsen were on point with their gameplay, and following a strong CT-side that yielded 10 rounds, they rampaged through their T-side requirements to crush their opponents 16-6.
With both teams’ backs against the wall, Vertigo was the decider. Heroic got off to an early 6-3 lead by the 9th round, but G2 finished their defensive half strongly to end the half 9-6. On the attack, however, the French side were much less incisive and the Danes pulled off some insane clutch plays to take 9 straight rounds before dropping one and then finishing things off 16-12. This time, it was Rasmus “sjuush” Beck and René “TeSeS” Madsen who did the heavy lifting for Heroic.
Natus Vincere vs Ninjas in Pyjamas
After finally experiencing a tournament win with their current squad by defeating Fluxo, NIP had some much-needed confidence pumped into them. Confidence alone, however, isn’t nearly enough when you’re up against the likes of Na’ Vi, and NIP would have to play their best game in order to win. Na’ Vi were the clear favorites, but this isn’t 2021 Na’ Vi, and there are clear weaknesses and lapses in form that teams can and have been exploiting.
Going into NIP’s Inferno pick, it soon became clear just why the Swedes had picked the map — they had a wily and destructive T-side where they picked up a strong 9 rounds. After the half, Na’ Vi started their own attack well, but NIP quickly hunkered down to take 6 straight rounds. The Ukrainians got two more and looked ready for a comeback, but NIP simply smothered them out in the last round for a comfortable 16-10 victory courtesy of Fredrik “REZ” Sterner and Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin.
The Ukrainians came back with a vengeance and a half on Mirage as they got off to an imperious 8-1 start on the T-side. However, NIP had a comeback of their own as they strung a whopping 12 rounds together to take a 13-8 lead. That wasn’t all that she wrote, because, thanks to some powerful defending and incredible retakes, the game went to double Overtime. Na’ Vi finally closed it down 22-19 thanks to — of course — Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev.
Down but not out, NIP once again shattered Na’ Vi’s defenses on Overpass with some powerful strats as they picked up 9 rounds on the T-side once again. Na’Vi also began with what looked like a promising series of attacks, but try as they might they just couldn’t match the intensity of NIP. Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy played extremely well, but his efforts were no match for the combined might of Patrick “es3tag” Hansen and Brollan and the Swedes surprised everyone by winning the series with a 16-10 result on Overpass.
Join us again when we bring you recaps of the Semifinal, and feel free to read our wide variety of other CSGO content.
When he's not sighing at sub-standard teammates in Dota 2 and CS2, The Old One is writing about those two games (among other things). If you see his name around the site too many times for your liking, well, the guy just never stops writing. Yes, we've tried an intervention.