The preview of BLAST Premier Global Final 2020
Ihor MatusGeneral information
BLAST Premier Global Final 2020, the highly-anticipated championship with a large prize pool of $1,000,000 starts tomorrow. Initially, the organizers wanted to distribute $1,500,000 among participants but the coronavirus brought its changes into RFRSH Entertainment’s plans in 2020. In such a way, the main money reward was cut off from $1,000,000 to $600,000 but this prize also looks pretty significant and will become the record one in the history of CS:GO. Its size is especially incredible, considering the era of online competitions. Eight teams will be fighting for this sweet piece, each of them has proved to be worth its spot on the list of the participants. One part of the teams have made it through the finals of BLAST Spring Series and Fall Series in Europe and North America. The other half has earned enough points during the BLAST Premier Circuit season.
The rosters will start their road right in the playoffs. Due to the fact that the organizers have decided to skip a group stage, the teams will be playing in a double-elimination bracket and have a right to make a mistake. All matches, including the grand final, will be played in the bo3 format.
The favorites
Astralis
A place in the rating by HLTV — #1
There are no questions to determine the main favorite of the competition. Definitely, the Danes from Astralis are considered to be not only the main favorite of his competition but the strongest CS:GO team in the world. The team has proved many times that it deserves this title and the roster was the longest to head the list of the best by HLTV last year.
Astralis’ play style is simple and inimitable at the same time. If some teams like NAVI rely on a few individuals, according to many esports fans, giving them an opportunity to do their best, while other team members just create space, the Danes play in the smoothest possible way and make an equal impact in the game. Even dev1ce who is considered to be one of the best players in the world can’t reach the top 2 CS:GO representatives because Astralis’ style simply does not mean to provide the Dane with special privilege and a big number of moments, which require individual performances. As a result, the five strong players work like a Swiss watch and are going for their victory at BLAST Premier Global Final 2020 and the reward of $600,000. They will face Evil Geniuses in the first match and we are almost sure that the team will reach the final of the upper bracket without issues — the Danes will fight the winner of the match G2 vs FURIA in the semi-finals. At the same time, it is not worth forgetting that FURIA has recently found Astralis’ weak spot even on their favorite map, Nuke, however, time passes and rosters change together with tendencies. Astralis performed perfectly and achieved victory at the last championship, IEM Global Challenge 2020. Who will be able to stop them this time?
Team Vitality
A place in the rating by HLTV — #2
Team Vitality looks like one of the main favorites to prevail together with Astralis and it makes sense because the French have one special weapon in the face of the modest but strong and very talented player, Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut. Today, on January 18 and 20, we will find out who will lead the list of the top 20 players on the outcome of the past 2020. The whole esports community has mainly been divided into two camps. The first ones think that ZywOo will reach the top of the rating for the second time in a row. The second half thinks that s1mple has demonstrated a good enough performance to receive the status of the best player of 2020. Anyway, ZywOo is one of the strongest CS:GO players, so we expected to see Team Vitality in the grand final. The remarkable thing is that Vitality is a team of contrasts. There are both the aged players in the face of apEX, shox, and RpK (27, 28, and 31 years old, respectively) and the youth in the face of misutaaa (18 years old) and ZywOo (20 years old). This symbiosis looks unusual and, as we can see, it brings very good results.
The ones that can try
Natus Vincere
A place in the rating by HLTV — #3
Natus Vincere is a bit controversial team. The team is incredibly popular in the CS:GO community, especially in the CIS division, and the legendary duo of s1mple and electronic plays under the colors of NAVI. However, at the same time, the team’s results leave much more to be desired. For example, Natus Vincere has recently placed fourth in most cases. Despite this, there were really successful tournaments for this roster. For example, NAVI made it to the final at ESL Pro League Season 12: Europe and Intel Extreme Masters XV - Beijing Online: Europe but lost the fight to Astralis and Vitality.
The event will provide the opportunity to make $600,000 for the victory at the tournament at once, so we expect Natus Vincere to perform well. The team will definitely enter the top 4. NAVI will fight with Team Liquid, which has recently been weakened, in the first match. If they prevail, Natus Vincere will fight the winner of the match Team Vitality vs Complexity Gaming in the next match. In any case, the opponent will not be unbeatable for NAVI, so we can expect “The Born to Win” in the final of the upper bracket. Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev’s character and his desire to demonstrate his gaming level and prove that he enters the top three CS:GO players of 2020 by HLTV for a reason might be an additional motivator to show a good performance.
G2 Esports
A place in the rating by HLTV — #8
After the transfer of NiKo to the ranks of G2, which happened at the end of October, it became way more interesting to follow this team. After Nikola Kovac’s arrival, the duo of the Kovac cousins made a statement and the team managed to prevail BLAST Premier Fall Series 2020 Europe on the outcome of this and earned an invite to the European final. After this, the performances of the roster were a bit mediocre. Initially, there was the 3rd-4th place at IEM Beijing Online, then the 9th-12th place at DreamHack Masters Winter 2020 Europe, and the 5th-6th at BLAST Premier Fall Series 2020 Finals after that.
By the way, NiKo held the 4th place on the list of the best CS:GO players in the world in 2020 by HLTV, and his cousin huNter- placed 13 on the same list. It says about the pretty strong players in G2 Esports’ squad, which might only increase their chances to win. Let’s add the obvious motivator in the form of the chance to compete for the biggest money prize in the history of CS:GO and we will have a pretty good chance to see G2 in the top 4 participants of this championship. How far will G2 advance? We will find it out soon!
The chances to prevail aren’t too high
Team Liquid
A place in the rating by HLTV — #9
If we avoid trivial words “strong”, “weak”, “predictable”, “unpredictable”, and others, we would like to call this team a dark horse metaphorically. On one hand, the team looks like an outsider with the players who have not had enough time to create synergy. On the other hand, this roster can be considered in a different way. Have you ever thought that with the departure of Twistzz and the arrival of Fallen, the team may start in an absolutely new way? The Brazilian legionary Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo has received an opportunity to play on the roster of the international team and prove to the public that he is a good IGL and the series of failed performances under the tag MIBR was not due to his mistakes but a poor performance by the team in general.
If we consider that Liquid places 9th on the list of the best CS:GO teams by HLTV at the moment, their chances will look way more prospective against some participants.
FURIA Esports
A place in the rating by HLTV — #6
The Brazilian team FURIA Esports is one of the main underdogs in our opinion. 2021 started with interesting roster changes for FURIA. One of the representing team members, Henrique ‘HEN1’ Teles asked the management to release him from the duties in the organization to continue his road with his native brother Lukas ‘LUCAS1’ Teles and the ex-teammate Vito ‘kNgV-’ Giuseppe. The esportaman decided not to wait for the $1,000,000 championship, so the management had to look for a stand-in immediately. Initially, the solution was found for the team in the face of Paytyn ‘Junior’ Johnson who signed a contract with the club on January 8, however, it appeared that he was not able to visit Serbia with his teammates to meet at a bootcamp and play in the club’s house. Visa issues were the reason for it. As a result, the management had to find a solution for the problem and they found Lucas ‘honda’ Cano who had no issues to visit the bootcamp in Serbia. Considering that CS:GO is a team game and 20% of the team play and strategies have left the team with HEN1 and his spot has been taken by the esportsman who earned $87 in his career, there is hope in this team’s success at this tournament. But there is good news for honda: the player’s total earnings will grow tenfold after the end of BLAST Premier Global Final 2020 in any case.
Complexity Gaming
A place in the rating by HLTV — #12
Complexity Gaming has a long streak of failures after the victory in the European finals of BLAST Premier Spring Series 2020. The reason for it is roster changes in the team. We want to remind you that during the LAN tournament ESL Pro League Season 12: Europe Owen ‘oBo’ Schlatter stated that he wanted to go home and finished his activity as a player of Complexity, having left his teammates on their own. Due to this, they had to finish the tournament with stand-ins and as a result, the roster finished its road on the 5th-6th place in the standings, having lost a match to Astralis. After that, the team used the services of various esportsmen who were playing for Complexity Gaming as stand-in players until the head of the team signed a contract with the Australian esportsman Justin ‘jks’ Savage. After his arrival, the team performed mediocre at BLAST Premier Fall Series 2020 and placed 3rd-4th at IEM Beijing Online. The team’s bad streak continued and we see no reasons for it to finish right now. In our view, the only thing that can influence the game is Benjamin ‘blameF’ Bremer’s good mood who held the 6th place in the rating by HLTV on the outcome of the past 2020. Considering that he is an IGL, the captain’s moral state can help the players to bring their game to a new level at least in a short-term perspective.
On the other hand, we can’t call this team a favorite for the reason that one of the players of this roster, namely poizon has not been able to rehabilitate after his surgery for a long time. He will be replaced by the Danish esportsman JUGi at this championship. The last one has not been a part of a team after his departure from Astralis on July 31 last year. If we do not consider his play for Team Secret in two matches in November, Jakob ‘JUGi’ Hansen has not played official matches for more than half a year and it promises the team a poor performance.
However, we can be wrong about our assumptions, so it will be very interesting to follow Complexity Gaming at this tournament.
Evil Geniuses
A place in the rating by HLTV — #18
The results of Evil Geniuses left much more to be desired in the last months. The team achieved victory in three championships in a row in summer, however, autumn was spent under the number 3, due to their habit to become the bronze medalists (greetings to the Dota 2 roster of Evil Geniuses at the beginning of 2019). The last match with the participation of Evil Geniuses was played on November 21 last year. Since then, almost two months have passed and the team might lose its shape. Everything can change at this tournament and the tournament might surprise us but let’s be honest — the chance is too low. EG will probably be one of the first to be eliminated from the championship because the strongest teams will meet at the tournament, they will be trying their best to use a chance to achieve victory.