The review of BLAST Pro Series Madrid 2019
Lord MatusThe teams, which surprised unpleasantly
Natus Vincere
Natus Vincere managed to perform at the tournament pretty well. The team has the best CS:GO representatives, great individual performers in the face of s1mple and electronic. As many viewers and casters mentioned, the team’s captain Danylo ‘Zeus’ Teslenko hasn’t been playing on the level Na’Vi plays for a long time or, in other words, doesn’t play that well enough. Due to this, the whole team is hitten one more time. There were strange tactical decisions on the roster, on the outcome of which the key rounds were lost. As a result, Natus Vincere defeated only two obvious outsiders in the face of Cloud9 and Giants Gaming, having lost all other matches against strong opponents. Having placed 4th in the standings, NaVi earned a prize in the sum of $15,000 and 4 Blast Pro Series points.
The teams, which performed as expected
Ninjas in Pyjamas
The Swedish team didn’t hope to advance to the grand final due to other strong teams, which would not allow GeT_RiGhT and his team to make it to the final stage of the tournament, were participating in the championship. Despite this, NiP played at the event pretty well and, having received an invite to BLAST Pro Standoff, achieved victory at it. There, they faced the outsider Giants Gaming and fought with the Portuguese as equals. The match was over with a score 3-2 in the favor of NiP and the victory at BLAST Pro Standoff became not the first for the Swedes. Ninjas in Pyjamas held the 3rd place at the championship and earned $25,000 for the bronze prize and also $20,000 in the form of the bonus for winning BLAST Pro Standoff. It’s worth to notice an interesting fact that the only team NiP managed to defeat at the group stage was the winner of the championship, ENCE Esports.
Cloud9
The Americans from Cloud9 performed on the level they were expected to perform. They prevailed at the championship only once, namely over Giants Gaming, which was predictable because the last ones came to the tournament as the main outsider. As a result, Golden with his teammates placed 5th and earned a monetary reward in the sum of $10,000.
Astralis
Astralis predictably played at BLAST Pro Series Madrid 2019 very well and their advancement to the grand final was not a surprise. Despite they lost the last match, the Danish team’s performance can be called successful in general, because Astralis earned 8 BPS points and is on the top of the rating BLAST Pro Series. They received a solid reward in the sum of $50,000 for the second place. It’s worth to notice that ENCE eSports has surprised both all viewers and the players from Astralis.
Movistar Riders
The Spanish team tried to qualify to BLAST Pro Series Madrid 2019 through Iberian Play-In but in that match, the victory was achieved by the players from Giants Gaming. Despite Movistar was the favorite of the match for getting to the LAN final, their loss was not surprising for anyone. Probably, mixwell and his teammates will be more lucky at other championships but the Spanish performance was over way earlier than they would like to.
The teams, which played better than expected
Giants Gaming
As it was previously said, Giants were the outsider in the match against Movistar Riders. Having made it to the LAN final, they surprised viewers and they, in turn, didn’t expect from Giants anything more than the sixth place in the standings. It happened so and everything was expected, except for one event. Giants beat the Swedes from Ninjas in Pyjamas with a score 16-4, having presented an interesting match to viewers, which results were difficult to be predicted. A particularly interesting fact can be considered that the gap between the participants of the match in the world rate was very significant. The Portuguese team places 99th on the list of the best CS:GO teams by HLTV, while Ninjas in Pyjamas hold the 9th place. Giants just like Ninjas in Pyjamas were invited to BLAST Pro Standoff where the Swedes, just like we had said in our preview, achieved victory in duel matches. In such a way, GeT_RiGhT with his team managed to win a rematch against the Portuguese and earned a money bonus in the sum of $20,000.
Giants Gaming received a great experience from the participation. They made it to the LAN final and defeated the strong team, which is worldwide known. The Portuguese were not able to beat NiP again but they were fighting decently, having lost with a score 3-2. Having placed sixth, Giants received a consolation money prize in the form of $5,000. It is possible that we will see them at a large championship in the nearest future.
ENCE eSports
The Finnish team has proved one more time that it is one of the best CS:GO rosters in the world. It performed the best at the group stage, having beaten Cloud9, Natus Vincere, Giants Gaming and even Astralis on its way. The only team, which allu and the team were not able to resist was the Swedes from Ninjas in Pyjamas.
Having advanced to the grand final, ENCE demonstrated a nice play again. Astralis wanted to win a rematch very much and pull its main weapon from a pocket, the map Nuke where they hadn’t had losses on it in 31 matches. Sergej with his comrades managed to surprise the Danes and defeated their opponents on their favorite map and stopped the series of 31 won Nuke. After such turn of events, Astralis showed a great opposition on Train, however, the Finns were not going to give up and won with a score 16-13.
All fans of the Finnish team left satisfied again and state unanimously: “EZ4ENCE”. Allu with his teammates triumphed at the championship and earned the main money prize in the sum of $125,000. Due to the team is not part of the season BLAST Pro Series, the team didn’t receive BPS points but earned only the financial reward.
HLTV will update its rating of CS:GO teams soon where ENCE eSports will probably hold the 4th place and Giants Gaming will get a couple of dozen places higher.