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BLAST Showdown: Quarter Finals Recap

The BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown is currently taking place in two Single Elimination brackets. The first eight teams have... Fabio | 26. November 2020

The BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown is currently taking place in two Single Elimination brackets. The first eight teams have already had to wave goodbye, but Cloud9, Complexity, Liquid, and many others have made it through.

THE NA TEAMS STAND VICTORIOUS

After the North American squads had fallen flat in their fights against European teams before, Liquid, FURIA, and MIBR finally managed to score some points. FURIA almost have failed versus Isurus, who shocked them with a 16-5 win on Overpass, dragging the Best-of-Three all the way to a third map. There, FURIA finally managed to score a 16-14 win.

The new MIBR lineup continues to impress. Despite the players only having come together a month ago, this roster puts up a great show. In fact, two of those players are only loaned out from other rosters! At the very least, they are better than the previous iteration of MIBR, which would never have made it against FaZe. But Vito “kNgV-” Giuseppe and his men actually pulled off the 2.0 victory after playing out two overtimes on Nuke. Their resilience is really impressive, as FaZe even led on an 11-2 scoreline at one point. But MIBR still converted this map into a victory, beating a breathless FaZe on Dust2 afterwards.

Liquid closed things out by taking on MAD Lions. Jake “Stewie2k” Yip led his men into a 10-5 half and even secured the pistol round, but the Lions were invincible on their CT side. They ran off with 11 rounds in a row and mounted the perfect comeback. But Liquid didn’t give up. On Mirage, they secured a tight 16-14 victory. On a 16-13 scoreline, they eventually won Vertigo as well, but only by the slightest of margins.

CLOUD9 SECURE THEIR FIRST VICTORY

After their debut at the BLAST Premier: Fall Regular Season had not gone according to plan, Cloud9 have now finally recorded their first win. The Ninjas in Pyjamas fell on two relatively close maps. Even though Alex “ALEX” McMeekin barely contributed on 27 kills, Ricky “floppy” Kemery was the star for Cloud9. His performance dragged them over the finishing line and into the Semi Finals of their bracket.

But even though this is good news for Cloud9, they shouldn’t rest easy. After all, the Ninjas in Pyjamas are by no means a great team right now. The weak output from ALEX and William “mezii” Merriman does not bode well. They can’t rely on floppy to regularly pull off performances like this.

Point-wise, Complexity and mousesports were the runaway winners of the Opening Matches. They only dropped a few rounds against Sprout and GODSENT, respectively, confidently walking on into the Semi Finals. Heroic had a much tougher time against Endpoint, who stunned them with a 16-11 win on Train. Casper “cadiaN” Møller and his men eventually returned the favor on the following two maps and secured their Semis spot next to mousesports.

WHAT’S IN STORE FOR THESE TEAMS NOW?

In Virtus.pro, FURIA have gotten a relatively easy opponent. Still, this match will require them to be 100% present. After they have had such issues in their match against Isurus, Dzhami “Jame” Ali and his men might be too strong to handle. On top of that, FURIA apparently plan to make some major changes to the roster. According to reports, Henrique “HEN1” Teles already has one foot out of the team, so how serious do the players actually take this event?

It’s particularly unfortunate to see Liquid and MIBR clash this early on. Under normal circumstances, this would be a hotly anticipated match-up. In this instance, however, the fans surely would want to see them square off against European opposition instead. But one of these organizations will have to leave the tournament soon. The other team may continue on and fight for a spot in the BLAST Premier: Fall Finals.

In the second Single Elimination bracket of this event, Cloud9 are meeting their match. The ‘Colossus’ is bound to collide with the ‘Juggernaut’ and will likely receive a sound beating. So far, this Cloud9 lineup has not faced a team of this caliber. If they already struggle this much against the Ninjas in Pyjamas, how are they possibly going to compete with Complexity?

At least there is one upside for mouz in their fight against Heroic. The Dane’s performance yesterday, at least on the first map, wasn’t all too convincing. While mouz only dropped 14 rounds overall in their match, Heroic had to fight through a tiresome Best-of-Three. Had Endpoint not played a Best-of-Five versus Sprout for the ESEA Premier win beforehand, they might have been able to best the Danes.

So even though the British team has missed out on attending the BLAST Premier: Fall Finals, their Premier win will at least grant them an ESL Pro League slot. Maybe this is a much greater reward anyways. Meanwhile, the Showdown continues on and will provide us with lots of great games to determine which four teams will make the Fall Finals.