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OG Top BLAST Premier: Fall Series Group A

Following a rather disappointing finish at DreamHack Open Fall, OG are back at it again. Over the course of... Fabio | 29. October 2020

Following a rather disappointing finish at DreamHack Open Fall, OG are back at it again. Over the course of three maps, they have secured their group’s first place and may now head directly to the Fall 2020 Finals, without having to take a detour through the Showdown.

AFTER KATOWICE, EVIL GENIUSES ARE FINALLY BACK ON EUROPEAN SOIL

Ever since March, no North American team had set foot on the European continent. While MIBR had a bootcamp here in the meantime, they only managed to attend ESL One Cologne for two short matches and quickly broke apart afterwards.

So the match between Evil Geniuses and OG carried some hefty implications. For half a year, the play styles of the two continents have developed independently from each other. How would NA fare against European competition?

Now, OG aren’t exactly their region’s flagship team. But still, they delivered a great show and EG proved that they aren’t too far behind. On the first map, they initially looked great, as they quickly gathered a 5-1 lead. But then, OG slowly awoke and brought enough fire to the first half to still make it to an 8-7 scoreline. The map looked competitive, until Aleksi “Aleksib” and his men got to their first weapon round. During their offense, they ran away with the rounds and secured a rather quick 16-9, in which Evil Geniuses stood no chance after the first half.

On Inferno, the North Americans turned the tables around. There, OG gained a quick lead, but Ethan “Ethan” Arnold still helped his team to a 7-8 first half finish. Suddenly, the Geniuses took off with the second half and mounted a 16-9 victory, tying the overall score once again.

Overpass became a tight affair for the two teams, but Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt dragged his team over the finishing line. OG led 10-5 at halftime, but the strong performance of Ethan made them lose round after round on the T side. At 14-12 for EG, they finally collected themselves and made a comeback for the 16-14 victory.

NA FAILS TO IMPRESS

While Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz and company managed to mount an impressive series versus OG, they faltered against the Ninjas in Pyjamas. With a 16-8, NiP quickly arrived on the second map, on which they managed to amass a considerable lead. Sitting on an 11-4 scoreline, they were about to end this Best-of-Three prematurely.

But EG weren’t down and out just yet. Similarly to OG, their Inferno defense was practically watertight. They managed to surpass the Ninjas and acquired 15 points, but unfortunately they lost the last deciding round. Heading into overtime, NiP were the stronger ones and got their well-deserved 2-0 victory in the end.

So the first leg of EG’s European campaign has found a sudden end. Surely the team had hoped for a better result and now they’ll have to enter the Showdown in order to get a shot at the Finals.

OG AND NAVI HEADING TO FALL FINALS

OG and Natus Vincere, however, didn’t need to worry about their placements as much. The two teams had already qualified to the conlusion of this BLAST season. In their last match, they only fought for prize money, points and seeding.

Still, it was obvious to the naked eye that both took this game 100% seriously. After OG had gotten a surprising 2-0 in the Winners’ Match, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and company were understandably out for some revenge – which they were denied.

On Dust2, Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski took on his carry pants and even managed to overcome s1mple. On a 16-9 scoreline, he got 24 kills and a 1.68 rating, as he either survived, killed, assisted, or was traded in 88% of the rounds. But on Mirage, the OG setup lacked. While NaVi only got an 8-7 lead at half-time, they quickly mounted a five rounds run afterwards. Aleksib and his men only had some sparse victories on the CT side and gave the map away on a 10-16 scoreline.

On Nuke, it looked as though OG had lost their drive. In the first few rounds, they simply weren’t competitive, which changed quickly. Aleksib’s calls were near-perfect, and he delivered some beautiful and crucial kills on top. He helped his team to a 7-8 half, which is quite impressive for a Nuke T side. Even though s1mple managed to turn around a few rounds on their T side, the OG defense was too well-coordinated for them to handle. On a 16-12 scoreline, OG completed the third map and are leaving their BLAST Fall Series Group A in first place.

So these two teams are now heading straight to the Fall Finals, which will take place offline. There, they will potentially face teams like Astralis, Vitality, Complexity or BIG. We will soon get to know more finalists, as Group B is scheduled to commence today already.