The BLAST Pro Global Finals have come to an end and with that, 2020 can be seen as “wrapped up”. It’s time to take a dive into the contestants and how they performed, the teams that underperformed and the eventual victor.
FURIA, what happened?
FURIA was not expected to end up on the #1 position at the BLAST Premier Global Finals, their performance just did not cut it at all. However one thing does have to be said: The new addition to the team, Lucas “Honda” Cano really showed up for them and proved his worth.
He did not ace once, but twice in his debut match, which was against G2. Sadly, things only went well at the start. They proved too tough of an opponent for FURIA and ended up taking the match win later. FURIA made it challenging and put up a strong fight, but every time they just weren’t able to get those few extra rounds in. It felt more as if it was FURIA lacking in the teamplay department; the individual skill was definitely there but the team as one just did not manage to get the necessary maps.
Liquid starts strong as Natus Vincere learns fast
Liquid, rocking their new addition “FalleN”, showed they had an even fiercer fight in them than initially anticipated. They dominated NAVI, sending them off to the lower bracket early on in the tournament with an impressive 2-0 result. Not something anyone saw coming, but when you see how nicely FalleN handles clutch situations like the one below, it comes as no surprise.
The problem for Liquid is that this was by all accounts a one time showing, and really only a good debut. Once they had to go up against Vitality they were quickly shot down. Vitality started out with Nivera in their first map instead of putting him into play later as they usually do, but it seemed to be the right choice. Although Vitality felt like they needed to get into the swing of things a little, they proved themselves once again. The first map was a cutthroat 16-14 result in favour of Vitality, but once it went to the second map, they sped up and went for a 16-11 finisher. With that, they did not even grant Liquid a single map.
As they ended up in the lower bracket, they put up a good fight versus Evil Geniuses, an opponent they could definitely handle. As the Lower Final started they had to face NAVI again. This time around, NAVI knew how to handle Liquid and played Inferno and Nuke once more, but with far more success. Close results in favour of NAVI lead to a different result: 2-0 for NAVI. Part of their succcess is s1mple, popping off as usual when it is most required.
Dealing with the Danish
As things progressed and the Lower Bracket Final kicked off, we saw NAVI overtaking Vitality – Which many didn’t expect considering Vitality’s form, but once again earned. A strong trend of improvement is what NAVI has shown in this tournament, coming out on top of the lower bracket and earning their place in the grand final against Astralis, even if things do not always go as smoothly.
And the greatness for NAVI continued. The roster really delivered here, B1T came into his own in these finals and has been just as much of a part of the win as anyone else on NAVI. For this being his first final, he has really proven himself. First came a challenging Nuke, a map that has been notoriously difficult for Astralis recently, with Bubzkji as the attempted saving grace. Things ended with 16-12 in favour of NAVI and it was a sign of things to come. After having been beaten thee times on Inferno by Astralis in December it was finally time for NAVI to get their revenge. A quick 16-5 ended things in a 2-0 and secured the win for NAVI, the $600 000 prize and #1 spot in the BLAST Premier Global Finals 2020. One of the key factors that went well for NAVI and badly for Astralis were the pistol rounds
Astralis did not step up as much as they usually do. NAVI seemed to peak much higher than Astralis could and things felt “off” for Astralis, as Zonic said himself in the post-match interview. There will be plenty of stuff to learn for Astralis and improvement is seriously needed, otherwise it might just mean 2021 will be the year of NAVI instead of Astralis.
The Global Finals showed some interesting results. Some teams dropped earlier than expected, and not many would have expected NAVI to grab their first BLAST Global Final trophy when this tournament first started off, even less so after the 0-2 Liquid result. But they persevered and landed a deserved #1 spot!
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