News Flash #5 - BLAST Fall Finals Preview

Fall Finals return to Copenhagen as BLAST is set to carry out their maiden Counter-Strike 2 event. Continue reading to learn about different teams' chances and expectations at the tournament.

The Royal Arena once again welcomes eight of the highest-performing Counter-Strike teams in BLAST tournaments in the past few months, in order to crown the fall season champion and determine who will take the last spot at the BLAST Premier World Final 2023 in Abu Dhabi.

With all the roster rumours and transfer mayhem happening recently, teams attending the event are at opposite points of their squad’s progression. Some teams are ready to win trophies, while others are looking to find small improvements in their game.

Bearing that in mind, let’s analyse all the teams’ chances at the tournament and the expectations they might have set for themselves:

FaZe - Extending the Streak

FaZe are undoubtedly the best CS2 team in the world right now. After their three subsequent tournament wins (2 LAN, 1 online), it is safe to say that they are back to their early 2022 form.

The international squad has shown incredible resilience, pulling off comebacks in nearly every high stakes match they played recently. Their mental fortitude in those tough do-or-die situations is unlike any other team in the world right now, which is why they should have the edge over the competition in this tournament as well.

ropz being one of the best CS2 players in the world hasn’t hurt FaZe as well, as the rest of the team always have someone to bail them out when their backs are against the wall. The Estonian’s rifling has been nothing short of sensational as of late, and if FaZe continue their spotless run at Fall Finals, he will certainly be the frontrunner for the tournament’s MVP medal.

Vitality - Integrating mezii

Vitality are the only confirmed victims of Falcons’ transfer market shopping spree, as they were forced to replace the greatest CS:GO coach of all time in zonic, one of the most decorated and underrated players in CS history in Magisk, and the performance coach who helped them to a Major victory on home soil in Lars Robl.

The team decided to bring back XTQZZZ into the coaching role, and acquire mezii from fnatic to fill Magisk’s shoes. While losing a player of that calibre can never be easy, mezii has shown a ton of potential since relinquishing his role as an In-game Leader in fnatic and putting more focus on his individual performance.

Although Vitality have made some crucial changes, they are still an extremely strong team that is capable of winning every event they attend, so don’t be surprised when ZywOo and co. take over the server in Copenhagen.

Complexity - Following Up on Sydney

We haven’t seen much of Complexity since their exhilarating run to the IEM Sydney Grand Final - the only other games they’ve played are three online BO3’s in the Thunderpick WC, where their sole victory came against a multi-continental mix in M80.

The American-majority squad will be aiming to continue their progression, and keep getting better and better against European opposition. This tournament will be a great test for EliGE and especially his younger, less experienced teammates on how to deal with pressure.

Even though the Complexity players have taken part in high stakes matches before, they’ve never had this many expectations on their shoulders to win those games. It will be interesting to see how they cope with the stress and work together to overcome any obstacles.

NAVI - Acclimating w0nderful

s1mple going on a break was one of the biggest bombshell announcements in recent Counter-Strike history. With the undisputed CS:GO GOAT stepping down from NAVI’s active roster, the team was forced to look for a new sniper. Thankfully, they managed to get the next best Ukrainian AWPer after s1imple, w0nderful.

The 18-year-old AWPer has been laying waste to the Tier 2 scene before joining NAVI, averaging a staggering 1.29 rating during his relatively short stint at Sprout. Even though it is impossible to replace s1mple one for one, w0nderful looks to be the right man for the job.

As a result of the change, some of NAVI’s riflers will have to step up if they are to achieve a decent result at the BLAST Fall Finals. b1t and jL have looked particularly impressive in CS2 so far, averaging 1.23 and 1.21 ratings, respectively, in the three matches they played during their unsuccessful IEM Sydney campaign.

Astralis - Playing on the Stage

Astralis’ performances seemed to be on a slow and consistent uptrend, before the Heroic drama saw the light of day. Soon after the news of them considering getting jabbi and stavn, they lost two games and dropped out of the Roobet Cup group stage, including a defeat to 9INE on Ancient, which has historically been a map the Poles couldn’t buy a win on.

However, the Danes did bounce back on LAN at the CS Asia Championships, where they managed to reach the semi-final stage. Interestingly enough, three members of the Astralis roster (blameF, device, and Staehr) made up 60% of the event’s top five highest rated players list.

Form aside, Astralis will have two main goals for this tournament: to play on the stage and to outperform Heroic. Every time a Danish team enters the Royal Arena, the atmosphere is absolutely electric. Getting the opportunity to experience that support first-hand will be the main motivation for all Danes attending the event.

Cloud9 - Showing Improvements

Cloud9’s CIS super team project that everyone was so excited for has quite clearly missed the mark. So much so that the team’s best player and primary AWPer in sh1ro decided to bench himself. Having been put in a tough spot, Cloud9 were forced to look for a replacement. Surprisingly, the team opted against signing a primary AWPer for the time being and decided to reunite the core of the incredibly dominant 2021 NAVI roster by getting Boombl4.

Despite unexpectedly losing one of their star players, the team seems to have improved since his departure, as the squad managed a top four finish at the Thunderpick World Championship, where they lost only to FaZe in a closely fought three-map affair.

While the circumstances C9 currently find themselves in are certainly not ideal, the talent that remains on that team can shine through at any moment, making upsets more of a possibility. Having said that, I don’t expect them to be a threat to the title contenders in Copenhagen.

NIP - Starting Well with alex

Although NIP is a Swedish organization, I’m sure the two Danes on the team in k0nfig and es3tag would love to play in the Royal Arena. Unfortunately for them, they play for one of the teams, which are the least likely to advance to the semi-finals, especially when taking into consideration all the roster shuffling they’ve been doing in the past few weeks.

THREAT’s return to NIP as a General Manager meant changes were coming to the formerly Swedish-majority roster. hampus and Brollan were cut from the team in favour of alex and the human Swiss army knife, es3tag.

With the BLAST Fall Finals being the Spanish IGL’s first event with the team, there should be no expectations for NIP’s performance at this tournament. Winning even a single game would be a great starting point and a solid base to build off in future months.

Heroic - Advancing to the Royal Arena

It is no secret that Heroic are currently in a dire situation, having lost basically their star trio in stavn, cadiaN, and jabbi. With those players being unavailable, Heroic barely managed to field full a team for their games in the Roobet Cup and the Thunderpick WC, where they had to use two stand-ins from the MOUZ NXT roster.

For this event, the Danes will set up in the following five-man squad: TeSeS, sjuush, dupreeh, Zyphon, and lastly cadiaN, who chose to return to Heroic for one last tournament with the organization he enjoyed a plethora of success with, over the four years he spent there.

This year’s BLAST Fall Finals will be extremely sentimental for both cadiaN and Heroic, as the former leader and the team he cherished go their separate ways. The only thing cadiaN will be wishing for, is to play in front of the Danish fans in the Heroic jersey one last time.

On This Day…

On this day six years ago (2017) NIP beat FaZe 3-2 in a marathon BO5 Grand Final to defend their IEM Oakland title.

This was the tournament, where then 19-year-old REZ claimed his infamous first and only MVP medal. The Swedish rifler averaged a 1.28 rating over 13 maps played at the event.

NIP’s and FaZe’s rosters shaped up as follows:

NIP - REZ, f0rest, GeT_RiGhT, Xizt, draken

FaZe - rain, Niko, GuardiaN, olofmeister, karrigan

News Flash #6 Preview

Make sure to tune into next week’s edition of the News Flash, where we’ll be discussing the BLAST Fall Finals results and analysing what they mean for the scene going forward.