One more big CS:GO event is in the books, and all of us had lots of reasons for excitement over the weekend (June 15-19) once again since only the best squads in the world were competing right in front of our screens or eyes. 

Sixteen teams tried, only two of them made it to the finals, and they have managed to exceed all of our expectations.

Natus Vincere was able to defeat their French rivals – Team Vitality, and capture the BLAST Premier Spring Championship, in front of the crowded Altice Arena in the city of Lisbon, Portugal.

Upon their arrival, nobody could have predicted that either of those would come close to winning the championship, but here we are – telling you a story about the underdogs who went against the odds and succeeded – very much the point of what esports are all about!

BLAST Premier Spring – The Finals Recap

Map 1 – Mirage

The first map of the finals was unsurprisingly the Mirage, which was selected by the later-to-be champions. They lost the pistol round due to the great early start by Vitality’s “apeX” and “ZywOo” who overshadowed the triple kill of “s1mple”, hinting toward a very close and exciting matchup.

However, angry because of the interruption that took place in the pistol round, “s1mple” went on his own killing spree getting another three kills within a minute. This round later proved to be a momentum shifter, since Natus Vincere looked much different compared to the slow pace from the earliest rounds.

One of the indicators that the Ukrainian squad may dominate their way to victory was another great killing run made by “electroNic” who jumped in at the right time and covered for many mistakes of his teammates.

What happened soon after was Vitality’s attempt of making a comeback, which looked achievable until the very last five rounds on Mirage, but once NaVi realized they needed a push, that’s exactly what they produced – “b1t” had ten kills in the last rounds, closing out the Mirage in favor of Natus Vincere.

Map 2 – Overpass

What makes the NaVi’s victory on this map interesting is that they were doubtful whether they should remove it from the list, but chose not to and stuck with their game plan. That turned out perfectly for them later on, despite starting slow once again.

During the first three rounds, Vitality showed exactly why they have chosen Overpass – they were executing everything well, their strategy was well-rehearsed and the lead was starting to add on. However, the reason why Natus Vincere won the title is the mindset of the champion – even in times of struggle, they maintained their composure and were able to even the scoreboard within just a couple of rounds.

After feeling-out the map and regaining the control, it was NaVi’s show from there. Everyone started to pile on the kills, as the resulting gap went higher and higher. Vitality tried making a push, but every time they were shut down doing so, it was more than obvious who the new champions were.

Now that NaVi has won their first championship of the year, it will be interesting to see if they manage to regain some of their old glory and use this event as a confidence booster to add some more trophies to their cabinets before the end of 2022.