MIBR claim first series win over FURIA; advance to BLAST Premier Spring upper finals

MIBR have advanced to the upper bracket finals of the BLAST Premier Spring Americas Finals after claiming a 2-0 victory over FURIA (16-14 Inferno, 16-9 Vertigo).

MIBR finally scored their first series win over their Brazilian rivals in a two-map brawl, bringing their best-of-three head-to-head record to 5-1 despite the series being marred by technical issues. The victory sets MIBR up against the winner of the second upper bracket semi-final between Evil Geniuses and Liquid, which is slated to kick off on Wednesday at 23:30 .

A back-and-forth battle on Inferno was how the match got underway, with the two teams remaining deadlocked heading into the second half. A terse back-and-forth saw the teams tied 12-12 when technical issues arose, resulting in a prolonged pause before MIBR claimed a narrow victory on their own map pick. FURIA's best efforts to answer back on Vertigo were thwarted as MIBR looked the more prepared side, prevailing in a number of late round scenarios to close out the series with a 16-9 victory.

Four rounds on the CT side had FURIA off to a solid start as Inferno got underway, but it didn't take long for MIBR to respond with rounds of their own, despite some technical issues. Adapting from the lacklustre showing in their previous match-up, Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo's troops abused banana and FURIA's B site hold early on to swiftly tie the match, and found entry into bombsites in a handful of ensuing rounds to narrowly edge out a one-round lead at the break.

MIBR scored three rounds straight off the side swap, and FURIA answered with five of their own before a Vito "⁠kNgV-⁠" Giuseppe quad kill tied up the match at 12-12. However, it was here that the same technical issues that had affected the first half came to a head — FURIA found an opening pick to start round 25, but issues with the server affecting Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga and FalleN led to the CEO of FURIA, Jaime Padua, taking to Twitter to announce that FURIA had chosen to replay the round.

The decision was one that would come back to haunt Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan' side. After a pause that lasted over 45 minutes, play resumed, with the two teams trading rounds back-and-forth to remain tied at 14-14. A resilient defense from MIBR then saw FalleN and company come out ahead, winning two final rounds to narrowly edge out their map pick 16-14.

MIBR's strong form continued into FURIA's pick, Vertigo, with multi-kills from kNgV- and fer enabling retakes for their side to lead 5-0. FURIA finally found an opening through arT's relentless aggression, utilizing the win to keep themselves competitive in the half with six rounds to their name. However, things quickly took a grim turn once MIBR were the ones setting the pace on the offense, with fer leading the charge in an effort that only allowed FURIA three rounds before the series was brought to a close.