NAVI edge past FaZe to secure BLAST Premier Spring Final spot

The international team will have one more shot at qualification for the next stage on Sunday.

Natus Vincere booked a spot in the BLAST Premier Spring Final with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over the new FaZe roster in Group C's upper bracket final. Riding the wave after a 2-0 thrashing of Liquid on Friday, the international team showed great spirit and discipline as they recovered from a map down, beating NAVI on their best map before losing the series in a nail-biting Train affair that saw Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken amass 44 frags.

Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov was the main protagonist on Inferno, where he had a spectacular 10-0 opening duel record and topped the scoreboard with a 1.45 rating, while Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev led the charge for his team on Train, where Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy also played a decisive role with two key clutches, one of which in the match-winning round.

The series began with NAVI taking an early lead on the CT side of Inferno, FaZe's map pick. The international team responded in their first full buy, courtesy of a 1v2 clutch by Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer, and then put some rounds together, bringing the scoreline to 4-2. Things were starting to look promising for FaZe, but the rest of the half was controlled by NAVI, who shut down any chances of their opponents stringing rounds together, with Boombl4 and Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy heading into the break with a combined 29 frags.

After a quiet showing in the first half, NAVI's star duo, s1mple and Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov, came to life on the T side, helping put the team on the brink of victory as the team ran over the FaZe defence in the opening stages of the half. The international team fired back following a trio of frags by Twistzz on the A site, but there was no stopping the CIS giants, who quickly put the game to bed.

NAVI came out all guns blazing on Nuke, cruising to a 4-0 lead on the offence before FaZe responded with nothing but pistols. The international team immediately took the upper hand and shut out their opponents, who only managed to get one more round in the half.

The second half commenced with a frantic pace, with neither side managing to get a stranglehold on proceedings. NAVI then threatened to run away with the game as they chained four rounds together, but their resistance was broken in the 25th round, when FaZe secured an unlikely victory with Tec-9s. That victory visibly reinvigorated Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David's troops, who locked down the map shortly afterwards.

FaZe carried that momentum into the decider map, where they hopped out to a 5-1 lead on the T side. Perfecto gave NAVI a breather in the following round as he pulled off a much-needed 1v2 clutch, with s1mple and electroNic then stepping up to the plate to spearhead the team's comeback. The CIS giants won seven consecutive rounds before FaZe pulled two back to keep the deficit to a minimum as the teams headed into the break.

Now playing on the CT side, FaZe won the opening four rounds of the half, with NAVI responding with a streak of their own to equalise the score at 11-11. Nerves then began to set in for both teams and errors became more frequent, leading to a 15-15 stalemate. The game continued to be played at a high tempo in overtime, with NAVI's individual talent proving the difference: s1mple took over on the T side with two great rounds before Perfecto sealed the victory with another clutch on the CT side.