NAVI eliminate G2 from BLAST after underwhelming decider

The rematch of the Major grand final ended with the same result as G2 failed to get their revenge against the CIS giants.

Natus Vincere have come up victorious against G2, securing their survival at the BLAST Premier World Final with a 2-1 win. The CIS squad edged out a win on their pick of Nuke 16-14 despite Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač's incredible form before narrowly conceding Inferno after two sets of overtime. Mirage failed to live up to the close margins of the previous two maps, with G2 quietly fading away in a 4-16 deconstruction.

The lower bracket final will see Natus Vincere face off against the winner of the match between Liquid and Astralis on Saturday at 19:30 . Meanwhile, G2 go home displaying only an opening win against Ninjas in Pyjamas before being sent to the lower bracket by Vitality, a dismal end to what should be this iteration of the roster's final event together.

s1mple ended the series with an 88-56 K-D and a 96.3 ADR

Natus Vincere got off to a perfect start on their home turf of Nuke, with Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy clutching a 1v2 to give the CIS squad the early momentum. What followed was several rounds of Natus Vincere looking invincible, earning a 6-0 scoreline before G2 were able to respond. The French-Balkan mix clung on, stopping a series of A pushes from the offense thanks to the smarts of François "⁠amanek⁠" Delaunay and the star power of NiKo. G2's resurgence late in the half resulted in a seven-round winning streak, ending the half ahead 8-7.

NiKo kept up the heat after switching sides, single-handedly keeping G2 in the second half with several multi-kills and impact frags to bring the game all the way to 30 rounds, but it was not enough. An anti-climatic last round saw Natus Vincere easily lock down the A site to put an end to the map 16-14.

In a similar fashion to the first map, Natus Vincere took the early lead on Inferno after converting the pistol, but this time they clung to their advantage thanks to two force buy victories on the B bombsite. Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev shined on the CT side, steadily warming up as the half rolled on, going into the offense with a 16-6 K-D.

The second half saw Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov's team fail to build on their fourth pistol victory in the series, allowing G2 to break the T economy and take a 12-10 advantage after stringing together six rounds in a row. The late rounds of regulation saw the lead change hands several times, with overtime finally being sealed by G2 thanks to some inspiring plays from Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug. The first set of extra time saw both teams ace their CT side, forcing a second overtime which was comfortably won by Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković and company, 22-19.

G2 were unable to carry their form into the decider as Mirage saw a lot of one-way traffic in favor of Natus Vincere. s1mple took over the game, seemingly finding frags at will to give his team the advantage in a dominant 11-4 half while the opposition members failed to keep the match competitive. Natus Vincere did not drop a single round after switching sides, swiftly closing the map 16-4 and the series 2-1.

BLAST Premier World Final 2021Best of 3

Natus Vincere

Matchpage

2

1

17th December 2021

G2

16

Nuke

14

19

Inferno

22

16

Mirage

4

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple	88 - 56	+32	96.3	78.0%	1.46
Ilya 'Perfecto' ZalutskiyPerfecto	55 - 52	+3	67.7	79.1%	1.11
Denis 'electroNic' SharipovelectroNic	60 - 58	+2	80.2	70.3%	1.05
Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiyb1t	48 - 54	-6	64.6	71.4%	0.93
Kirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovBoombl4	53 - 59	-6	62.6	68.1%	0.90

G2	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNiKo	64 - 60	+4	87.5	76.9%	1.26
Nemanja 'huNter-' KovačhuNter-	64 - 67	-3	72.5	62.6%	1.00
François 'amanek' Delaunayamanek	55 - 57	-2	61.4	70.3%	0.91
Audric 'JACKZ' JugJACKZ	47 - 61	-14	60.9	65.9%	0.85
Nemanja 'nexa' Isakovićnexa	47 - 63	-16	57.4	64.8%	0.78