NAVI eliminate BIG from BLAST Spring Final

Natus Vincere are set to face off against FaZe in the quarter-finals on Friday.

Group B's elimination series between Natus Vincere and BIG went the way of Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev's squad, who made quick work of their German opposition, wrapping up the series in two maps with a 16-10 win on Mirage, followed by a dominant 16-8 Dust2.

Natus Vincere's BLAST campaign got off to a rocky start, with Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković's OG side pulling off the reverse sweep in their opening series, sending the Russian-Ukrainian outfit to Group B's elimination match. Facing a do-or-die situation, they were able to pull it together against BIG and ultimately secured the third seed in the group to advance to the playoffs, where rivals FaZe await them.

On the other hand, BIG were never able to get the ball rolling, as COVID-19 related issues impacted their roster once again, this time with coach Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik being forced to sit out his team's entire run. Even with the return of Karim "⁠Krimbo⁠" Moussa to the main roster, the Germans just couldn't overcome their tough opposition, falling to both ENCE and Natus Vincere as they end their stay in Lisbon without a single win.

Natus Vincere started strong on Mirage, quickly attaining a 5-0 lead behind their successful B site advances and s1mple's impressive fragging output, putting up a 9-2 K-D at that point. BIG showed signs of fight throughout the half, notably from Florian "⁠syrsoN⁠" Rische's performance with the AWP which allowed them to score four rounds on the board. Despite the Germans' best efforts, Natus Vincere's unrelenting attacks constantly broke through BIG's defense as s1mple and company found themselves up 11-4 by halftime.

Coming out of the break, BIG won four out of the first five rounds as the attackers, taking advantage of their opponents' slow economy and narrowing the gap to four. Eventually, Natus Vincere were able to fend off the Germans' advances and find the spark they needed to close out Mirage, holding a one-map advantage heading into Dust2.

Over on Dust2, BIG started off better than their Russian-Ukrainian opponents, before Natus Vincere went on a complete tear, scoring ten out of the last 11 rounds played in the first half to establish a 10-5 lead. Carrying the momentum and the confidence, s1mple's crew brought their winning ways into the second period, where they were able to finally put the game and the series to a close, taking Dust2 16-8, and the series 2-0.