Imperial through to BLAST Premier semi-finals over Complexity

The Brazilian side secured a final four spot in Washington, D.C., and will face HEROIC on stage.

Complexity and Imperial lined up to face each other for the fourth time this year at the BLAST Premier Spring Final, albeit this time the North American squad played with their South African stand in Aran "⁠Sonic⁠" Groesbeek in place of star AWPer Håkon "⁠hallzerk⁠" Fjærli.

The record before the match was 2-1 in favor of the Brazilians, but the last time the two met, at the Americas RMR, it was Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou’s men who came out on top after two close maps.

This time around it was Imperial, who have shown flashes of brilliance in Washington, D.C., by beating Vitality 2-0 and taking G2 to the brink in three maps, who came out on top with a 2-0 scoreline of their own.

The series kicked off on Vertigo, where Complexity got off to a slow start on the T side despite winning the pistol round, as they lost to the forcebuy and only tallied four rounds in the half. The shining light for the Brazilians came from the long barrel of Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo’s AWP, who tallied 19 kills before switching sides.

Complexity won the first four on the CT side to keep their hopes alive, shortening the distance on the scoreboard to 8-11. A triple by Justin "⁠FaNg⁠" Coakley kept things tight as the North Americans crept up to 10-12 and by the 28th round a stalemate was on the board. In the end, however, it was Imperial who broke through on the attack and tilted the balance in their favor by round 30.

JT and company kicked off Overpass the same way they started Vertigo — albeit this time on the CT side —, by winning the pistol round and losing the second round. The rest of the half also panned out similarly, as the North American-South African side only had 3 rounds to their name by the time to switch sides.

Once again it was in the second half, when up against the wall, that Complexity tried to revive and bring it back by winning the first three rounds, but this time around Imperial did not fret and the second guns were in play and hit match point. Deviating from the regular close, competitive matches between the two teams, the Brazilians steamrolled their way to 16-6.

Imperial will now march into the arena in front of the North American crowd, where they will face the Group B top seed, HEROIC, for a chance at making the title decider on Sunday.