Heroic secure BLAST Spring Final trophy over Vitality

The Danish team finally break the curse and secure their first trophy of 2023.

HEROIC have won the BLAST Premier Spring FInal over Vitality, claiming their first big title since lifting the BLAST Premier Fall Final trophy in November last year. The Danes put up a stellar showing on Vitality's pick of Vertigo to start the series, securing the map 16-9, but couldn't close things out in two maps as they conceded their own Mirage pick 10-16 and required an Inferno decider where they showcased a masterclass T side to secure a 16-9 victory.

Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller and company have been hailed as the most consistent top-level team for the majority of the year, defining the current meta and rarely faltering to teams ranked below them in group stages. That would all change in the playoffs of big events, when the team seemingly couldn't surpass the semi-finals and would exit tournaments early, but they have broken that curse in Washington and lifted their second trophy together to head into the tournament break on a high note. The win also has the added benefit of securing HEROIC a spot at the BLAST World Final at the end of the year, and could well be the last big trophy that a team lifts in CS:GO before play transitions to CS2.

Vitality fly home from the USA without managing the three-peat, having already won IEM Rio and the BLAST.tv Paris Major back-to-back, but can take some solace in their recovery route through the Spring Final and the trophies they won at the end of a grueling season.

HEROIC got off on the right foot on Vertigo, a pistol round win and subsequent conversions helping them push up to a 3-0 lead on the T side. An A site attack that stalled out and a quad kill from Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire denied HEROIC a fourth round in a row, and momentum was seized upon by Vitality as they briefly pulled ahead of their Danish opposition, 4-3.

That was the last time that the Paris Major champions held the advantage on their map pick, however, with Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut entirely absent on the server and Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen's best efforts not being enough to make up for it. A fantastic Deagle quad kill from Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard put HEROIC back in control as they repeatedly bullied their way onto bombsites, posting a 9-6 lead at the end of their attacking effort. That spree continued into the second half as Vitality couldn't find an answer to HEROIC's CT aggression, with pushes in middle and on the extremities of the map coming through at perfect times round after round to shut Vitality out of the map as the Danes closed out the map 16-9.

Mirage was a much closer affair in the opening half, another pistol win for HEROIC granting them early control only for a force-buy from Vitality to immediately turn the tides. apEX's men moved up to a 5-2 lead before HEROIC mustered another response, winning three in a row before the teams exchanged blows toward the end of the half that ended with Vitality edging ahead by one round.

A fourth pistol round victory and subsequent conversion allowed HEROIC to briefly pull ahead, but there was little to write home about for them from that point onward. Brutal bullying of the B bombsite and phenomenal calling from apEX allowed Vitality to dominate on the T side, with HEROIC only able to add one more round to their tally before the map was brought to an end, 16-10.

It didn't take long for HEROIC to regain control, however, despite Vitality getting an early lead on the Inferno decider. The French-Danish-Israeli combine sat upon a 5-1 lead at the start of the map thanks to a strong opening salvo of strategic hits, but only managed to add two more to their tally in the half as a stalwart defense from HEROIC allowed them to claw back to nine rounds by halftime.

The second half was equally as one-sided as Vitality only managed to win two rounds on the defense, with one of them only coming by way of an accident from cadiaN. Outside of that, the majority of the last map was all HEROIC as the Danes cruised to a 16-9 finish to close out the series.