Party Astronauts, BIG, ENCE pick up wins in BLAST Fall Showdown

4-10-2023 22:22

9INE, Alliance, and Imperial won't make it to the Royal Arena.

Krimbo was unstoppable on the server

The first day of BLAST Premier Fall Showdown has concluded in both Europe and the Americas, with BIG and ENCE emerging victorious from their opening bouts in the former region while Party Astronauts upset Imperial to send the Brazilian side packing in the latter.

The single-elimination, best-of-three bracket played out much as expected on the Old Continent with neither BIG or ENCE struggling in their games against 9INE and Alliance.

Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz's men ran away with their series by winning Ancient 16-6 and Vertigo 16-10, and have Karim "⁠Krimbo⁠" Moussa to thank for such a one-sided win.

The 21-year-old rifler was in blistering form at the onset of the series and finished the first map with a 27-11 K-D, 11 kills more than his closest teammate, and he maintained that level on Vertigo to help upset 9INE on their home map.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Fall Showdown 2023 Europe
04/10/2023	9INE Finished 0:2 BIG	Match
04/10/2023	ENCE Finished 2:0 Alliance	Match

ENCE gave Alliance a similar treatment and pulled together a 2-0 victory despite Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer running a full fever, securing Ancient 16-13 and Vertigo 16-6.

The IEM Dallas champions had Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz and Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García in their best forms, with the Israeli rifler, in particular, stepping up on Ancient with a 30-bomb to net his team a narrow victory before they ran away with their own Vertigo pick.

ENCE and BIG will meet in the semi-finals of the Europe Showdown on Friday to determine who will make it to the Fall Final-qualifying match.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Fall Showdown 2023 Europe
06/10/2023	BIG 15:00 ENCE	Match

The Americas Showdown featured the sole upset of the day as Party Astronauts, who were invited to the event as a last-minute replacement for The MongolZ, dispatched of Imperial in two maps.

The Brazilian side recently benched Jhonatan "⁠JOTA⁠" Willian and have reportedly reached an agreement with Kaiky "⁠noway⁠" Santos to take his place, but had to use Lucas "⁠LUCAS1⁠" Teles as a stand-in for the Showdown due to their newcomer being refused a North American visa.

Media: Imperial reach agreement with noway

The Brazilian side's pick of Overpass backfired in spectacular fashion as they couldn't contest Ben "⁠ben1337⁠" Smith's men in the first half, a stalwart defense powered by Wesley "⁠viz⁠" Harris and Adam "⁠Grizz⁠" Golden allowing the American roster to mount a 12-3 lead at halftime and later close out the map, 16-5.

Imperial recovered somewhat on Nuke, posting a 10-5 lead at the end of their own CT effort, but again stumbled once on the attack as Party Astronauts pushed up to match point before fighting back from a trip to overtime to take the win, 19-16.