Complexity collapse grants NAVI winning start at BLAST

The North American side squandered several map points on their map pick of Overpass, and NAVI took full advantage.

Natus Vincere bested Complexity 2-0 to get off to a winning start at BLAST Premier Spring Groups, taking down the North Americans 16-14 on Overpass and 13-8 on Anubis.

Complexity had every chance to win the first map but fumbled multiple map points, largely down to some key whiffs by Håkon "⁠hallzerk⁠" Fjærli. Anubis was a different story as Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius and Ihor "⁠w0nderful⁠" Zhdanov simply could not be stopped, ensuring a comfortable win for their team.

Next up for Natus Vincere is an upper bracket battle with G2, whilst Complexity will seek to avoid elimination in a matchup against Ninjas in Pyjamas.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2024
23/01/2024	G2 12:00 Natus Vincere	Match
23/01/2024	Ninjas in Pyjamas 15:40 Complexity	Match

Complexity ran out to a convincing 5-0 lead to start their T side on Overpass without needing to do anything special, simply defaulting and picking Natus Vincere's defense apart. Mihai "⁠iM⁠" Ivan's Deagle earned Natus Vincere a win on a partial-buy and ushered forth a recovery for Natus Vincere, with the entire squad waking up after a slow start, leading to a 6-6 score at halftime.

Natus Vincere started their T side better than their CT side, grabbing three rounds, including a pistol victory, but then began to struggle. Complexity struck fear into Natus Vincere with repeated aggressive CT maneuvers, Ricky "⁠floppy⁠" Kemery and Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski finding particular success, to the point where Natus Vincere were losing rounds to the clock as they tried to stem the early-round bleeding.

Complexity strolled to map point, only to melt down and squander multiple 5v3 advantages, allowing Natus Vincere to drag the map to overtime.

Complexity will be rueing the fact they fumbled their lead in regulation as they slipped to a 14-16 loss in OT, their tendency to flop in tight moments rearing its ugly head once again.

The North Americans needed to recover quickly as they started Anubis on the T side, but they fell to a 2-4 deficit as w0nderful racked up a plethora of frags to right the Natus Vincere ship after a pistol loss. Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou cracked open the B bombsite on a Tec-9 buy to get Complexity back into the game, and he continued to lead from the front with high-impact frags to help his side march to an 8-4 halftime lead.

The second half was a complete blowout as Complexity simply couldn't deal with the slick, well-oiled T side that Natus Vincere threw at them. w0nderful was excellent, both with the AK and with the AWP, and pulled off several impactful multi-kills to ensure smooth sailing for his side, all the way to a 13-8 score.