VP shut down BIG to kick off BLAST Group D

The German organization's woes continue with an early trip to the lower bracket.

Virtus.pro's ever-consistent level has persisted upon their return to LAN in the new year as the team have scored victory in their opening match of BLAST Premier Spring Groups. The team around Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali handled BIG with little difficulty, casting the German team down to the lower bracket with a 2-0 win (13-5 Overpass, 13-8 Vertigo) and putting themselves through to the upper bracket final, where they'll face the winner of Cloud9 vs. HEROIC.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2024
24/01/2024	Cloud9 20:15 HEROIC	Match
25/01/2024	Virtus.pro 16:30 Cloud9	Match

BIG's disastrous start to the year continues, with the team failing to qualify for the PGL Copenhagen Major Europe RMR last week and looking a shadow of what they once were. Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik's pre-match words didn't particularly inspire confidence ahead of their meeting against Virtus.pro, either, with the team still visibly affected by their failure in the qualifier.

"Quite the opposite I would say," the German coach said regarding whether Virtus.pro's playstyle was one they were confident going up against. "Their playstyle is really, really good against us, and it's very uncomfortable to play VP. They're a really great team, they have a really great understanding of the game. Map vetoes are fine, but overall they're just a better team than us and we just need to hope that we have a good day, they might not have a good day."

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gob b's words were, however, realistic after the team's dismal RMR qualifier campaign, and his sentiments regarding BIG's stylistic difficulty matching up to Virtus.pro rung true in this series as well.

The Russian team's signature slow, methodical approach started things off on the T side of Overpass, with rounds coming down to the wire but BIG not able to land the blows they needed to convert those situations and Virtus.pro coming out on top of a handful of clutches. Evgenii "⁠FL1T⁠" Lebedev was in particularly exceptional form and mustered an absurd 21-3 K-D in the 13-5 map, and in a post-match interview, David "⁠n0rb3r7⁠" Danielyan stated VP knew "every step" that BIG were going to take.

Vertigo started equally as dominant with a 6-1 lead for Virtus.pro, but BIG found five rounds at the end of the half to tie up the game, courtesy of a revival from Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz.

"We were winning 6-1 and we failed some important rounds for us, for the economy and other stuff, and we knew they would be kind of aggressive," n0rb3r7 explained of the latter moments of Vertigo. "We knew that when we go to the T side, we can pressure them, we can play slow, they will do mistakes because of it, and we can beat them."

That patience again paid off as Virtus.pro were in control for the entirety of the second half, allowing BIG just two rounds before closing out the game, 13-8.