VP beat Cloud9 to make Group D final

Jame's men came out on top of a back-and-forth battle on the Inferno decider.

Virtus.pro are through to the Group D final in Denmark after edging past Cloud9 2-1 in the upper bracket, trading blows on Overpass and Anubis before an excellent showing from David "⁠n0rb3r7⁠" Danielyan allowed his team to clinch victory in a tight Inferno decider.

Cloud9 had come out the better the first and only time these cores went head to head, online in Thunderpick World Championship in October, but a different veto in this series didn't offer Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov's men the same chance. That said, they didn't look destitute in the series and continued to show strong form in the latter two-thirds of the series, despite a rather lackluster CT defense on Inferno that enabled Virtus.pro to secure the win.

Cloud9 could very well face Virtus.pro in a rematch as they await the winner of HEROIC vs. BIG in their lower bracket, two teams that didn't look convincing in their opening games.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2024
25/01/2024	BIG 19:55 HEROIC	Match
26/01/2024	Cloud9 20:55 BIG	Match
27/01/2024	Virtus.pro 19:40 BIG	Match

Virtus.pro's specialty pick of Overpass, a map they held a 14-3 record in the last three months coming into the series and oft kept their opponents to single-digit rounds on, was first up.

Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali's side had utterly dominated on the offense against BIG on Wednesday and Cloud9 were given almost identical treatment, unable to chain a single defensive round together in the first half. Boombl4 had a particularly poor map, mustering a 2-13 K-D and losing seven straight opening duels, while Virtus.pro's slow pace and excellent utility usage allowed them to cruise to a 13-4 finish.

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VP shut down BIG to kick off BLAST Group D

A far better CT showing on Anubis saw Cloud9 mount an unanswered six-round lead before Virtus.pro found their footing, a change in pace and Evgenii "⁠FL1T⁠" Lebedev and Petr "⁠fame⁠" Bolyshev combining to bring their team to even keel at the break.

Cloud9's offense was far superior, however, with Sergey "⁠Ax1Le⁠" Rykhtorov's lurks preventing VP's rotations while Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy and Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khassenov gained entry into sites. It looked like Jame's men had stabilized and could at the very least force overtime as the map neared its end, but a spray through smoke from Perfecto and Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov allowed them to convert a 2v4 post-plant to net their team the win.

Inferno was nowhere near as convincing from Boombl4's side, though, with a particularly lackluster CT defense on B allowing Virtus.pro to crack into the bombsite repeatedly in the second half and, even if they didn't convert the round, keep Cloud9's economy up against the ropes.

n0rb3r7 and Jame were the ones who led the way for Virtus.pro for much of the map: The former powered a first half recovery from a 2-5 deficit to 7-5, while the latter proved key in late rounds to convert upon entries provided by fame and FL1T in Banana to come out on top of a ping-pong of rounds, 13-9.