BLAST Preview: G2's plot twist, device's comfort zone and the four-horse race

Before teams go on a well-deserved break, there's one last big trophy to be claimed at the BLAST Premier Spring Final. Here are the six biggest storylines going into the event.

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Update: It was announced that Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov would miss the first match due to his passport still being in transit.

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G2's double plot twist

When it was announced that m0NESY would miss the event due to visa issues, G2 were left with an impossible conundrum. While their HooXi-less Dallas run was magical, making up for the MVP AWPer was never going to happen with Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas as a stand-in no matter how you try to solve it, and their season was heading for a disastrous ending.

In a second plot twist, m0NESY announced that he got his visa granted on Tuesday, after all. He is yet to arrive in London unlike the rest of the team, and it could be as tight as him coming in at the final hour, but it is a possibility.

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huNter: "It's not sure that m0NESY will come yet"

Fingers crossed that he does, because the opening match promises the first ever encounter between m0NESY and Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets, two of the hottest contenders for the title of the best player in the world.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024
12/06/2024	Spirit 21:50 G2	Match

G2 potentially fielding their full lineup off the back of IEM Dallas also reignites the conversation around their unlikely run with Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip and whether they can replicate that kind of form with Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen back in the team. G2 concocted the perfect storm to win, and circumstances will not be the same with teams having more time on the new map pool and being able to punish the less prepared.

And if m0NESY doesn't make it in time, we'll get to see TaZ play again and HooXi on the AWP if Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund's suggestion comes true. Wouldn't that be a sight?

The Astralis curse, aka device's comfort zone

As if haunted by demons past, Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz finds himself in an all-too-familiar position facing a semi-final barrier. Since he took over leadership at Astralis and Alexander "⁠br0⁠" Bro was added to the team, the Danes have placed in the top four every time, at IEM Chengdu, ESL Pro League, CCT Global Finals and YaLLa Compass.

This should be recognized as a success overall considering the initial doubts about whether device was fit to lead and the difficulties that come with such a transition. It is already a significant improvement on the previous roster's results, especially when only a few rounds separated Astralis from making the finals of these events up against teams like FaZe and Vitality.

However, their performances in deciders of these semi-finals begin to raise questions. The loss to The MongolZ at YaLLa Compass looked particularly damning because of the several rounds in which Astralis threw nearly unlosable situations away, which directly cost them the Ancient decider. The Danes weren't favored in the other three deciders, but came within arm's reach of the win only to get blown out when it mattered most.

A trend is beginning to develop when it comes to device especially. He has recorded a bad decider in every one of Astralis' four elimination losses and stands as by far the lowest-rated player in the team in them. The Compass series loss was by far his worst display in the new setup so far, whether statistically or by the eye test.

Astralis' stats in semi-final deciders

The AWPer-turned-IGL wasn't the only one going missing in their losses or making mistakes in the advantageous situations in their latest decider loss. It would be remiss to put all responsibility on him, but the buck does stop with him now as the newly minted captain and the one who's worked his way through barriers like this before.

What began as relief that the new setup is working is now slowly turning into pressure, and it will continue to mount while the voices grow louder with every similar exit. Astralis enter BLAST as the fourth-best team on paper, so it seems they're almost destined to finish in the semi-finals again, but they have shown a high enough ceiling to beat the world's best teams — it's just about breaking through the barrier.

NAVI's major decline

When it comes to Natus Vincere, a narrative already began to be built immediately after their superb PGL Major Copenhagen run, where the team hit an unprecedented peak with their international lineup. "It's a fluke," you could hear from all around the community. "No way they'll do it again."

Since then, NAVI haven't done much to prove otherwise. In their seven matches at ESL Pro League and IEM Dallas, they only beat BIG twice and FlyQuest once and suffered series losses to Complexity, FaZe, Spirit and HEROIC to finish both events in 9th-12th place, often getting blown out in those series.

Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy noted a lack of bootcamps as a reason behind their lackluster form and issues with mid-rounding, and it looks like the problems couldn't be fixed properly in time for BLAST. "Unfortunately, the next bootcamp will be at the start of the next season, in July, I think. We don't have time to do it before London," the coach said.

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B1ad3: "Next season will show if we need to make changes"

That certainly puts a damper on expectations for NAVI even though they've had close to two weeks since their exit from IEM Dallas. They're heading into their first-ever Astralis matchup as slight betting underdogs — which makes sense given both teams' trajectories of late — and find themselves far behind the four best teams at the event in the pecking order.

It's a four-horse race

With G2 potentially back in the running for a deep finish, the Spring Final becomes a truly wide-open race. Not one dominant team has emerged this season with five Big Events played having five different winners, and four of them and another multi-finalist are in attendance.

IEM Dallas – G2 (runner-up Vitality)
ESL Pro League S19 – MOUZ (runner-up Vitality)
IEM Chengdu – FaZe (runner-up MOUZ)
PGL Major Copenhagen – Natus Vincere (runner-up FaZe)
IEM Katowice – Spirit (runner-up FaZe)

Vitality are the most in-form considering they made the last two grand finals and beat FaZe and Spirit in their most recent encounters, but they also have zero titles to their name after their Dallas and Malta grand final debacles. G2 are the latest winners, but with the caveat that it was with a different lineup, and they're coming to London on shaky ground given m0NESY might only come in at the last minute.

Date	Matches
IEM Dallas 2024
27/05/2024	G2 Finished 0:2 Vitality	Match
29/05/2024	FaZe Finished 0:2 Spirit	Match
31/05/2024	FaZe Finished 0:2 G2	Match
01/06/2024	Spirit Finished 0:2 Vitality	Match
02/06/2024	G2 Finished 2:1 Vitality	Match

FaZe have made the most finals all year long but have missed the last two, and, much like Vitality, they'd likely want to forget about how they went out on those two occasions. They perhaps have the most to prove out of the quartet and have some soul-searching to do after they lost to all three of their rivals without winning a map.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 19
10/05/2024	Vitality Finished 2:0 FaZe	Match

But this is the same FaZe that made seven finals in a row after all, and you'd be remiss to count them out this soon after a couple of hiccups. Some changes are expected to happen after they've apparently had the biggest team talk in some time, and with a bit more time on Dust2, where they looked lost on the T side in their G2 semi-final in Dallas, their map pool should also look better.

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rain: "We feel countered, especially on Nuke"

Spirit is the hardest to gauge considering they looked on track to more wins in Belgrade and Dallas, until they didn't. After dominant runs MOUZ handed them a beating at BetBoom and Vitality took their turn in the U.S.. Their Dust2 left much to be desired and donk didn't look like his usual mega-impactful self in the latter event, but that looked more like an anomaly than anything to be concerned about given that he had just won the MVP in the prior tournament.

SAW and Virtus.pro come in with new coaches

It would be a disservice to say either SAW or Virtus.pro enter the event with more than an outsider's chance.

For SAW, it mainly comes as another chance to prove their mettle against the best after they came out of nowhere to make it to the PGL Major and to the Spring Final three months ago. Despite national teams slowly dying out and the Iberian scene growing stale, they have stuck together as an all-Portuguese lineup, but now even they have decided to add some international flair to the mix.

In an attempt to shake things up off the back of their unimpressive post-Major form, SAW have brought in former Sprout coach Danny "⁠BERRY⁠" Krüger to stand behind them for this tournament — a curious move considering the language difference.

Virtus.pro are still coming to grips with their new addition, Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov, and have looked competitive on occasion, but so far he hasn't given them the extra gear they needed to begin contending for titles again. It was always going to take some time before he could have a real impact and it might just have to wait until after the break for him and Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali to find common ground between their contrasting philosophies.

For the time being, Virtus.pro decided to enact another change by removing long-time coach Dastan "⁠dastan⁠" Akbayev and bringing in Andrey "⁠Xoma⁠" Mironenko, in what could only be construed as a further attempt to move on from their ways of old.