BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2024NAVI lock down sixth BLAST Fall Final spot
After a labored run, the world's No. 1 team secured the last Fall Final spot on offer in the BLAST Groups.
Natus Vincere have secured the sixth Fall Final spot on offer at the Fall Groups after taking down Complexity 2-0 in the second and last match of the Play-in stage.
The Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen-led side thus ends a rather labored run through the Groups, which saw them lose to Liquid twice, in successful fashion. After failing their first qualification attempt to Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken's team, NAVI made their second against Complexity count.
It wasn't without difficulty, as Complexity had their chances to win the close-fought Anubis. They were leading the map 6-1 on the less favored CT side until NAVI turned it all around at the final hour thanks to a halfbuy win starring Justinas "jL" Lekavicius with a MAC-10 in hand and Aleksib finding crucial entries on the red-hot Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski at the closing of the half.
Another low buy win courtesy of Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov's Deagle and Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy's 1v2 as well as a 3v4 retake of the A bombsite in the final two rounds of regulation ended up tipping the first map in NAVI's favor.
Clip: b1t tips Anubis in NAVI's favor in a round 23 halfbuy win
Nuke was under Natus Vincere's control from start to finish. Complexity couldn't replicate their form against Spirit from the previous day as EliGE struggled throughout the defensive half, and NAVI ran away with a 9-3 offensive half. b1t then put salt in the wound with this play through a smoke in round 15, which gave way to a quick closing of the series.
Clip: Another big b1t play puts salt in the wound
After the match, jL spoke to James "BanKs" Banks about NAVI's run through the group stage. He admitted it wasn't smooth sailing but stressed it was a good thing they got "exposed" before they head to IEM Cologne next week.
"It's good that we got exposed here so that we can focus on Cologne," the Lithuanian said. "I think it was B1ad3's master plan all along. Play five games so we get the most practice and be ready for Cologne. Jokes aside, our mistakes got exposed and we can fix them."
The six teams through to the BLAST Premier Fall Final, taking place on September 25-29, are the following:
Two more will join them from the 16-team Fall Showdown, which will take place online from August 21-25.
  Complexity |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 34 - 29 | +1.69% | 83.0 | 65.1% | 1.15 | |
| 24 - 33 | -1.94% | 72.2 | 67.4% | 1.01 | |
| 23 - 29 | -1.90% | 62.7 | 72.1% | 0.95 | |
| 26 - 29 | -2.30% | 69.4 | 65.1% | 0.92 | |
| 22 - 30 | -4.04% | 54.7 | 65.1% | 0.78 |
 Natus Vincere |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37 - 22 | +2.78% | 87.3 | 72.1% | 1.34 | |
| 35 - 26 | +3.43% | 84.8 | 81.4% | 1.32 | |
| 26 - 26 | +2.30% | 68.0 | 76.7% | 1.02 | |
| 23 - 28 | +1.32% | 60.3 | 79.1% | 1.02 | |
| 29 - 28 | -1.36% | 72.6 | 72.1% | 0.97 |
Justin 'jks' Savage
Keith 'NAF' Markovic
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis
Roland 'ultimate' Tomkowiak
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan
Eternal_Goldnova
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