device's flashy return and ropz's Vitality debut headline Bounty day two

The big favorites prevailed, some with a little more drama than others in the season opener.

After the new year of tier-one play kicked off with the opening day on Tuesday, four more matches of the round of 16 were played on day two of BLAST Bounty.

It was an easy day in the office for Astralis, who kicked off Wednesday with a swift 2-0 win over Wildcard to eliminate Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz and company.

In his first official return to the server since he took a forced break in November, Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz showed no signs of rustiness as he got off to the series with a 27-10 K-D and 1.94 rating on Inferno and ended it on top of the board.

Speaking to his former teammate Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen on the desk, device offered some insight into how he will deal with the threat of another bout of burnout in the upcoming season.

"We spoke a lot about how we can schedule a bit better," he said. "For me, it's a long season and it's just about spending your energy in the right places, and, hopefully, it will last."

Next up were BIG and SAW's new rosters on display for the very first time in the closest matchup of the day on paper.

Marcel "⁠hyped⁠" Köhn's super-aggressive AWPing showed some flair in the new German squad. The former BIG Academy man put on a 1.69-rated performance as BIG made light work of the Portuguese team on Ancient and recovered a near-throw on Nuke in overtime, claiming a $10,000 payout from SAW's bounty.

Date	Matches
BLAST Bounty 2025 Season 1
15/01/2025	SAW Finished 0:2 BIG	Match

The new Falcons then narrowly edged past ENCE in two overtime maps, including the second Train of Bounty. They denied Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander a win over two of his former teammates as René "⁠TeSeS⁠" Madsen stole the show ahead of a well-performing Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač.

Read more

New-look Falcons narrowly beat ENCE on debut

The day came to a close with a Vitality debut with Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool. A resilient Metizport made things interesting, but Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut was too hot to handle, kicking off the year with a 1.66-rated series.

His new teammate ropz was in tandem as he showed his worth as the top-fragger on Mirage before he put in two crucial clutches on Dust2, a clear second star in the 2-0 win.

"It surprised me how much ropz offers to the team," Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan said after the match on BLAST's broadcast. "During a tournament I talk with many players, but with ropz I didn't really get to know him as much. I thought he would be more quiet, but he's very social and willing to make jokes, he pitches his own ideas, in CS and outside of the game."

On day three of the Bounty, the following four matches await:

Date	Matches
BLAST Bounty 2025 Season 1
16/01/2025	Complexity 12:00 Virtus.pro	Match
16/01/2025	Eternal Fire 14:25 Fluxo	Match
16/01/2025	FaZe 16:40 M80	Match
16/01/2025	Natus Vincere 19:45 Imperial Valkyries	Match