Unconvincing G2 and Stage 2 picks headline BLAST Bounty day four

BIG picked G2 in Stage 2 following their struggles against B8.

m0NESY needed to be G2's savior once again

The BLAST Bounty Stage 1 action continued on day four with paiN, FURIA, BetBoom, and G2 securing victories and their spots in Stage 2 before the live draft set the Stage 2 matchups.

The day began with paiN taking home a hard-fought victory against GamerLegion, who were making their debut with Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner and Oldřich "⁠PR⁠" Nový.

"I need to build REZ's confidence. He's taken a few hits, he's a bit too supportive for my liking, not embracing the star mentality. I think if he focuses on himself, I can get the best out of him," Ashley "⁠ash⁠" Battye said about REZ's debut against the Brazilians.

REZ put up a respectable 1.02 rating in his debut, but was outshone by Henrich "⁠sl3nd⁠" Hevesi (1.15) and other new addition PR (1.16).

paiN's new addition, David "⁠dav1deuS⁠" Tapia Maldonado, had a much better debut, however, as he topped the server with a 1.24 rating and had a crisp quad kill on the Inferno pistol round.

In the second game of the day, FURIA faced off against Nemiga, with the Brazilians recovering from a lackluster Mirage T side to take the match 2-1.

Next up on the agenda was MOUZ vs. BetBoom, where the Russian squad claimed the $30,000 bounty and condemned Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek's troops to a disappointing start to the year.

Read more

MOUZ start 2025 with loss to new-look BetBoom

G2 vs. B8 was the final match of the day, and the European combine struggled early on by dropping the first map 13-16.

They recovered by winning Inferno (13-6) and Dust2 (13-11), but they were far from convincing during the match, a sentiment shared by Mohan "⁠launders⁠" Govindasamy during the cast and in a post on X.

One of the rare positives from the performance for G2 will be Nikita "⁠HeavyGod⁠" Martynenko's performance, who played a great series with a 1.20 rating, with Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa also taking over Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač's roles well (1.23).

After G2's victory, the show continued with the Stage 2 live draft. FURIA began the draft by picking BetBoom, with Eternal Fire following that up by choosing Falcons.

BIG then went for G2 before HEROIC picked Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz's Liquid, with the rest of the matchups looking as follows:

Date	Matches
BLAST Bounty 2025 Season 1
18/01/2025	HEROIC 12:00 Liquid	Match
18/01/2025	paiN 15:25 FaZe	Match
18/01/2025	FlyQuest 18:20 Spirit	Match
18/01/2025	Astralis 20:10 Natus Vincere	Match
19/01/2025	Eternal Fire 12:00 Falcons	Match
19/01/2025	FURIA 14:40 BetBoom	Match
19/01/2025	Virtus.pro 18:30 Vitality	Match
19/01/2025	BIG 20:35 G2	Match