BLAST Austin Major quarter-finals day 2 as it happened

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Some calm taps in the pistol, combined with this double in a stalwart B defense and another in a dangerous anti-halfbuy retake, and Azbayar "⁠Senzu⁠" Munkhbold is starting to make his mark.

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With his stars yet to truly come online, Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen is leading by example with 14 kills and five multi-kills at the half, the most of anyone on the server for now.

The MongolZ took the Deagle round and ran with it to recover the slow start, and now the two teams sit even at 6-6.

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"I missed this feeling a lot. I'm just waiting for this energy and I'll do my best to transfer this energy into the game," Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev said on the BLAST broadcast ahead of FaZe's clash against The MongolZ and his first stage match in over two years.

"I feel like we're gonna show FaZe magic on the stage. I know that the fans will support us and we'll do our best to not disappoint them."

Asked about Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius' post-match comment that Vitality looked "very beatable" today, Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut agreed that his team did not play its best CS today.

"I think jL was right. I don't think we played our A-game. We were a bit shaky in some rounds. That's why they came back a bit at the end of Nuke. I think it's the Major pressure. We made some individual mistakes and we didn't feel the game. We didn't play our best game."

Speaking to Tres "⁠stunna⁠" Saranthus after the match, Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius gave his honest take on Vitality when asked what has made them this year's No.1 team in the world.

"I will be very honest: They seemed very beatable today. Were they, though? Maybe on other days, they were a bit better. We played worse than them, and they won."

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It's not looking good for Natus Vincere. They're down 1-0 in the series and about to play one of their worst maps this year. Can they pull off a miracle?

Natus Vincere 13-16 Astralis
Natus Vincere 9-13 SAW
Natus Vincere 16-14 Spirit
Natus Vincere 7-13 paiN

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Speaking to James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks ahead of the quarter-finals, Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire warned his team against complacency.

"The truth is that they haven't been performing well, but it was the same at the Copenhagen Major last year. They weren't close to winning the event, but in the end they won it, and they stepped up. For us, what's important is to not underestimate anyone and focus on ourselves. NAVI can be a good team. We're going to give our best and we'll see how it goes."

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In the latest VLOG posted by Natus Vincere, recorded during media day, Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen spoke about the upcoming match-up against Vitality, who won six trophies in a row before the Major.

"It would have been solid to play them maybe in the second match, or it would have been a banger to play them in the finals. Now the script is that we need to face them in the first match. The reason I'm saying it is that it's nice to feel the stage and go up a notch every time. And I do feel that Vitality is the undisputed No.1 team.

"We understood after losing to Spirit that if we want to enjoy this trophy or this playoff run, we need to beat either Spirit or Vitality, to prove to ourselves that we are able to do it and to not feel we got a lucky playoff bracket and that's why we got to the semi-finals or the final. For us, it's a goal to try to challenge these teams.

"We've got to play a couple of practices against Vitality, we're studying them, trying to see their games. We're excited to play them. I think that any team that is in the playoffs should be excited to play Vitality. Because I think you do not deserve the trophy if you don't beat them in the playoffs. That's just me, but the way they've played since January, I don't think there are any arguments. It's the final boss."

As strange as it might sound, the quarter-final clash pitting Vitality against Natus Vincere will be the first match between the two teams since the grand final of IEM Cologne 2024.

Vitality, who back then still had Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi on the roster, ran out 3-1 winners in that match, picking up what ended up being their only LAN trophy of the year.

IEM Cologne 2024Best of 5

Vitality

Matchpage

3

1

18th August 2024

Natus Vincere

16

Nuke

14

10

Dust2

13

22

Mirage

20

13

Inferno

9

Vitality	K - D	Swing	ADR	KAST	Rating2.1
Mathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautZywOo	100 - 78	+4.18%	90.2	79.5%	1.28
Lotan 'Spinx' GiladiSpinx	88 - 75	-1.64%	76.2	72.6%	1.09
Shahar 'flameZ' ShushanflameZ	76 - 75	+0.44%	71.8	76.9%	1.09
Dan 'apEX' MadesclaireapEX	73 - 76	-0.54%	73.8	74.4%	1.03
William 'mezii' Merrimanmezii	69 - 71	-1.06%	62.4	76.9%	0.94

Natus Vincere	K - D	Swing	ADR	KAST	Rating2.1
Mihai 'iM' IvaniM	85 - 80	+1.41%	79.8	69.2%	1.07
Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiyb1t	75 - 84	-0.63%	71.8	72.6%	1.02
Aleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenAleksib	67 - 79	+0.53%	66.7	76.1%	0.97
Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanovw0nderful	75 - 75	-1.27%	66.7	69.2%	0.96
Justinas 'jL' LekaviciusjL	71 - 88	-1.43%	68.8	65.8%	0.92

After two epic matches on Thursday, the Major playoffs will continue today with two more quarter-final series.

World No.1 Vitality will take on Natus Vincere, while crowd favorites FaZe will lock horns with The MongolZ.

Here is the schedule for today:

Date	Matches
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
20/06/2025	Natus Vincere 20:10 Vitality	Match
20/06/2025	FaZe 23:15 The MongolZ	Match