BLAST Open London 2025Immovable defense puts NAVI past fnatic at end of BLAST Open London day 1
GamerLegion also sent Virtus.pro careening into the lower bracket earlier in the day.
The first day of BLAST Open London's online group stage has wrapped with Vitality, GamerLegion, FaZe, and Natus Vincere securing wins in Group A.
It was FaZe's debut with Jakub "jcobbb" Pietruszewski, who had a muted showing and was consoled by Finn "karrigan" Andersen after the match.
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| BLAST Open London 2025 | ||
| 29/08/2025 |
12:00
|
Match |
| 29/08/2025 |
13:55
|
Match |
| 29/08/2025 |
16:50
|
Match |
| 29/08/2025 |
20:00
|
Match |
M80 come within reach of the unthinkable
M80, despite staying up late last night for an ESL Challenger match, sped out of the blocks against Vitality. Elias "s1n" Stein's calling worked to a T as they bypassed Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut and led 9-3 at halftime, before winning the pistol and closing their pick of Overpass 13-3.
Vitality entered Dust2 with their backs against the wall, and the upset alarm was ringing after some misplayed executes and a Michael "Swisher" Schmid 4k 1v2 retake clutch. Fortunately for the world number one, however, ZywOo woke up in time to deliver a 1.74 rating and force a decider.
Once we got to Inferno, Shahar "flameZ" Shushan's Banana work ensured a dominant 8-4 CT half but there were moments of lax concentration — M80 won not one but two 2v4s, and nearly won a 2v5.
"We're not fucking losing to these noobies," shouted Dan "apEX" Madesclaire as M80 reached a 9-8 lead, and it was his excellent calling that pulled Vitality out of their hole into a 13-10 victory.
  Vitality |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 47 - 37 | +3.78% | 89.6 | 83.1% | 1.38 | |
| 43 - 39 | +1.50% | 79.9 | 78.0% | 1.15 | |
| 36 - 35 | +0.14% | 75.1 | 67.8% | 1.05 | |
| 33 - 41 | -3.29% | 67.6 | 66.1% | 0.85 | |
| 34 - 38 | -2.64% | 54.3 | 69.5% | 0.83 |
 M80 |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 46 - 39 | +3.61% | 85.5 | 74.6% | 1.28 | |
| 48 - 44 | +1.47% | 88.1 | 67.8% | 1.21 | |
| 31 - 38 | +0.09% | 58.6 | 74.6% | 0.97 | |
| 33 - 35 | -2.31% | 61.7 | 62.7% | 0.83 | |
| 31 - 41 | -2.34% | 58.6 | 69.5% | 0.81 |
Poor calling continues to plague Virtus.pro
On the other end of the calling spectrum, Virtus.pro left everyone wanting. GamerLegion ran away with a 2-0 victory in the second series of the day as Denis "electroNic" Sharipov's side repeatedly ran out of time and were punished for their dismal tactics, with Kaisar "ICY" Faiznurov continuing struggle individually on Dust2 while GamerLegion had a 1.65-rated performance by Oldřich "PR" Nový to help them storm to a 13-7 win.
Ancient was a bit closer with Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy stepping up alongside Evgenii "FL1T" Lebedev, the only player who had performed for Virtus.pro on Dust2, but sloppy errors, a lack of cohesion, and the same tactical issues continued to plague the Russian team.
Sebastian "Tauson" Tauson Lindelof found an early quad kill to pull back a 2v5 for GamerLegion and never let up from there, ending the map with a 1.83 rating and +6.29% Round Swing to send Virtus.pro to the lower bracket.
jcobbb with a slow start to FaZe career
In the penultimate match of the day, FaZe squeaked by ECSTATIC in a three-map series despite winning their Dust2 pick with a 13-0 scoreline. All eyes were on newcomer jcobbb, but the young Pole had a subdued performance and ended up with a 0.81 rating.
You can read more about the match here:
NAVI's defense proves immovable
Natus Vincere put up an electric defense on Train to stamp fnatic out of the first half, helped by Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen dying just twice while anchoring B and some excellent multi-fragging by Mihai "iM" Ivan. A double Scout headshot by Dmytro "jambo" Semera offered fnatic a lifeline after the side swap, and though they seized upon that to recover from 3-11 to 10-11, Natus Vincere finally broke through to claim their last two.
Cai "CYPHER" Watson and Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson helped fnatic answer back on Mirage, with their efforts good for an 8-4 lead at the half. That lead went up in flames once Natus Vincere were on the defense, however, with Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy halting fnatic in their tracks with an unbelievable triple kill from Tetris and Aleksib leading the charge in a flawless, nine-round defensive spree.
Best highlights from day one of BLAST Open London 2025:
Sebastian 'Tauson' Tauson Lindelof
Kaisar 'ICY' Faiznurov
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
David 'frozen' Čerňanský
Helvijs 'broky' Saukants
Jakub 'jcobbb' Pietruszewski
Drin 'makazze' Shaqiri
| 
be59
| 
| 
