Now four days into BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2023, today was the turn of the second round of games in Group B.
NAVI endured a difficult best of three against the world number one team Heroic while BIG prevailed over Astralis in a very closely fought match.
With only two games to go over today, let's get into it.
A win that could have easily been predicted, Heroic absolutely spanked NAVI in the first game of the day. The group A Winners game, there was very little speculation as to who the winner would be before the game.
A new lineup, there's no way that NAVI could have had the time together to match a team such as Heroic, and it showed. Not one NAVI player finished with a positive KD over the course of the two-map series, although Aleksib managed to finish with a positive KD on Inferno.
On the side of Heroic, once again it was stavn who shone for the Danish side. A dominant 28-18 performance on Inferno, he was the main driving force as Heroic closed out the series with a 16-10 scoreline.
Map one saw cadiaN be there star, the top frag across the entire series, his 25-10 performance was key to his team taking the first map with a comfortable 16-9 score.
With BIG and Astralis both losing their opening matches, this match would provide a valuable insight as to the true level of the two teams.
Astralis started strongest, their 16-8 win on Anubis suggested this series could be a blowout equalling that of BIG's opening game against Heroic. The entirety of the Danish squadron finished with a positive KD, and it was wunderkind Staehr who top fragged with a 20-10 statline.
Map two would see BIG get back on the board in emphatic fashion. A 16-10 scoreline on Ancient, map two saw BIG's newboy prosus put in his first starring performance, a 21-17 performance from him helped his team secure the map.
The final map, Overpass, was as close as this series deserved it to be. Needing all 30 rounds to be decided, Astralis almost mounted a comeback to take the series to overtime. Kirmbo was the star this time around, with a 27-17 performance, he proved to be the constant thorn in Astralis' side that BIG needed to take the win.
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