Krimbo stars as BIG take down 9INE in two
9INE have become the first team eliminated from BLAST Premier Fall Showdown 2023 as they fell 2-0 to BIG.
16-6 on Ancient and 16-10 on Vertigo, the Germans rolled over their Polish opponents in quick fashion as Krimbo continued to show why he is one of the most lethal players in the world.
A solid display from BIG, here's how they booked their place in the semi finals.
BIG start strong on Ancient
Coming into the best of three, it was Ancient that BIG decided to put their faith in and that faith paid off as they stormed to a 16-6 victory. It's a map they have shown proficiency on since the formation of this roster, beating both Astralis and Heroic on Ancient in recent months
9INE failed to ever really get into the game as 15 kills from Krimbo and 13 kills from s1n on the T side helped BIG race to an 11-4 lead at the half.
Before the game we highlighted hades as the difference maker for 9INE, but the output of the two Germans was enough to limit him to just eight kills on the CT side. Only adding five to that total in the second half as 9INE recorded just two more round wins, he was powerless throughout the first map as Krimbo continued his strong start into CT side and finished with 27 kills and a 1.99 HLTV rating.
Photo: Michal Konkol9INE's Vertigo fails them
Before the game, we highlighted 9INE as being one of the best Vertigo teams in the world. It would have been easy to then call it a mistake for BIG to not ban Vertigo in this series, something they did in their game versus 9INE at Spring Showdown, but the risk clearly paid off as the Germans closed out the series without the need for the decider.
9INE started Vertigo far brighter than Ancient. Having won the pistol round, the followed up with the subsequent conversion and managed to build a 4-0 score before BIG had any form of reply. Sadly for the Polish team, when BIG get their first round, they proceeded to go on a nine round streak to put the game truly in their favour.
Another uncharacteristically quiet map for hades, the AWPer finished Vertigo 13-16 as Krimbo once again starred with a 25-10 performance of his own. tabseN and prosus also stepped up, they recorded 44 kills between them to help push Vertigo away from 9INE.
Photo: Jak Howard