MOUZ and Spirit crash out: BLAST Open Rotterdam group stage recap

March 23, 2026

11:36 PM

CS analyst and commentator Pimp tells his story in the new documentary series Away From Keyboard

So far, BLAST Open Rotterdam has been a banger.

From incredible 1v5s to unbelievable upset victories, and tournament favourites not even making it to the playoffs, the group stage had it all.

Now down to our final six teams, let’s go over who they’ll be facing next as they look to crown themselves BLAST Open Rotterdam champions, and how they made it to the arena.

makazze keeps up his MVP form in Group A

makazze recently won the first MVP of his career at ESL Pro League Season 23, and he continued his form into this event. He kicked it off solidly, a 1.32 rating in a 2-1 win over B8, then kept that up with another 1.32 against Falcons to see NAVI advance to playoffs.

In the upper final match, NAVI would play Aurora (and win 2-0 thanks to another solid makazze performance), but the Turks themselves were also fired into the playoffs thanks to some exceptional rifling. On their side, though, it was XANTARES and Wicadia, who enter the playoffs with 1.15 and 1.07 ratings, respectively.

The final team to advance from the group was Falcons, who managed to bounce back from their defeat at the hands of NAVI to pick up successive 2-1 wins over TYLOO and FURIA.

At the lower end of the group, there was a huge surprise early on, as FaZe were dumped out in last place after defeats to Aurora and TYLOO. karrigan and co. managed to win their first map, taking down Aurora 13-11 on Nuke, and an Ancient map against TYLOO, but XANTARES and JamYoung put them to the sword, with both players recording 1.25 ratings in their respective wins.

Photo: Michal Konkol

ZywOo dominates Group B

In the end, Group B came down to one man - and who else than ZywOo?

From an incredibly fast flick that we needed slow motion to actually see, to a 1v5 with a 0% win probability, ZywOo was doing the things only he can do, and unsurprisingly, it fired Vitality all the way to the semi-finals.

The kings of 2025 flew through Group B, winning all three of their series 2-0 as they took down 9z, The MongolZ, and PARIVISION on their way to booking a ticket to Rotterdam.

Despite losing in that upper final, PARIVISION were also strong. They took down NIP in their opener, then upset Spirit with a 2-0 win to advance to the playoffs.

The final team to advance to the playoffs also took down Spirit 2-0 in order to do so, with The MongolZ defying their coach-less odds to make it without even taking a single timeout in their games.

As with Group A, there was also a huge shock team going out in last, this time MOUZ, who fell 2-0 to The MongolZ and then 2-1 to South American minnows 9z.