Every higher-ranked team survives: BLAST Bounty Season 2 Round of 32 recap
The first round of matches of BLAST Bounty Season 2 have now all been played out.
Incredibly, no bounties were successfully hunted in the round of 32, with the very higher-ranked team managing to hold on to the price on their head and their place in the tournament.
Let's take a look at the action.
Day one
A relatively quick day in which every game was a 2-0, it began with FUT's debut following their signing of the former NAVI Junior lineup.
Facing a formidable B8 side, FUT managed to force overtime on Dust2 and took Mirage all the way to round 24, but fell short as a result of npl and alex666 combining for 88 kills.
You may have noticed we added a "relatively" in front of of the word "quick" in the start of this section, and that was entirely because of the next game: ECSTATIC vs Liquid.
Another 2-0 that featured a first map that went to overtime, that first map ended up being incredibly long, and challenged NIP vs AMKAL for its large number of comical lowlights and errors from the players involved.
Eventually going 28-26 in favour of Liquid, they wrapped up the series with a 13-9 win on Ancient.
The third game of the day also featured an overtime, this time on map two. G2 opened the series against Nemiga with a 13-10 win on Ancient, before needing 42 rounds to decide a Mirage game that ended 22-20 in their favour.
New signing MATYS was the big star for G2 in that game, he topped the server with 55 kills.
We ended the day on BetBoom vs FaZe, which was the most comfortable victory of the day. 13-10 on Ancient and 13-6 on Mirage, FaZe looked in control the whole time as they cruised to the next round.
Full results from day one:
- FUT 0-2 B8
- ECSTATIC 0-2 Liquid
- Nemiga 0-2 G2
- BetBoom 0-2 FaZe
Day two
After the first game of day two, we were wondering if we'd ever see a 2-1 during Bounty Season 2 as VP kicked off the day with a 2-0 win over MIBR.
Featuring yet another lengthy overtime, VP secured map one comfortably with a 13-8 win on Train, but needed to pull everything out of the hat in order to win Overpass 22-19.
However, we did get a 2-1 in the next game, coming from one of the most unlikely places as TNL won their opening map of Ancient 16-14 against NAVI.
NAVI bounced back hard through their stars in the next two maps, though, winning Nuke 13-5 and Mirage 13-9.
Another surprise opening map defeat came in the third game of the day, Passion UA took down Spirit 13-10 on Dust2 despite strong performances from both donk and sh1ro.
Sadly for the Ukrainians, they couldn't repeat their heroics on the next two maps to knock out the reigning Bounty champions. Spirit dominated both, winning Mirage 13-3 and Ancient 13-4.
The final game of the day saw one of our most one-sided results of the round as Astralis limited Rare Atom to just seven rounds in what was an easy victory for the Danish team.
A return to form following a disappointing performance at IEM Cologne, they won Ancient 13-1 and Overpass 13-6 following strong performances from jabbi, stavn, and Staehr.
Final results from day two:
- MIBR 0-2 VP
- TNL 1-2 NAVI
- Passion UA 1-2 Spirit
- Rare Atom 0-2 Astralis
Day three
Day three began as day two ended, with a dominant win for one of the higher-ranked teams.
This time FURIA, they got the better of BIG on both Inferno and Dust2, with the scorelines being 13-2 and 13-8 respectively.
Our second game saw another huge favourite for the tournament drop their opening map of a series, MOUZ fell 13-9 to OG on Nuke.
However, just like with Passion UA vs Spirit, MOUZ dominated the next two maps, winning Inferno 13-1 before closing out the series 13-5 on Mirage.
We got the closest to an underdog win yet in match three, NIP almost got the better of paiN to claim their bounty, but fell just short on map three.
Having lost Ancient 13-8, NIP responded with a 13-11 win on Dust2. Map three, Nuke, also ended 13-11, but it was the Brazilians that won on the day as snow and dgt's combined 45 kills kept them in the competition.
Game four saw another titan organisation from CS history enter the event as fnatic took on Legacy.
The third win for a Brazilian team in the round of 32, Legacy opened the series with a dominant 13-2 showing on Ancient, but needed a 13-9 win on Mirage to close out the series after falling 13-10 on map two, Inferno.
Day four
The final day of the round of 32 began with ENCE vs The MongolZ and a hilarious mistake from the Mongolian team.
The game itself was more competitive than many would have imagined it to be, after The MongolZ won Mirage 13-10, ENCE managed to take us to map three with a surprise 13-9 win on Dust2. The MongolZ didn't play on map three, though, taking down the Europeans 13-5 on Nuke to close out the series 2-1.
The next game saw FlyQuest take on an Aurora team that was bolstered by the return of XANTARES after missing him at IEM Cologne.
Aurora looked revitalised with the return of their star, winning Inferno 16-12 before closing out the series 13-6 on Nuke. woxic top fragged the server with 40 kills, but XANTARES was close behind on 35.
The world's number one team Vitality entered the tournament in match three, they took on NRG in what was a comfortable win for them.
13-5 on Mirage and 13-4 on Dust2, ZywOo shone with a 1.76 rating and a 38-11 individual statline in the two maps.
The final match of the day was one of the best games of the entire round as Complexity took on HEROIC.
Complexity managed tow in map one, Train, with a 13-11 scoreline, but fell 13-6 on Ancient. They then looked poised to finally cause an upset on Overpass as they took a 9-4 lead, but they fell apart on their T side and fell 13-11 with a loss against a force-buy in the final round of the series.
