BLAST Premier Fall Final 2021 – Tournament Recap

November 29, 2021 | 0 | 380| |

#Astralis #CSGO #Faze Clan #Natus Vincere #Ninjas in Pyjamas #Team Liquid #Tournament Recap #Vitality

Counter-Strike fans just had an incredible week as far as the game’s esports scene goes thanks to the most recent BLAST Premier event. From its opening day, the Fall Final packed some incredible matches, and a massive crowd. Combined with BLAST’s production level, it was just an amazing experience after so many months in the online era. It’s safe to say that Counter-Strike has returned to the big stage!

However, while the event itself was very exciting, as always, we had winners and losers. Some teams, like Astralis, impressed, while others failed to meet expectations. So here are the most interesting developments we got from BLAST Premier: Fall Finals 2021.

ASTRALIS – MAKING THE HOME CROWD PROUD

The Fall Final was the first event for Astralis new roster featuring Benjamin “blameF” Bremer and Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke. As always, there was plenty of excitement surrounding this new roster, but there were also doubts. After all, the team was still struggling handling the AWP, and it could take a while for the two new additions to fit in Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander system.

Fortunately for the Danes, many doubts were cleared in this past week. Astralis not only did well, but it’s fair to say they were impressive. K0nfig was one of the best performers in the event, Astralis’ then AWPer Philip “Lucky” Ewald found some incredible impact while playing as a rifler, and the team’s captain, gla1ve, managed to use well the AWP.

Unfortunately, Astralis didn’t managed to reach the event’s grand-finals and play against Natus Vincere in the front of their home crowd. Still, the team managed to defeat Heroic, FaZe and NiP in confident fashion, and they definitely left a strong impression already.

Now, with their first event in the books, it’s time to look forward. Astralis won’t have time to catch their breath, though, as they will be playing at IEM Winter starting this Thursday (2nd). There, fans will have a better opportunity to see what this team is capable of since they will be facing a more diverse pool of opponents. Still, if the Danish squad performs at the same level they did at the Fall Final, they won’t have any issues making a deep run at IEM Winter. For Astralis, their ceiling is unknown, and if this team already looks good now, it will only get better once they figure the AWP. Once again, on the road to the stars.

FAZE CLAN – NO MORE BUFFS

After a disappointing run at the PGL Major Stockholm, the FaZe Clan squad had to hope for a much better run at the Fall Finals. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

The event started with FaZe getting defeated by Heroic. The team recovered and eliminated BIG, the event’s least favorite team, but then got eliminated by the home crowd favorites, Astralis. That sent FaZe home in 5 – 6^th place, and that wasn’t a positive result for this team, at all.

It’s unfair to say that FaZe was a complete failure at the Royal Arena, but it’s clear that this roster doesn’t have legs as many had thought after IEM Cologne. The team certainly could get an upgrade when it comes to firepower for one, but that wouldn’t solve all of FaZe’s problems. It’s clear that teams started figuring their map pool, and Mirage isn’t the stronghold that Finn “karrigan” Andersen could rely in the past. Furthermore, individual mistakes were plenty, and costed them crucial rounds.

FaZe still has one event to play before the end of the year – IEM Winter – but after this performance, it’s past time to start talking about this roster. Even about the whole project, after these most recent results. Maybe Robin “ropz” Kool could reignite this team, but it won’t be a surprise if the young ropz alone can’t revive this project. FaZe showing at the Royal Arena was more than just an example of what happens when a team lacks firepower.You can twistzz as much as you want, but maybe it’s just broky.

NATUS VINCERE – COLLECTING TROPHIES

At this point, it’s hard to find new ways to praise Natus Vincere as everything has already been said. Three stars that complete each other, an incredible supportive teammate that can step up when the team needs the most and a captain and coach duo that seems like a match made in heaven. It’s just hard to get better than this.

So, there was a clear favorite coming to the Fall Final, and this favorite lived up to its reputation. Once again, Natus Vincere didn’t lost a single series. The grand-final match against Vitality wasn’t just a stomp as some may have expected, though. The French team actually managed to take one map from Na’Vi – something rare these days – and ended the team’s Nuke win streak.

Still, while Natus Vincere lost a map to Vitality – and one to Heroic earlier in the tournament – their dominance is palpable right now. Unfortunately for the competition, there doesn’t seem to be one line up right now that looks like a contender to Na’Vi either. Maybe in 2022 we will see some challengers rising, but for now, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev will sit at the throne.

It also seems that Natus Vincere is keen at keeping their place at the top too. The team’s coach, Andrei “B1ad3” Horodenskyi, made clear that for this squad to work they need to rest between events, and that’s exactly what they are going to do for now. Na’Vi will skip IEM Winter 2021, and we will only see the squad back at BLAST Global Finals later this year. Team of the year.

NINJAS IN PYJAMAS – BAD START

NiP came to the BLAST Premier Fall Final 2021 with high hopes. The team reached the playoffs at the PGL Major Stockholm, and adding Patrick “es3tag” Hansen seemed to be a complete upgrade to this team going into the Royal Arena.

Unfortunately for the mostly Swedish team, though, NiP finished in dead last. The squad failed to take on Astralis in their opening game, and then got overwhelmed by a dying Team Liquid. During a post-match interview, the team’s captain Hampus “hampus” Poser revealed that there were some communication issues going with the team’s latest addition. This certainly didn’t help NiP chances, but hardly is the sole reason for their disappointing performance.

So, what is the issue with this team then? It’s incredibly hard to say right now! The team star rifler, Fredrik “REZ” Sterner, certainly didn’t had the tournament of his life, and Nicolas “Plopski” Gonzalez Zamora keeps failing to perform as the second star he was supposed to be. Besides individual performances, it’s hard to ignore that NiP have been lacking on the tactics side. Much like FaZe, NiP also can’t count on a map – Overpass in NiP’s case – as their stronghold.

Still, it’s to early to judge es3tag and NiP right now. Hampus also mentioned that the team is considering ways to help es3tag to communicate, and maybe that’s key to unleash this roster. In any case, it won’t be long before NiP returns to action. The team will be heading to IEM Winter this week, and then later this month it will be time for BLAST Global Finals. Maybe it’s just a communication issue.

TEAM LIQUID – BETTER WITH LOWER EXPECTATIONS

After the Major, it was hard to expect anything from Team Liquid. To make matters worse, just before the event, Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski made some statements that made fans worry about the state of this team. Much like Vitality, it’s clear that this roster won’t last much longer, but differently than the Frenchmen, Liquid didn’t look competitive before the Fall Finals.

Initially, it really seemed that Liquid would be one of the teams finishing in last. After getting demolished by Vitality, Liquid’s chances against NiP weren’t great. Yet, for the first time in a while, Liquid gave signs of life. Thanks to a strong performance from Keith “NAF” Markovic, Liquid upset NiP and send the Swedes packing.

Unfortunately, Liquid wasn’t able to handle Heroic in the following game, but that encounter was much more disputed than expected. If not by a more-than-underwhelming performance by Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Liquid could’ve won their game and made another upset.

For Liquid, their future is already pretty much decided – they won’t remain together – but while most expected this team to just fade away in these final events of the year, this latest performance gave hope to fans that Liquid might give them something to root for in IEM Winter and the Global Final. Plus, with the recent announcement that NAF – Liquid’s hero at the Royal Arena – will remain with the organization until 2024, this week definitely could have been much worse for Liquid fans. Going out with a bang.

VITALITY – NOT GREAT, NOT TERRIBLE

Much like Liquid, Vitality is a team that will go through some roster changes in the coming weeks. Still, these won’t happen until next year, so the current roster stays for the final events of the year. Differently than Liquid, Vitality kept looking like a strong team, and they proved that this team has enough to compete with the best, just not enough to beat them.

During the Fall Finals, we saw a strong Vitality overall, one that only failed to win over Natus Vincere, but still damaged the favorites. They also didn’t fail under crowd pressure, and each individual in the team seemed to keep their heads high despite clearly not being the home crowd favorites in their two encounters against Astralis.

At the same time, some showings from the team captain, Dan “apEX” Madesclaire worried fans, such as this scene in a match against Astralis. Also, it’s hard to not fault him and Richard “shox” Papillon individual performances at the last map of the event’s grand-final. Both couldn’t get ten frags combined, and definitely held back the team. While this match was definitely their worst showing, both players had a difficult event overall.

Still, this Vitality still looks like an incredibly strong team, and IEM Winter will be an incredible opportunity to show that they are a contender for the second-best team in the world title. Roster changes are coming if rumors are to be believed, but this Vitality roster seems to be keen on making a statement before that happens. No one’s happy being number 2.

THE FALL FINALS ARE OVER

After an incredible Sunday, the final stop in the BLAST Premier circuit for 2021 has been completed. Now, all eyes will be on the BLAST Premier Global Finals, a $1.000.000 event feature the best teams in the world.

However, before that, ESL will take the spotlights as IEM Winter 2021 starts this week. In order to stay tuned with everything going on in Counter-Strike and esports in general, make sure you follow us here!

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MJunior

The author

My name is Marcos, I have been following the CSGO pro scene since 2015 but really got into in following games and pro teams in 2016. Used to bet a lot, stopped a bit but never stopped following the esports scene. I'm a student right now so I got a lot of time to keep with it and discover new things.