Astralis among Day 1 winners at BLAST Premier World Final

Astralis opened the group stage with a sweep of Natus Vincere on Wednesday at the $1 million BLAST Premier: World Final 2024 in Sentosa, Singapore.

Astralis defeated NAVI by identical 13-6 scores on Nuke and Mirage in Group A, which also saw MOUZ sweep FaZe Clan 16-13 on Inferno and 13-11 on Nuke.

In Group B, Team Spirit swept Team Vitality with a 13-9 win on Anubis and a 13-11 decision on Mirage. G2 Esports overcame a 13-0 defeat on Ancient with 13-6 wins on Inferno and Mirage against Team Liquid.

Eight Counter-Strike 2 teams are competing for a top prize of $500,000. The top three teams from each group will advance to the single-elimination playoffs. All matches are best-of-three until Sunday's best-of-five grand final.

Among Wednesday's winning teams, Denmark's Martin "stavn" Lund led Astralis with 39 kills and a plus-16 kills-deaths differential, and Sweden's Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin paced MOUZ with 46 kills and a plus-8 differential. Over in Group B, Russia's Danil "donk" Kryshkovets posted 39 kills and a plus-14 differential for Spirit and Russia's Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov had 45 kills and a plus-9 K-D ratio for G2.

Thursday's schedule:

--Natus Vincere vs. FaZe Clan (Group A elimination match)

--Astralis vs. MOUZ (Group A winners match)

--Team Liquid vs. Team Vitality (Group B elimination match)

--G2 Esports vs. Team Spirit (Group B winners match)

Group A standings:

1. Astralis, 1-0, plus-14

1. MOUZ, 1-0, plus-5

3. FaZe Clan, 0-1, minus-5

3. Natus Vincere, 0-1, minus-14

Group B standings:

1. Team Spirit, 1-0, plus-6

1. G2 Esports, 1-0, plus-1

3. Team Liquid, 0-1, minus-1

3. Team Vitality, 0-1, minus-6

BLAST Premier World Final prize pool:

1. $500,000

2. $250,000

3-4. $85,000

5-6. $25,000

7-8. $15,000

--Field Level Media