FaZe, NaVi dominate Day 1 at BLAST Premier: Spring Final

The dominant teams of Group A clearly asserted themselves while both of the victors in Group B needed to pull off reverse sweeps as play began Wednesday at the BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024 in London.

FaZe Clan and Natus Vincere got the wins in Group A, beating SAW and Astralis, respectively. Team Spirit dropped the first map to G2 Esports before winning the next two, and Virtus.pro did the same against Team Vitality to advance to the winners match in Group B.

The $425,000, eight-team Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event wraps up with the grand final on Sunday. The winner takes home $200,000 and 3,200 BLAST Premier points while also qualifying for the World Final in November.

The field is broken into two four-team groups, with each group playing two first-round matches on Wednesday. The initial winners will play the winners match on Thursday, after Wednesday's losers play in the elimination match. The winners-match victors will advance to the playoff semifinals, while the winners-match losers face the elimination-match winners in the quarterfinals.

The elimination-match losers are out of the playoffs. All matches are best-of-three save the grand final, which is best-of-five. The playoffs are single elimination.

On Wednesday, FaZe needed overtime to beat SAW 19-16 on Ancient, then cruised 13-5 on Inferno. Robin "ropz" Kool of Estonia led all players with 52 kills and a plus-26 kill-death differential to pace FaZe. Michel "ewjerkz" Pinto was the only player on the all-Portuguese SAW with a positive K-D differential (plus-1).

In the other Group A match, Natus Vincere took Nuke 13-11 and Dust II 13-9 to down Astralis. Ukraine's Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy led all players with 43 kills and a plus-14 K-D differential.

Group B's first match looked as if it could be a sweep, as well, as Vitality took Inferno 13-5 then led on Dust II 7-5 at the half. But Virtus.pro rallied to win Dust II 13-11 and took the match with a 13-10 win on Anubis.

The all-Russian Virtus.pro squad had four players finish with at least 40 kills, led by Dzhami "Jame" Ali's 49 kills and plus-14 K-D differential. France's Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut led all players with a plus-18 K-D differential in the loss.

In the other Group B match, G2 took Ancient 13-8 to open the match, but Spirit dominated Dust II to win 13-7 then ran away with Anubis 13-4 to take the match. Russia's Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov led all players with 52 kills in the win, while his plus-21 K-D differential was nine better than any other player.

Group play wraps up Thursday with the elimination and winners matches.

Thursday's BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024 schedule

Group A

Winners match -- FaZe Clan vs. Natus Vincere

Elimination match -- SAW vs. Astralis

Group B

Winners match -- Virtus.pro vs. Team Spirit

Elimination match -- G2 Esports vs. Team Vitality

BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024 prize structure

1st: $200,000, 3,200 BLAST Premier points, World Final qualification

2nd: $85,000, 2,200

3rd-4th: $40,000, 1,300

5th-6th: $20,000, 600

7th-8th: $10,000, 400

--Field Level Media