Natus Vincere, Team Liquid land in upper-bracket final at BLAST Fall Groups

Natus Vincere and Team Liquid completed sweeps in their respective Group D matches on Wednesday to land in the upper-bracket final at the BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024 event in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Natus Vincere cruised past BIG while Team Liquid blanked Virtus.pro to avoid dropping into the lower bracket. That's where BIG and VP now find themselves, and the two will face off on Thursday to try and stay alive in the group stage.

The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event begins with a double-elimination group stage, with the field split into four groups of four teams. All matches are best-of-three.

The winners of each group will advance directly to the Fall Final. The four second-place teams proceed to the play-in stage, a pair of single-elimination, best-of-three matches to determine the remaining two berths for the Fall Final.

On Wednesday, Natus Vincere set the tone with a 13-7 victory on Dust II before beating BIG 13-3 on Mirage. Romania's Mihai "iM" Ivan led the winners with 41 kills and a plus-20 kill-death differential.

Meanwhile, Liquid edged Virtus.pro 22-20 on overtime on Ancient, then took Dust II 13-6. A pair of Canadians, Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken (50 kills, plus-15 K-D) and Keith "NAF" Markovic (51 kills, plus-14), shined in the win.

Group C action also started on Wednesday, with FaZe Clan downing Cloud9 2-1 and G2 Esports shutting out Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0.

FaZe sandwiched victories on Dust II (13-10) and Mirage (16-14) around a 13-7 setback on Inferno. G2 prevailed 13-7 on Anubis and 13-11 on Inferno.

Group-stage play continues Thursday with four matches:

--FaZe Clan vs. G2 Esports (Group C upper-bracket final)

--Cloud9 vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas (Group C lower-bracket semifinals)

--Natus Vincere vs. Team Liquid (Group D upper-bracket final)

--BIG vs. Virtus.pro (Group D lower-bracket semifinals)

BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024 prize pool (money, BLAST Premier points):

1-4. $22,500, 2,400 points, qualifies to Fall Final

5-6. $12,500, 1,800 points, qualifies to Fall Final

7-8. $10,500, 1,300 points, qualifies to Fall Showdown

9-12. $8,500, 800 points, qualifies to Fall Showdown

13-16. $5,000, 300 points, OG, Gamer Legion, TBD, TBD

--Field Level Media