Spirit, HEROIC among winners on first day of BLAST Fall Groups

Team Spirit, HEROIC, Team Vitality and Astralis kicked off the BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024 with wins on the first day of group stage competition Monday in Copenhagen.

Spirit swept OG 2-0 and HEROIC did the same to Complexity Gaming in Group A opening matches. In Group B, Astralis beat Team Falcons 2-0 while Team Vitality rallied for a 2-1 win over GamerLegion.

The four losing teams are still alive in the competition but have dropped into the lower bracket of their respective groups.

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 Monday, Team Spirit dusted OG 13-3 on Dust II before winning 13-9 on Mirage for the sweep. Danil "donk" Kryshkovets had a team-high 37 kills for Spirit, while teammate and Russian countryman Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov added 36 kills on a team-best plus-19 kills-to-deaths differential.

HEROIC defeated Complexity 13-8 on Ancient before holding on for a 16-14 overtime win on Vertigo. Rene "TeSeS" Madsen of Denmark paced HEROIC with 46 kills on a plus-15 K-D.

In Group B, GamerLegion opened with a 13-10 win on Anubis before Team Vitality turned the tide with a 19-17 double-overtime win on Mirage. Vitality finished the job with a 13-5 victory on Dust II. French star Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut had 67 kills with a plus-18 to lead Vitality, with Israel's Lotan "Spinx" Giladi was close behind with 63 kills on a plus-20.

Astralis moved past Falcons with a 13-7 triumph on Dust II and a 13-9 win on Ancient. Denmark's Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard had 42 kills on a plus-12 to carry Astralis.

The group stage continues Tuesday with four matches:

--Team Spirit vs. HEROIC (Group A upper-bracket final)

--OG vs. Complexity Gaming (Group A lower-bracket semifinal)

--Team Vitality vs. Astralis (Group B upper-bracket final)

--GamerLegion vs. Team Falcons (Group B lower-bracket semifinal)

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, qualifies to Fall Showdown

--Field Level Media