BLAST Premier Fall Group Play-ins: BIG moves into Round 2

BLAST Premier Fall Group Play-ins: BIG moves into Round 2

22. July 2023 by Andrew Williams

The 2023 BLAST Premier Fall Groups continue to roll on and we are once again closer to knowing which will be the final three teams to participate in the 2023 BLAST Premier Fall Finals. At the moment we know that BIG got an important win against OG to stay in the race to qualify for the finals. On the other hand, we have also seen the commanding victory of Astralis, who defeated Complexity Gaming, extinguishing the flame of Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski and his new team.

As a result, BIG will battle Team Vitality to qualify for the Fall Finals, while Astralis will face Team Liquid. Finally, in the next few hours we have the match between Evil Geniuses and G2 Esports, where we expect G2 to pull out all the stops and take a very comfortable victory. Let’s take a quick look at what happened in the match between BIG and OG on the previous day of Fall Groups.

BIG pulls off reverse sweep against OG

The second match of the day was marked by an excellent comeback by BIG, as after losing on the first map, they managed to recover and win the last two maps to complete the reverse sweep against OG. The three maps were definitely quite exciting and full of intensity. The first map was Mirage, the pick of OG, where Iulian “regali” Harjău delivered a sensational game that gave OG the win. The first half was a back-and-forth affair that ended 8-7 in favor of BIG.

Then, at the change of the side, OG put up an almost impenetrable defense, and thanks to it they managed to win 16:11. On the next map, Overpass, OG started the first half with an impressive pace of play and secured a 10-5 lead. Just when we thought that was the end of BIG in the tournament, the German team suddenly woke up, big time. Led by Karim “Krimbo” Moussa, BIG rallied from a deficit to win 16-13 and even the series at 1-1.

Match gets decided on Ancient

Finally, the teams switched to Ancient, the deciding and final map, where BIG used the momentum of their comeback on the second map to start with pace on their CT side. At the break, the score was 10-5 in favor of BIG.

When the sides were then switched, there was another give and take as the teams each won a round, leading us to believe that BIG would get the win in this one. However, OG managed to win three consecutive rounds to put them on the scoreboard at 11-15, but it wasn’t enough and BIG won the last round to win 16-11 and stay in the tournament.