Did NAVI manage to surprise Astralis with the Dust 2 pick? They move on to the winners’ match next against FaZe.
Natus Vincere won their opening match of BLAST Premier Spring Finals with a 2-0 victory over Astralis. The team had a close start on Nuke going the distance, but their map pick of Dust 2 was decisive an. It was also the first time NAVI played the map after Valve brought it back into the rotation. NAVI coach B1ade shared his thoughts about the map pick of choice in the first match of the tournament.
B1ade on NAVI's Dust 2 pick
We were preparing Dust 2 for Dallas and we felt we must try to pick it here otherwise we would go to vacation without even playing it
“We were preparing Dust 2 for Dallas and we felt we must try to pick it here otherwise we would go to vacation without even playing it,” B1ade said on the Dust 2 pick. “We knew it was going to be sloppy, we knew it was going to be difficult because of lot of in-game situations because of decision-making can suffer for it. So we just gambled and went ahead with it because it could be a surprise (smirks) could be. And eventually it was sloppy but we managed to improve with our system, our gameplan so it was good.”
At IEM Dallas, NAVI did not have the opportunity to play Dust 2. While HEROIC and Team Spirit vetoed it out, NAVI themselves vetoed the map against BIG. BIG is notorious for having been one of the best teams on the classic Counter-Strike map.
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NAVI’s match against Astralis saw iM and b1t step up for the team with several moments of brilliance.
Nuke came down to a 2v1 situation which NAVI managed in an excellent manner to take the lead in the series. The NAVI map pick of Dust 2, while not entirely surprising for Astralis, worked in NAVI’s favor. NAVI are in Group A, alongside Astralis, FaZe and SAW. Earlier in the day, FaZe Clan took down SAW 2-0, but it was not without a fair share of moments of despair for the FaZe fans.
With this victory, NAVI will face off against FaZe Clan in the winner’s match. The winner’s match is an important one as the victor of that series will go directly to the semifinals, just one step away from the Grand Finals.
The BLAST Premier Spring Finals is a $425,000 tournament that’s taking place in London. The event grants teams BLAST Premier points, but also sends the winner an invitation to the World Finals that will take place later this year.
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