NaVi, Liquid pick up wins in BLAST Premier Fall Groups

BLAST Premier Fall Groups has kicked off Group D's highly anticipated set of matches. With two brand-new rosters and the Major champions in tow, the opening matches immediately showed what they had to offer. Here's how NaVi and Liquid picked up wins to start their Fall Groups campaign.

NaVi seems to have picked up a huge amount of confidence after their EWC win and looked completely in control throughout the map. The tactics were solid as ever, and the individuals left no room for complaint. Even the oft-criticized iM popped off with a 1.71 rating across the match.

Unfortunately for kakafu, that potential never manifested for rigoN, and the team will have to regroup now to figure out their issues.

The game started off on Dust2 with BIG coming in confident on their historical home map. But almost every opening duel was going the way of NaVi, with b1t and iM leading the pack. That set the team up for a quick 8-2 lead. With the half nearly over, BIG managed to take just two more rounds to lock in a 4-8 deficit.

The pistol round added further bad news to the BIG bulletin as Aleksib took a 1v2 clutch, but tabseN immediately answered back with a 1v3 of his own. That gave the German side momentum, carrying them through the first gun round for a three-round haul. With just a scout and a smattering of Deagles, the NaVi side broke into the B site. And with a gorgeous double Deagle from jL, they took their 10th round.

From that point on, NaVi just ran away with the map, quickly closing it out 13-7 as iM topped the charts with 100+ ADR.

Going into the match, BIG was predicted not to be in the best of form on Mirage, considering they hadn't played the map in nearly a year. And that came true, as both of the Paris superstars found no resistance to their T-side attack. 17 frags each for the two riflers meant that NaVi took a dominant 9-3 lead at half-time. The international side then quickly closed it out 13-3 with a flawless CT side.

NaVi will now face the winner of Liquid vs Virtus.Pro in the Upper Bracket Finals of the Fall Groups.

When the Fall Groups were announced, Virtus.Pro immediately looked like a banana peel for Liquid. For a brand new roster, with crucially a new IGL, going up against Jame's systems. But that VP system did not look as efficient today, allowing Liquid to take a win.

Liquid started things off with their pick of Ancient. jks was on fire from the start, with Liquid taking a pistol conversion to start. Virtus.Pro answered back in the gun rounds, tying the score up 4-4. But a great 1v3 from TL's captain brought energy to his team, and they closed the half out without dropping another round.

The T side started strong for Liquid, with another pistol win. And after the back and forth Liquid found map point at 12-8. jks was now over on the A side, replacing skullz, and Mohan "launders" Govindasamy very astutely pointed that out after a triple kill from the Aussie.

That was when Liquid's inexperience started to show a little as Virtus.Pro finally found their footing. Slowly and steadily, the Russian side built back into the game showed good fundamentals, and pushed it all the way to Overtime. ultimate had shown flashes of brilliance in a largely mediocre game so far, but in OT the Polish sniper went nuclear. The two teams stayed neck and neck, but with the added AWP presence, VP could not close it out.

An ultimate double pushed the game into triple overtime, and he led his team's charge to finally close it out. The fundamentals that had led to OT in the first place seemingly evaporated as dry peek after dry peek went into ultimate's scope, and the youngster capitalized to top the charts and take a 22-20 debut win.

After the individual showing from TL, they were in pole position to take the Dust2 win. The map started with a pistol win for Liquid, but this time, VP took control with a force buy early. After a 1-4 deficit, Liquid pulled out the double AWP setup and took over the game. Twistzz was taking great duels when they picked up the AWP, and ultimate was a consistent presence. A 7-5 half closed in favor of Liquid. Liquid easily hit double digits in the second half and quickly closed the match out 2-0.

After the thrilling opening matches, NaVi and Liquid will face each other in the Upper Bracket Finals. Meanwhile Virtus.Pro drop down to face BIG in the lower bracket. NaVi will be favored in the Liquid game, but the NA side looks well-prepared and could throw a curveball, especially if iM regresses back to his normal form. Meanwhile Virtus.Pro would back themselves to survive against BIG after the latter's dismal performance.

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