Both teams had good chances of success in this match. How did they start their tournament play?
The group stage of BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024 consists of just a few matches. It means that each and every one of them is important! Natus Vincere (NAVI) and Astralis are seeded in Group A as their first match at this CS2 esports tournament. The winner may proceed directly to the semifinal. The loser risks getting eliminated.
Check out all the information on the BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024 opening match between NAVI and Astralis here, including the live score, details on the format and stream, our predictions of the results, and some general information about both teams.
Esports.gg's BLAST Premier: Spring Final coverage is supported by GG.BET, the international betting brand. Grab your special +200% deposit bonus with promo code ESPORTSGG.
Group A NAVI vs Astralis: Live score
The teams played on June 12 at 3:30 p.m CEST / 9:30 a.m ET / 6:30 a.m PT.
NAVI 2:0 Astralis
Game | Map | Score (Rounds) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nuke (Astralis' pick) | NAVI 13-11 Astralis |
| 2 | Dust II (NAVI's pick) | NAVI 13-9 Astralis |
| 3 | Mirage (decider) | - |
Match recap
Check out our brief summary of everything interesting in the NAVI vs Astralis match.
Game 1 (Nuke): Aggressiveness and thoroughness
This was an Astralis pick, and the Danish team looked strong on Nuke. A lot of that impression and the won rounds were thanks to their pretty aggressive play. In Round 5, they were on a force buy but still managed to plant the bomb and eliminate all of the NAVI players. A series of force buys started for NAVi after that.
NAVI also started playing aggressively on the CT side, rushing outside early to deliver kills and damage. That helped them stay relatively close to the opponents in the first half. And then, they made a statement winning the second pistol round — by being pretty thorough. The same rather cautious approach helped NAVI get a few rounds and eliminated the round score gap.
It’s Astralis’ economy that was destroyed in the second half. They recovered in the money dimension, but NAVI players were a couple of steps ahead. After a few back-and-forth rounds, NAVI won Game 1 with 13-11.
Game 2 (Dust 2): Solid play from an early disadvantage
Astralis was rather careful on Dust 2, and that approach brought the team good results. They waited for NAVI to take their steps and punished them severely. But after losing a few rounds, NAVI figured out how to make it to bombsites, won a couple of rounds, forced limited buys on Astralis, and tied the score.
After the side switch, Astralis won one more pistols round, but lost this momentum quite soon. NAVI got a good series of won rounds. Only amazing individual skills helped Australis win a couple more rounds. Still, NAVI had the last word in this match. NAVI won Game 2 with 13-9. The Ukrainian team advanced to the Group A winners match against FaZe Clan, who previously defeated SAW.
Match format, predictions, and stream
The group stage matches of BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024 are of the best-of-three (Bo3) format. NAVI and Astralis can allow only one mistake — no more than one lost game.
There are two opening matches in Group A, and this one is rather unpredictable. If FaZe seems to be stronger than SAW, then both NAVI and Astralis have had shaky performances recently. It is probably safer to say that NAVI can win here. Still, the match is going to be super close, and everything will be decided on the CS2 maps.
Related articles
Stream
You can watch matches of BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024 on the official BLAST Premier channels:
NAVI and Astralis players
NAVI almost fully refreshed the roster in 2023. Only Valerij "b1t" Vakhovsjkyj has been playing for the team since 2020. Astralis also had recent changes: Alexander "br0" Bro joined the team in March 2024, while Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard, Martin "stavn" Lund, and Victor "Staehr" Staehr started the Astralis chapter of their career in 2023. OnlyNicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz remains from the golden era.
NAVI | Astralis |
|---|---|
| Valerij "b1t" Vakhovsjkyj | Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz |
| Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen | Victor "Staehr" Staehr |
| Justinas "jL" Lekavičius | Martin "stavn" Lund |
| Mihai "iM" Ivan | Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard |
| Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov | Alexander "br0" Bro |
Road to BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024
Both NAVI and Astralis qualified for BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024 via Spring Groups.
NAVI
The team had a great run at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024. NAVI played in Group C and had three victories there: one victory against Complexity and two against G2.
After that, CS2 NAVI had ups and downs. They won PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 but were only 9th to 12th at ESL Pro League Season 19 and Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2024.
Astralis
During BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024, new Astralis players had to face and defeat “spirits of the past.” In the opening match, the team played against Team Falcons with Danny "zonic" Sørensen as a coach and Emil "Magisk" Reif in the roster. This initial success helped Astralis win the next match against Team Vitality, one of the strongest teams in the CS2 world. But then, they lost to the same opponent in the grand final. The Play-In victory against BIG allows Astralis to play against NAVI at the Spring Finals 2024 event.
The recent S-tier tournament brought good results for Astralis. The team finished 3rd to 4th at Intel Extreme Masters Chengdu 2024, ESL Pro League Season 19, CCT Season 1 Global Finals, and YaLLa Compass 2024.
For everything interesting and important from BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024, stick around on esports.gg!
