Gambit esports, the world’s best team, started out strong in the BLAST Premier Spring Finals. The team secured a 2-0 victory over Evil Geniuses after an exciting game on Inferno. Ax1le, sh1ro and later, Nafany, stepped up for Gambit in this series.
The tournament favorites for the BLAST Premier Spring Finals have started out strong. Gambit esports defeated Evil Geniuses 2-0 in the tournament’s opening match. The first map of Inferno had CS:GO fans on the edge of their seats as the two teams went to double overtime, before Gambit ultimately pulled ahead.
Double overtime on Inferno
CS:GO fans could not have asked for a better start to the $425,000 tournament. Gambit and Evil Geniuses faced each other on Inferno as the opening map. Even though it was Evil Geniuses’ map pick, few fans would be foolish enough to disregard Gambit esports on this map. Gambit has a long history of playing on Inferno and has won several tournaments on this map.
The map was extremely close with both teams winning a bunch of rounds before losing a few. The first half ended with a 8-7 score in favor of Evil Geniuses. Considering they were on the T-side, things looked good for EG fans. Inferno is generally considered to be a CT-sided map. However, the EG defense was nothing to speak about, as the teams ended up with a 15-15 score. The map went to overtime, where,
We had some heroic performances in Overtime by Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov and Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte. But eventually, Gambit’s synergy and Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov’s 37 kills pushed them over the finish line. With a 1.41 rating, sh1ro, along with Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov (31 kills) were instrumental in Gambit’s Inferno victory.
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Gambit put up a strong defense on Dust 2
After winning Evil Geniuses’ map pick of Inferno, Gambit looked at ease on Dust 2. The aim-heavy map allowed the young stars on Gambit’s lineup to shine (even more than they did on Inferno).
But things did not look rosy at the start of the map. Evil Geniuses won six of the first few rounds, going up to a 6-0 score. But after losing the first few rounds, Gambit esports had one of the most impressive comebacks. The team won 6 rounds to close the half at 6-9.
But the real story began when Gambit esports switched over to the CT side. As Evil Geniuses tried to break into bombsites, either by strategy or just the plain ol’ B rush, the Gambit defense stood tall.
Gambit won ten rounds on its CT side compared to Evil Geniuses’ two rounds. With 24 kills and 90.5 average damage per round, Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov stepped up on Dust 2. The rotation of star players on the roster during these two maps highlights the teams’.
Despite the loss, this is still an impressive result for Evil Geniuses. The team recently made some coaching changes, parting ways with its long-time coach, Wilton "zews" Prado. Despite the changes, the fact that EG managed to take Gambit to double overtime on Inferno is a positive sign for the team's fans.
Gambit will face the winner of the NiP-Complexity match tomorrow. The BLAST Premier Spring Finals is an eight-team CS:GO tournament featuring some of the best teams in the world. The winner of the tournament will secure a spot at the BLAST Premier Spring World Finals along with $225,000 in prize money.
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