BIG qualify for BLAST Spring Final as group stage concludes

Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz's team scored a repeat victory over Astralis to become the sixth team to qualify for the Spring Final.

BIG have earned the final spot at the BLAST Premier Spring Final that was on offer via the Groups, beating Astralis 2-0 to join Natus Vincere, G2, OG, Vitality, and FaZe on the team list for the $425,000 event.

The German side saw to the elimination of Complexity early on in the group stage, but were unable to overcome Ninjas in Pyjamas on two occasions and as such, were left facing a run through the gauntlet bracket. There, initial wins over Evil Geniuses and Astralis gave way to a three-map series loss to FaZe, leaving BIG facing the task of scoring a repeat victory over Astralis to advance to the Spring Final.

The six teams to exit the groups without securing a qualifying spot will head to the Showdown, where they will need to battle through a grueling 16-team single-elimination best-of-three bracket in hopes of attaining one of the two remaining spots.

syrsoN scored a number of multi-kills to secure crucial round wins for BIG

Astralis were left reeling as the series got underway on Ancient, with BIG putting up a stalwart defense as they outpaced the Danish side, consistently catching them off guard with CT sided aggression. It wasn't until BIG were up 11-2 that Astralis were able to stop their own spiral, grabbing two rounds at the end of the half and carrying that momentum into the side swap.

It took heroics from Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer to keep Astralis in the running as they slowly clawed back rounds, converting early 5vs4s into round wins en route to edging out a 14-13 lead. But just when it seemed that Astralis would make good on their comeback effort, BIG stabilized and found the formula to overcome Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's men, netting three rounds in a row to narrowly edge out the win in round 30.

Dust2 kicked off in similar fashion as BIG were an indomitable force, running rampant over Astralis' CT side, the trio of tabseN, Florian "⁠syrsoN⁠" Rische, and Tizian "⁠tiziaN⁠" Feldbusch combining to help their side go up 12-3 by halftime.

An ace from Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke in the pistol round following the side swap allowed Astralis to close the gap slightly, but BIG quickly got back to winning ways as Nils "⁠k1to⁠" Gruhne took down three players to shut down a last-second rotation to the B site in the first gun round. From there, the lead held by the German side proved to be insurmountable, with Astralis only managing to add a handful of extra rounds to their tally before the map was closed out by BIG, 16-9.

BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2022Best of 3 AstralisMatchpage 0 2 6th February 2022 BIG 14Ancient 16 9Dust2 16

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Benjamin 'blameF' BremerblameF	49 - 31	+18	89.4	1.30
Philip 'Lucky' EwaldLucky	34 - 41	-7	64.1	0.93
Kristian 'k0nfig' Wieneckek0nfig	29 - 42	-13	72.6	0.92
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	29 - 39	-10	58.5	0.78
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossandergla1ve	27 - 42	-15	60.1	0.77

BIG	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Florian 'syrsoN' RischesyrsoN	47 - 30	+17	83.8	1.32
Johannes 'tabseN' WodarztabseN	46 - 35	+11	92.6	1.27
Nils 'k1to' Gruhnek1to	39 - 35	+4	72.1	1.18
Josef 'faveN' BaumannfaveN	31 - 32	-1	66.7	1.04
Tizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschtiziaN	32 - 37	-5	67.8	1.00

Below, you can find where the teams who took part in the group stage have landed following their results:

BLAST Premier Spring Final

Natus Vincere
G2
OG
Spring Showdown Vitality
FaZe
BIG
Spring Showdown

BLAST Premier Spring Showdown

Ninjas in Pyjamas
MIBR
Evil Geniuses
TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD Complexity
Liquid
Astralis
TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD FaZe #10 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenHåvard 'rain' NygaardRussel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenRobin 'ropz' KoolHelvijs 'broky' Saukants OG #15 Valdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåNemanja 'nexa' IsakovićNikolaj 'niko' KristensenMateusz 'mantuu' WilczewskiShahar 'flameZ' Shushan Florian 'syrsoN' Rische Age: 25 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1639 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.63 Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz Age: 26 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 1857 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.70 Ninjas in Pyjamas #7 Patrick 'es3tag' HansenFredrik 'REZ' SternerHampus 'hampus' PoserNicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez ZamoraLove 'phzy' Smidebrant Tizian 'tiziaN' Feldbusch Age: 25 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 0.96 Maps played: 1674 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.66 Natus Vincere #1 Oleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovKirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovIlya 'Perfecto' ZalutskiyValeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy Nils 'k1to' Gruhne Age: 23 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 1171 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.69 Vitality #3 Dan 'apEX' MadesclairePeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenEmil 'Magisk' ReifMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautKévin 'misutaaa' Rabier MIBR #46 Marcelo 'chelo' CespedesRaphael 'exit' LacerdaAdriano 'WOOD7' CeratoMatheus 'Tuurtle' AnhaiaJhonatan 'JOTA' Willian Evil Geniuses #101 William 'RUSH' WierzbaTimothy 'autimatic' TaJake 'Stewie2K' YipVincent 'Brehze' CayonteTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Astralis #8 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderKristian 'k0nfig' WieneckePhilip 'Lucky' EwaldBenjamin 'blameF' Bremer Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander Age: 26 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 1588 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.66 BIG #14 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzTizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschFlorian 'syrsoN' RischeNils 'k1to' GruhneJosef 'faveN' Baumann Kristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke Age: 24 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 1460 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.69 G2 #4 Audric 'JACKZ' JugNikola 'NiKo' KovačNemanja 'huNter-' KovačAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenIlya 'm0NESY' Osipov Liquid #56 Richard 'shox' PapillonNick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJosh 'oSee' Ohm Complexity #28 Johnny 'JT' TheodosiouRicky 'floppy' KemeryMichael 'Grim' WincePaytyn 'junior' JohnsonJustin 'FaNg' Coakley Benjamin 'blameF' Bremer Age: 24 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.15 Maps played: 782 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.61