Number one and enigmas: BLAST Premier Fall Group C

Team Vitality, Astralis, Ninjas in Pyjamas and BIG have already made it to the BLAST Premier Fall Finals in Copenhagen, Denmark and it is almost time for group C to add two squads to that list! A CIS heavyweight, a pair of international enigmas and a European mix, seeking to break through in the absolute elite level - what a group it might turn out to be!

Natus Vincere, of course, are the biggest favourites to make it through. This is the number one ranked team in the world, which has recently won IEM Cologne 2021, ESL Pro League Season 14 and conquered the Intel Grand Slam. They have the best player in the world and it is a scary opponent for everyone on the planet.

Saying all that, we have recently discussed the possibility of a potential sandbagging by NAVI at one of the upcoming events, especially, BLAST Premier Fall, as they are already guaranteed to participate in the BLAST Premier Global Finals, where Natus Vincere will try and defend its crown from the last Global Finals. It remains to be seen if any of that is going to turn out true, but an opportunity of at least a small hangover is definitely there, as IEM Fall CIS and PGL Major Stockholm are right around the corner.

If NAVI are serious about the event, it could be interesting to see if they are going to play more games on Overpass, Ancient or Inferno during the tournament to practice those maps more before the key stretch of the season.

Three other teams in the group are yet to qualify for the Major, so it is expected that they are going to treat BLAST Premier Fall as more of a training ground, but each of them has interesting storylines around the units.

OG, fresh off their great showing at the ESL Pro League Season 14, where they finished in top-4, can snowball that performance into a consistent level. Noone doubts the level of talent “Aleksib”’s team possesses, but it remains to be seen if OG can be a permanent contender and not have very few events in span of a year, where they are threatening to the competition.

FaZe Clan finally started to show signs of life under the leadership of “karrigan”, as they finished in top-4 of IEM Cologne, but then a thrown “12-3” lead on Overpass against fnatic during ESL Pro League Season 14 cost them a spot in the playoffs there. With spot at the PGL Major Stockholm in question and the upcoming return to the LAN event at IEM Fall, it is very likely that FaZe are not going to show up in spades at BLAST, but a solid performance on maps like Mirage and Inferno will bode well for their perspectives going forward.

Complexity Gaming is the biggest question mark of all of them. “k0nfig”s injury and rumours about an inevitable move to Astralis caused the international mix to bring “coldzera” into the team. Even with a stand-in, they still made it to the playoffs at ESL Pro League Season 14 and the monstrous talent this team has is not in question, but can they give everybody the roles to perform their best? If Complexity can figure it out and make everything work, look out, because this team can run rampant through any tournament where they catch fire.

Group C is going to start on Friday, September 24th, as Natus Vincere will clash against OG, while “coldzera”’s new team will go against an old one to finish the day - do not miss any action!