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EG produce comeback win in BLAST Spring Showdown – Americas

Jun 4, 2020

Evil Geniuses pulled off a huge comeback to beat Cloud9 on Wednesday and become the only team to win each of its first two matches in the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown’s Americas event.

EG (2-0-0) trailed 12-2 on Dust II before rallying past Cloud9 (0-2-0) for a 16-14 win to clinch a playoff spotout of Group B.

The day’s other two matches ended in 15-15 ties after one team led 12-3 at halftime. Triumph (1-0-1) came from behind to catch 100 Thieves (0-1-1) and clinch a playoff berth from Group B. Gen.G (1-1-1) drew level with MIBR (1-0-2), though MIBR sealed a playoff position from Group A.

The BLAST Premier Spring Showdown, a 10-team $325,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event, originally was scheduled for June 2-7 at a site to be announced, but plans were altered due to the coronavirus pandemic. The tournament was split into two online competitions: a 10-team, $182,500 European division and an eight-team, $142,500 Americas division.

The Spring Showdown Americas event is divided into two four-team groups for round-robin play through Thursday. Each group game will consist of a single map, with three points awarded for a win and one for a tie.

The winner of each group will get a bye directly to one of the two playoff finals on Saturday, while the second- and third-place teams will head to the semifinals on Friday. The fourth-place teams will be eliminated.

The winners of the two playoff finals will each earn $35,000 and a berth in the eight-team BLAST Premier Spring Americas finals. The two Saturday losers will meet Sunday, with the winner also earning a spot in the four-team, $250,000 online BLAST Premier Spring Americas Finals, scheduled for June 16-21.

Team Liquid already earned a place in the Spring Americas Finals based on their results in the Jan. 31-Feb. 16 regular season.

The champion of the Spring Americas Finals will receive a berth in the eight-team, $1.5 million BLAST Premier Global Final, set for Jan. 18-24, 2021, at a site to be determined. The Global Final will also include the winners of the Fall Finals and the ESL One Rio Major, two teams from the European Spring Finals as well as the top three teams from the BLAST Premier Circuit.

On Wednesday, Evil Geniuses got at least 20 kills and positive kill-death differentials from four of their five players. Bulgaria’s Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov led the team with 27 kills and a plus-10 kill-death differential.

The United States’ Ricky “floppy” Kemery paced Cloud9 with 26 kills and a plus-3 kill-death differential.

Triumph started erasing its deficit on Nuke by winning the first eight rounds after halftime to trail 12-11, but 100 Thieves won three of the next four rounds to go up 15-12. 100 Thieves couldn’t convert any of its three match points, though, winding up in a tie.

Paytyn “Junior” Johnson and Gabe “Spongey” Greiner, both of the United States, had 22 kills apiece for Triumph. Junior was the team’s only player with a positive kill-death differential, plus-3. Australia’s Aaron “AZR” Ward topped 100 Thieves with 27 kills and a plus-8 kill-death differential.

The MIBR-Gen.G match on Nuke played out very similarly to the Triumph-100 Thieves match.

After MIBR built a nine-point halftime lead, Gen.G pulled level at 13-13 by winning 10 of the next 11 rounds. MIBR won consecutive rounds to lead 15-13 and set up two match points, but Gen.G captured the last two rounds to pull out the draw.

The United States’ Timothy “autimatic” Ta and Indonesia’s Hansel “BnTeT” Ferdinand notched 21 kills apiece for Gen.G while Canadian teammate Damian “daps” Steele had a team-leading plus-3 kill-death differential. Brazil’s Vito “kNgV-” Giuseppe was the star of the match, racking up 31 kills and a plus-14 kill-death differential for MIBR.

Group play will conclude Thursday with three matches:

Group A

FURIA Esports vs. Chaos Esports Club

Group B

100 Thieves vs. Cloud9

Evil Geniuses vs. Triumph

BLAST Premier Spring Showdown – Americas standings, with win-loss-tie record, standings points and game points differential

Group A

1. MIBR, 1-0-2, 5 points, plus-3

2. Gen.G Esports, 1-1-1, 4 points, even

3. FURIA Esports, 1-1-0, 3 points, plus-5

4. Chaos Esports Club, 0-1-1, 1 point, minus-8

Group B

1. Evil Geniuses, 2-0-0, 6 points, plus-6

2. Triumph, 1-0-1, 4 points, plus-3

3. 100 Thieves, 0-1-1, 1 point, minus-4

4. Cloud9, 0-2-0, 0 points, minus-5

–Field Level Media

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