• Date: January 28, 2024
• Tournament: BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2024
• Format: Best-of-three (BO3)
• Stage: Play-in Stage
• Opponent: BIG
• Result: 2-1 (12-16 on Vertigo, 13-9 on Overpass and 16-14 on Ancient)

It was a nerve-racking decider match, with two maps going into overtime, but ultimately, the Danes booked their tickets to London by winning 2-1 against BIG.

A loss to Vitality in the Group A Final meant that a victory today was necessary to avoid the BLAST Showdown and to qualify directly to the BLAST Spring Finals.

A Dangerous Duo

Some very strong T-rounds secured the first five rounds for the Danes, but the German squad woke up and won the remaining rounds of the first half, thus leading 5-7.

During the match, Victor "Staehr" Staehr fought his all, as he was a key player on Vertigo, securing several rounds and never giving up. 

BIG was in front 8-12 and was one round away from victory when Benjamin "blameF" Bremer & Co. succeeded a comeback in regular playing time, pushing the match into overtime.

Unfortunately, the opponents won 12-16, thanks to a well-playing combo of Elias "s1n" Stein and Karim "Krimbo" Moussa.

• Staehr fought hard and achieved a 1.46 rating and 26 frags in the map defeat.
• Benjamin "blameF" Bremer had Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz under lockdown as he won all seven duels between the two.

Succeeding at Home Turf

The Danes' map pick, Overpass, saw a commanding performance by the Danes, securing a 9-3 lead. Martin "stavn" Lund greatly impacted the first half by getting 14 frags and a 115.7 ADR on the T-side.

Berlin International Gaming made the match exciting as they won five consecutive rounds, almost tying the score 9-8. The B-defense from the Danes was remarkable and helped secure the map victory 13-9.

• Both squads won a clutch situation each.
• stavn got five out of 14 First Kills.
• The BIG players died the most on the B-site of the map.

Down to The Wire

Maps are tied, and so was the first half of Ancient as both squads switched between winning three rounds in a row and losing three rounds in a row, eventually scoring a 6-6 half.

This time, the Danish crew took the lead 12-9 but couldn't close it out, resulting in another overtime match. Rounds were equally traded, tying the score 14-14. 

Despite losing a crucial round at 14-13, the Danes fulfilled their dream of qualifying for the BLAST Spring Finals 2024 by claiming the remaining two rounds and ultimately winning the map 16-14.

Staehr, stavn, and blameF were all supreme on Ancient, reaching at least 23 frags, but the first mentioned player came out on top by achieving a 1.28 rating.

• BIG won two clutches, while Astralis won none.
• Staehr won eight out of ten duels against s1n.
• The number of First Kills was nearly even, with BIG having 16 and the Danes having 14.

blameF and his troops can now look forward to BLAST Spring Finals 2024, from June 12 - 16, where a prize pool of $425,000 is at stake.

What's next?

• IEM Katowice Play-In begins Wednesday, January 31, and the first match is against Heroic at 16:30 CET.