Vitality, FaZe advance at BLAST Spring European Finals

G2 and ENCE will meet Wednesday in the first round of the lower bracket. Earlier Monday, Ninjas in Pyjamas survived MAD Lions in the third-place match of the BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 European Showdown to claim the final spot in the Spring Finals.

Team Vitality and FaZe Clan each won on Monday to advance to the upper-bracket semifinals at the BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 European Finals online event. Vitality swept G2 Esports 2-0, and FaZe battled past ENCE 2-1, setting up a meeting between the two victors Thursday. G2 and ENCE will meet Wednesday in the first round of the lower bracket.

Earlier Monday, Ninjas in Pyjamas survived MAD Lions in the third-place match of the BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 European Showdown to claim the final spot in the Spring Finals. NiP will face Natus Vincere in the upper-bracket quarterfinals on Tuesday. The BLAST Premier Spring Finals, a $750,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event, was originally scheduled to be played in Moscow, but it was moved online and split into two regions due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The eight-team, $500,000 European region features a double-elimination playoff bracket with all matches best-of-three. The champion will claim $335,000, and the top two finishers will secure spots in the $1.5 million BLAST Premier: Global Final 2020 in January. The four-team, $250,000 American region begins play Tuesday, with a Global Final berth going to the champion.

On Monday, Vitality got off to a hot start against G2, taking Inferno 16-5 after winning 10 of the final 11 rounds of the map. The second map was a roller coaster, with Vitality taking a 7-3 lead, then falling behind 15-8 but rallying to win seven straight rounds and force overtime. The map eventually went to double overtime, with Vitality surviving 22-20 to clinch the match.

France's Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut paced the victors with a plus-30 kill-death differential for the match. FaZe and ENCE went back and forth for the first two maps, with FaZe claiming Dust II 16-14, and ENCE rallying from a 15-10 deficit to claim Mirage 19-16 in overtime. On the deciding map, ENCE jumped to a 5-1 lead, but FaZe went on a dominant run, winning 15 straight rounds to finish off the match.

Norway's Havard "rain" Nygaard finished with a plus-27 kill-death differential -- the best of the match by 12 -- including plus-12 on the third map alone. None of ENCE's players finished even or better. In the play-in match, NiP opened with a 16-7 win on Overpass before MAD Lions rallied from 9-7 down to win Nuke 16-10. NiP jumped out to a 14-4 lead on the deciding map, Train, before closing it out 16-11.

MAD Lions lost despite Denmark's Frederik "acoR" Gyldstrand posting a K-D differential of plus-27, with none of his teammates finishing better than minus-4. None of NiP's players topped plus-8. The European Spring Finals continue Tuesday with NiP facing Na'Vi and Complexity Gaming battling OG in the other upper-bracket quarterfinals matches.

BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 European Finals prize pool, with money and BLAST Premier points 1. $335,000, 2,400 points

2. $66,000, 1,200 points 3. $30,000, 900 points

4. $20,000, 600 points 5-6. $15,000, 300 points

7-8. $10,000, 150 points --Field Level Media