by Evil Geniuses pulled off a major upset at the BLAST Premier Spring Group opening match, defeating Heroic. The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament kicked off on January 19 with Copenhagen playing host to the 12 international participating teams.
The 2-1 victory saw the North American franchise make their way to the Group A Upper Bracket Final. Although EG suffered a 7-16 loss in the first map, Inferno, the franchise secured a back-to-back win in the following two maps, posting a 16-14 scoreline in both Ancient and Overpass.
The match began with Heroic dominating on Inferno, which was Evil Geniuses’ pick. The Norwegian franchise recorded a B-site flawless pistol-round lockdown to kick the ground running. Their fierce start to the map set the tone for the rest of the game, as they took an early lead of 6-3.
They maintained the momentum throughout the first half of the map leaving no room for EG to function. With two rounds left in the half, Heroic extended the lead after a four-round winning streak that saw them attain double digits (10-3). EG showed resilience regardless of the huge decimation as Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte secured two kills in the opening of the final round leading to a halftime score of 4-11.
The start of the second half was no different as Heroic continued their dominance and thereafter recorded a significant lead. Heroic was a round away from sealing off the game with a 15-4 scoreline, but they loosen their grip around the necks of their counterpart and were dealt a three-round loss to Evil Geniuses after a clutch performance from debut player Jerric “wiz” Jiang. Heroic later regained control and EG’s comeback attempt was short-lived as the map ended with a 16-7 statline.
The second map, Ancient, was a completely different story, as Evil Geniuses took control early on and went on a six-round winning streak at the start of the map. The North American franchise’s early success in the map was made possible by the impressive fragging by the franchise’s graduate from the Blueprint program, Jaden “HexT” Postma.
Evil Geniuses maintained a solid defense for the most part of the first half with very few lapses toward the end of the half. The same could not be said for Heroic who seemed to have been overwhelmed and disorganized, suffering a 4-11 deficit by halftime. Although HexT was largely responsible for the team’s early success, Timothy “autimatic” Ta guaranteed the team’s lead in the second map’s first half with the most kills by both teams (17).
The second half had a different spin as the momentum shifted, with Heroic attempting a comeback having staged a successful attack on the A bombsite in the pistol round. The Norwegian team went on a winning streak owing to multi-kill rounds from Rene “TeSeS” Madsen and Martin “stavn” Lund. In no distant time, Heroic tied the map at 11-11 with a 7-round run.
EG snapped out of their slumber on the B site and successfully pulled off back-to-back fast hits. After playing for 30 rounds, EG rounded up the map as victors with a two-round differential, thereby forcing a deciding map.
With Overpass selected as the deciding map, EG proved to be a better team securing an early lead of 4-0 on the T-side. Casper “cadiaN” Moller proved to be a dependent leader as he led Heroic’s attempt at recovery. The in-game leader contributed 10 frags to level the scoreboard at 5-5. However, Evil Geniuses managed to regain momentum with expert rotations and perfectly executed strategies, ultimately ending their attacking effort with a three-round lead.
The game saw both teams trade blows as Heroic managed to take the lead with an 11-10 scoreline after a successful 2v4 showing in the pistol round. However, EG took back the reins as they recorded a 14-13 advantage. With cadiaN attempting to final comeback run in the 29th round, EG saw out the game after fragging the 27-year old in a 2v1 post-plant.
The North American franchise stunned the BLAST Premier Fall Final champions, pushing the Danish team to the lower bracket. Heroic, which came into the tournament as the top team in the world, are now a loss away from crashing out to the do-or-die Knockout Stage. They will be forced to win every game in the lower bracket and eventually the Group A Grand Final for a direct spot at the Spring Finals.
EG, on the other hand, were ranked outside the top 30 CS:GO teams in the world coming into the tournament. The franchise saw their debut AWPer put up a magnificent start posting a 1.12 rating in the deciding map – Overpass.
