Day 4 of BLAST Premier: Spring Groups saw the first teams eliminated from the event and dropped into the Showdown in April. Unfortunately for North American Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fans, all three of the teams who exited the event in combined last place happened to be the NA representatives.
Complexity Gaming, Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses — all three of the new Tier 1 NA rosters — lost their eliminations matches in the BLAST Spring Groups. The defeats at the first Tier 1 event of 2022 are not a comforting sign for fans hoping for a revitalized NA in 2022. Even still, all three rosters are still working to find their rhythms. There was plenty of encouraging signs in their play, at least enough to hold off on early talks of disappointment from NA’s top teams.
The first match of the day saw Complexity taking a 0-2 loss to MIBR. It’s an early hitch for the ex-Extra Salt boys who were able to take a map of Gambit Esports earlier this year at Funspark ULTI 2021. In contrast, the Brazilians are looking strong after the organization has been struggling to reclaim their standing in Tier 1 CS:GO for years.
Team Liquid drew the short straw, being matched against a Natus Vincere who struggled in their best-of-one group stage matches. Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev looked fired up, dropping 52 kills in two maps. Liquid, who are still reintegrating a couple new players into their roster, shouldn’t take the loss too hard, considering their level of play was still impressive against the world’s No. 1 team.
The final match of BLAST Spring Groups Day 4 — and the nail in the coffin for NA — was Evil Geniuses against BIG Esports. The German side came up on top after a grueling three map slugfest. EG can, at least, take solace in a vintage performance from Timothy “autimatic” Ta, who is returning to CS:GO from a stint in VALORANT.
Day 5 of BLAST Spring Groups begins with Vitality vs. MIBR at 7 a.m. ET on Friday
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