Review of BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen 2019

Teams surpassing our expectations

FaZe Clan

The Europeans with their new-comer broky showed a high class at the championship. At first, they won four matches in a row and made it to the grand final with the best result and after that, the players defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas at the final battle losing no map. It is remarkable that FaZe на Nuke made a fantastic comeback with the score 8-15, winning 7 rounds in a row. AT the overtime the Europeans lost two rounds against Swedish but it was not difficult for them to win the first map. Broky’s debut as a FaZe player was not successful at ESL One New York 2019, but at the second LAN final he unlocked his potential and raised the cup together with the other esportsmen earning $125,000 for the team. The most valuable player of the tournament was NiKo, the game captain.

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Ninjas in Pyjamas surprised the audience passing to the grand final and showed several stunning results. For example, NiP, apart from Cloud9, managed to beat both Astralis and Team Liquid. The latter two teams were considered to be the main favorites of winning the championship. Ninjas in Pyjamas lost their battle with FaZe Clan, who defeated their opponents and also lost a match against Natus Vincere, when they had already provided themselves with a trip to the final. The veteran of the shooting discipline, f0rest stood out among his teammates in a great way, especially at the grand final. If his teammates had played at the tournament better, those would have been NiP to gain the cup.

Teams that performed worse that it had been expected

Astralis

Before the start of the tournament, Astralis had been considered as the main favorites of winning this championship and the odds of their win at outright bets were equal to 2, which is a very low number. There were several reasons for that. Firstly, the Danish are one of the strongest CS:GO teams in the world, from the theoretical perspective, who must have won over all the teams including their principal opponent, Team Liquid. Secondly, Astralis played at the home arena, in Copenhagen, and it had to bring high morale, and, correspondingly, a victory at the championship. Gla1ve told in one of their interviews that the main problem at BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen 2019 was a rather busy schedule before the start of the championship. The team had to discharge their club responsibilities and take part in the advertisement of new jerseys released by Astralis. Nevertheless, Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander told that he understood that there was nothing strange about their loss and this result was not a surprise for him. However, the team showed a great game and at BLAST Pro Standoff, the players defeated Natus Vincere at duel battles. The especially picturesque moment was the appearance of the coach Zonic instead of dev1ce, who had some problems with his health. Danny Sørensen was playing s1mple at deagles and lost 5-7, showing a result better than Magisk’s who lost the battle with electronic 4-7. Zonic was winning 4-3 when s1mple got concentrated and drew a line at the duel against the Danish coach. In total, even though we define Astralis’ performance as disappointing, it was interesting to look at them at the tournament at some moments. Astralis took 4 place and earned $15,000 for this. The victory at BLAST Pro Standoff brought the players a money reward of $20,000.

Team Liquid

In the middle of 2019, Team Liquid was the best and most successful CS:GO team in the world according to both results at the tournament and the amount of won money. That is why the Americans are still associated with success and wins at different championships. But it turned out that Liquid was having a run of bad luck the players were not able to escape from. Twistzz told in an interview that the team had to get a decline in their results and this performance was not a surprise for the players. At the group stage, Team Liquid managed to win only over FaZe Clan and Cloud9 but as for the latter, it was a deserved win but at the battle with FaZe, the Europeans just did not want to show their strategies and provided themselves with a place at the grand final and played in a relaxed way. As a result, the Americans took fifth place at the tournament bracket and earned a money reward of $10,000.

Team Liquid gained a slot at BLAST Pro Series Global Final 2019 and would perform at the tournament with a prize of half a million dollars. Maybe, they will get prepared for it better than for this competition, but in Copenhagen, their result was disappointing for the audience.

Participants that performed commonly

Natus Vincere

NAVI was difficult to be called the favorite of this championship and in our preview, we told that they should not be expected to show anything specific. GuardiaN has recently joined their team who had performed as a Natus Vincere player, but this time his shape could be much better. That is why Natus Vincere performed commonly at the tournament taking third place at the group stage and almost winning BLAST Pro Standoff. This time it was clear that the morale of “Born to Win” was much higher than at StarSeries i-League CS:GO Season 8. Perhaps, at the next tournament, Natus Vincere would show better results and there are some premises for this. NAVI’s performance resulted in $25,000 for the team.

Cloud9

As it was told by one of the Russian-speaking casters, “Cloud9 not only stopped developing, they started to degrade”. Every new change of their roster leads to worse performance of C9 at the tournaments and taking the last place at BLAST Pro Series is a norm for the American club. Before the start of the championship, Tenz had got benched, and Subroza was taken instead of him. As it had been expected, Cloud9 was not able to beat anyone and took the last place in the tournament bracket winning $5,000. The tournament became just a regular trip to Copenhagen and a chance to flash their faces on the media day. The only interesting battle with C9 was their match against NAVI. On Train, the players were close to winning, however, the battle with “Born to Win” resulted in a tie.

Results of the championship

• 1 place: FaZe Clan — $125,000 and 10 BPS points
• 2 place: Ninjas in Pyjamas — $50,000 and 8 BPS points
• 3 place: Natus Vincere — $25,000 and 6 BPS points
• 4 place: Astralis — $15,000 and 4 BPS points + $20,000 bonus for the won BLAST Pro Standoff
• 5 place: Team Liquid — $10,000 and 2 BPS points
• 6 place: Cloud9 — $5,000