Astralis eliminate Movistar Riders, NIP survive Bad News Eagles scare in BLAST Spring Showdown

Movistar Riders and Bad News Eagles' participation at the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown has come to an end after losing their opening series in the single elimination bracket.

The first series in the today’s double header in the European BLAST Premier Spring Showdown featured Movistar Riders taking on Astralis, with the Spaniards coming into the cutthroat bracket having shown fine form on LAN at ESL Pro League, where they went 5-0 in the group stage before bowing out to ENCE in the quarter-finals.

Astralis will face NIP in the semi-finals

Alejandro "⁠alex⁠" Masanet and company didn’t live up to the billing online, however, as a red-hot performance by Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer with 20 kills on the CT side of Inferno helped the Danes win the first half of the series 8-7. On the attack, Astralis found even more success to keep Movistar Riders on the back foot, taking the Spanish team’s map pick 16-12.

A powerful showing by Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke, who’s brawn made the difference on the terrorist side of Ancient, kept Astralis in the driver’s seat, as the Danish squad continues to show dexterity on the attack in a map that most teams still struggle to find resolve in. Switching sides ahead by one, it was smooth sailing from there on out for Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander’s men, as they went on to close it out 16-8 on the CT side to eliminate the Spanish squad from the competition.

Bad News Eagles brought their high-octane play to their map pick of Mirage in the second series of the day, as Flatron "⁠juanflatroo⁠" Halimi and Dionis "⁠sinnopsyy⁠" Budeci led the charge with crisp shooting as their team played fast and punished forced mistakes to a 9-6 lead. sinnopsyy, with a 14-1 score on the CT side. was crucial in his team’s 7-0 mauling of Ninjas in Pyjamas to end Mirage swiftly, 16-6.

Not much changed on Ancient, where a pistol win by Ninjas in Pyjamas was immediately turned around in the forcebuy as Bad News Eagles piled on the rounds snowballing to an 11-1 scoreline before giving up the final three of the half. The second half wasn’t as fruitful, however, and Bad News Eagles’ lost steam as their attacking play hit a wall over and over to no avail, the Swedes standing their ground to bring the series back to even with a 16-12 scoreline.

NIP were taken to the limit by Bad News Eagles, going to overtime on the decider

Bad News Eagles got off to a flying start on Inferno, where they took a 5-0 lead on the attack before Ninjas in Pyjamas could reply, getting three of their own on the board. Genc "⁠gxx-⁠" Kolgeci and company then won back-to-back clutches to cruise to a 12-3 lead, powered by intense offensive play that Ninjas in Pyjamas could not contain.

After the switch, Ninjas in Pyjamas showed their class by mounting a comeback that went all the way to 13-13 as Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin won a 1vs1 clutch against Rigon "⁠rigoN⁠" Gashi. A forcebuy went the way of BNE for them to regain the lead, but Ninjas in Pyjamas hit back with a textbook B play to even things up, and two rounds later the map went into extra rounds. Ultimately, the experienced Swedes prevailed, taking the nail-biter 19-17 to keep their hopes of traveling to Lisbon alive.

BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2022 EuropeBest of 3 Ninjas in PyjamasMatchpage 2 1 28th April 2022 Bad News Eagles 6Mirage 16 16Ancient 12 19Inferno 17

Ninjas in Pyjamas	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Fredrik 'REZ' SternerREZ	79 - 56	+23	97.3	1.34
Ludvig 'Brollan' BrolinBrollan	66 - 56	+10	90.5	1.24
Nicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez ZamoraPlopski	64 - 55	+9	78.9	1.16
Hampus 'hampus' Poserhampus	49 - 66	-17	65.7	0.82
Patrick 'es3tag' Hansenes3tag	45 - 62	-17	52.0	0.80

Bad News Eagles	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Dionis 'sinnopsyy' Budecisinnopsyy	65 - 65	0	80.0	1.04
Genc 'gxx-' Kolgecigxx-	57 - 54	+3	66.7	1.02
Flatron 'juanflatroo' Halimijuanflatroo	59 - 62	-3	79.3	1.00
Rigon 'rigoN' GashirigoN	66 - 74	-8	81.1	0.98
Sener 'SENER1' MahmutiSENER1	45 - 51	-6	63.5	0.97

Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin Age: 19 Team: Ninjas in Pyjamas Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 963 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.67 Rigon 'rigoN' Gashi Age: 22 Team: Bad News Eagles Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 340 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.74 Dionis 'sinnopsyy' Budeci Age: 26 Team: Bad News Eagles Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 607 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.72 Bad News Eagles #25 Rigon 'rigoN' GashiSener 'SENER1' MahmutiFlatron 'juanflatroo' HalimiDionis 'sinnopsyy' BudeciGenc 'gxx-' Kolgeci Ninjas in Pyjamas #7 Patrick 'es3tag' HansenFredrik 'REZ' SternerHampus 'hampus' PoserLudvig 'Brollan' BrolinNicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez Zamora Genc 'gxx-' Kolgeci Age: 22 Team: Bad News Eagles Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 323 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.60 Movistar Riders #12 Alejandro 'alex' MasanetAlejandro 'mopoz' Fernández-Quejo CanoRaúl 'DeathZz' Jordán NietoÁlvaro 'SunPayus' GarcíaDavid 'dav1g' Granado Bermudo Alejandro 'alex' Masanet Age: 26 Team: Movistar Riders Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 1259 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.65 Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander Age: 26 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 1635 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.66 Kristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke Age: 25 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1507 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.69 ENCE #5 Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferPavle 'Maden' BoškovićPaweł 'dycha' DychaOlek 'hades' MiskiewiczLotan 'Spinx' Giladi Flatron 'juanflatroo' Halimi Age: 25 Team: Bad News Eagles Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 532 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.73 Benjamin 'blameF' Bremer Age: 24 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.15 Maps played: 829 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.61 Astralis #10 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderKristian 'k0nfig' WieneckeAsger 'Farlig' JensenBenjamin 'blameF' Bremer