In what can only be termed as a historic moment for Counter-Strike, The Prime Minister of Denmark threw open the tournament with a rousing speech supporting Esports [ or EGaming as he called it]. Playing video games for a profession always has been a slight stigma. Explaining oneself to one’s friends and family, being subject to glances and opinions esports has had a tough road.
The Blast Pro Series Copenhagen saw six teams compete at the Royal Arena. The tournament organiser, RFRSH invited each of the six teams after studying their performance as well as their popularity. The tournament had a very interesting format, one which saw the teams play Best of One Round Robin matches. However, the maps for these matches were pre-determined, something that might be cause for a lopsided result.
Coming into Blast Pro series, Astralis were the clear favourites. However, they were unable to make it to the Grand finals after losing out to the eventual Finalists, NIP and Na’Vi.
The Grand finals – Na’Vi wins Blast Pro Series Copenhagen.
The Grand Finals teams were not something that the fans and analysts expected. However, the unique tournament format coupled with a strong showing by Get_Right and company pushed NIP into the Grand finals.
Things seemed to be going toe to toe for the two teams. This was until Natus Vincere managed to break free towards the 21st round to eventually win the first map. It was no big surprise to see Electronic and S1mple top the scoreboard. Electronic was crucial in securing Na’Vi’s final rounds as they took the map off NIP. Unfortunately for Rez, he had a very poor performance. He was unable to get any trade frags and more often than not was simply a walkover. With a KDA of -17, it was painfully obvious where the NIP weak link was.
The second map saw a much stronger Natus Vincere. The win on Mirage definitely served to reinvigorate them. Inferno once again was extremely close with a 7-8 scoreline. But once again, Natus Vincere ran away with the game and the map towards the second half.
With this win, Na’Vi wins their first tournament post the ESL One Cologne 2018. The team is quite inconsistent with their performances. While they did win Blast Pro series, it is a tournament with a very unique and lopsided format. What we want to see is Na’Vi winning Best of three matches against some of the best teams in the world.
For now, Na’Vi takes home the cash prize of $125,000.
