BLAST Bounty Day Six Recap: On to the promised LANd

After six long days of online CS, the results are in; we have our final four teams going to Malta.

There weren’t any real surprises today, as most of the teams were pretty close to each other anyway. The biggest rating gap we had was 100 Thieves vs Spirit, and uh- well… we’ll get to it.

First, we need to rewind to the opener of the day:

paiN 2-0 Ninjas in Pyjamas

This NIP lineup does not inspire a lot of hope right now.

The Ninjas did not have a great showing against paiN, and the first map especially was really bad, which is a problem because it was their own pick. NIP got bodied on Nuke, mustering only a single round in the first half as Ts. When you hear that, it’s easy to blame it on Snappi, but we have sympathy for him. It’s hard to call when you have no one hitting any shots for you.

Not to diminish the Brazilians at all.

paiN played a great series both as a team and as individuals. Everyone who was asked to perform did, but especially vsm. He’s usually a veteran presence for this paiN team, but on Nuke he was a force to be reckoned with. He had 24 kills, 126 ADR, 100% KAST, and no problems holding down the fort. On map 2, the reliable hands of Saffee and Snow took over, holding their nerve to win a tight overtime game. NIP were arguably shooting harder on this map, but paiN kept it cleaner, held their nerves towards the end, and closed out.

Kills win rounds; mistakes lose games.

3DMAX 2-0 FUT

This series boiled down to one thing: 3DMAX wanted it more.

Both of the maps started off very even. So even, in fact, that they were both perfect ties, 6-6. Yet by the time the game got into crunch time, it was 3DMAX that took control. Now, in the spirit of balance, it’s worth noting 3DMAX went to the slightly more favored CT side of Dust2, and only narrowly won it out 13-11 on map 1. But map 2’s second half was more of the same, except this time the Frenchmen were on the T-side of Ancient. Impressively, they ended up winning a clean seven rounds, only allowing FUT three to close it 13:9 and win qualification to Malta.

The big reason 3DMAX managed to do this today was that they showed up.

It sounds super simple, because it is, but it’s hard to always be firing, especially online. Just ask dem0n, cmtry, and xfl0ud who had an abysmal series as a trio. They were very poor on the duel swing front, a stark contrast to 3DMAX, who had everyone but Kursy performing well in the series.

We said kills win rounds, mistakes lose games for the last series, but if you do neither, you’re pretty cooked as well.

The MongolZ 2-0 Wildcard

Okay, seriously, they can’t keep getting away with this.

maaRaa and bLitz have the secrets to Counter-Strike in their lockers. There is no other way. These guys pick up tikuak, seemingly from a random LAN cafe in Ulaanbaatar, and he comes into this series farming, 23-12 on Dust 2. Then you fast forward to Inferno, map 2, and The MongolZ pick, and DarkMeister, the guy who had the booth next to tikuak and decided to come along, pops up with 18 kills along with Techno’s 19 and 910’s own 18. These guys are different.

Yes, it is “just” Wildcard.

But they’re a decent team; that much became clear when they dismantled Alliance. What mainly cost them was how poor they were on D2. tikuak went 6-0 in opening duels, Cxzi went 2:6, and he was their best player by a landslide, but he was neutralized at the opening of a round six times, limiting his impact.

It’s going to be really interesting to see how these youngsters perform in their first LAN environment in Malta. It won’t be the crowds of Cologne, but it’s a good first test to find out what they’re about.

Spirit 2-1 100 Thieves

Easily the best series of the day, and wow what could’ve been.

Spirit really gave the Thieves a shot at this one, from the first pistol round of Anubis, where device and rain opened proceedings. They even managed to get a 6-6 half as CTs, which is usually harder than being T-side. Unfortunately, it didn’t last as 100T got donked at the end of the second half, giving them a narrow 13-11 loss.

But, encouragingly for Gizmy’s crew, their heads didn’t drop.

Instead, they steamrolled Spirit on their own map pick of Mirage. Everyone on 100T was on fire, from Gizmy to poii. The latter was particularly outstanding, pulling 19 kills in 17 rounds to power the team to a win. This map was exactly what we thought 100T could be at their best, and to see it so early is a highly encouraging sign for their long-term growth.

And then, well, then there was map 3.

13-0. That’s how much Spirit beat 100T by on Dust2. It was a massacre the likes of which we haven’t seen for a while in top CS. donk should be sentenced by the ICC for what he did to these guys. He finished the map with 20 kills in 13 rounds, a 2.84 rating, an absurd round swing, and with another victim. For the next week, when device closes his eyes, all he will see is donk’s face.

All that to say, nice try, 100 Thieves. If only Anubis went your way, this would’ve been a very, very different recap.