Five things we learned from BLAST Open Porto Group Stage

BLAST Open Porto has delivered in its first stage, with a lovely mix of upsets, sweeps, and drama.

Don’t worry if you missed out, though. As always, we watched every second of the action to keep you up to date. So, here are five things we’ve learned from BLAST Open Porto’s group stage:

#1: NAVI need a change

Players, or structure, something must give.

What we saw from this roster in the group stage was a clear sign of capitulation. There was no more fight left in that team. Even in the games that got close, there was no belief in them winning. The G2 series exemplified this perfectly: they kept it close enough to save face, but never controlled it for a minute.

It’d be less bad if this was a one-off; instead, this is now their norm.

You can’t even blame the players. For several offseasons now, they’ve heard about changes that never materialized. The last significant shift in NAVI’s roster was adding iM, jL, and w0nderful. They've had a whole era since then and failed to reinvest. At a certain point, the players still left have to be unsettled by their uncertainty, while also being disappointed at the lack of ambition shown.

Something tells us this will be the last version of this NAVI team; with enough smoke, there’s fire, and there are plumes emerging from the yellow chimney.

#2: G2’s AWPer shuffle

We’ve got a two-for-one deal here.

Because first we learned that not all of G2 were convinced about removing SunPayus. In our interview with NertZ, the rifler said SunPayus was his best friend on the server. He also mentioned that G2 was improving during the Major and that he didn't think a change was needed. Which is an understandable perspective.

G2 did look like an improved team at the Major, even though they still lost to Spirit. We get not wanting to move on from someone at that point, especially not your best friend.

But, if we’re going to play devil’s advocate: sAw specifically mentioned wanting more aggression, and with r1nkle, he seems to have gotten it.

For all the doubt about the move, we definitely see the vision now. G2 have been letting the Ukrainian off the leash in the early rounds to find picks. The consistency isn’t quite there yet; he has a few very up-and-down maps, but his level is already much more interesting than what we gave him credit for when this was announced.

Will it be sustainable? Who knows. This team seems odd, and HuNter- is the central reason for it. But they also keep doing pretty decent, so who are we to judge?

We’re not too positive about their playoff game against Falcons either way.

#3: Different Aurora roster, same Aurora problems

To quote the current Tottenham manager: “You can’t buy mentality on the transfer market.”

If you could, Aurora would surely have figured out their problems by now. Instead, it seems like this organization is doomed to be a late groups/quarter-final team. Both the Turkish squad and this roster seem unable to win big games against top teams.

Especially because, unlike NAVI, they actually had control of their destiny.

Aurora were up 11-8 on map two, having taken the previous one. They were 2 rounds away from the play-offs and eliminating G2 at that point. Instead, they choked it, went to OT, lost in double OT, and then got 13-1’d on the decider.

So, despite changing leadership structure entirely, something about this roster is still frail.

You have to wonder, maybe XANTARES’ career didn’t result in the accolades we all expected for a reason…

#4: FUT’s bottleneck

We’re huge fans of FUT, but their limiting factor has become obvious.

Sorry, cmtry, but this just isn’t good enough. Some of us have already been critical of you, and we’ve been told to wait because your potential is incredible. Hell, dem0n has asked for more patience in his post right after Porto.

But, to be honest, at this point we’re hard-pressed to find more time.

In our player rating tool, you can sort all the AWPers who have played three or more notable events. If you do this, do you know where to find cmtry? You scroll right past z4KR, phzy, slaxz-, s1zzi, and Jee. Then you will find cmtry. In fact, the only player worse than him on that list, ratings-wise, is oSee.

That’s just not acceptable for an AWPer who gets treated like he’s supposed to become s1mple.

FUT are now a serious team with serious ambitions, whether they like it or not. If they are happy with stagnation in the name of development, which they might be because of budgets, then fair enough. But if they want to keep going, it’s abundantly clear where to upgrade.

Let’s just hope they don’t get caught up on potential, because a boat — well, that's a boat — but a mystery box, that could be anything. Even a boat. And you know how long we've wanted one of those.

#5: Never bet against donk

No matter how you think things are for Spirit, they will continue to be Spirit.

It’s easy to be (fairly) critical of Spirit. Their role movement is odd, their coaching structure is odd, their media personalities are odd… it goes on. Hell, we have done plenty of content on why this iteration of Spirit is selling donk out, or tweets on why this is basically the Milwaukee Bucks after 2021, and they’re going to lose their star.

But in spite of that, they went 6-0 in maps and made the semifinals relatively easily, all while still beating G2 and FURIA.

The combination of sh1ro and donk just remains unbeatable, at least in group stages, and with tN1R playing two very good series, they’re a dangerous prospect. Obviously, we don’t expect the same clean games from Spirit in the playoffs, but at this point write them off at your own peril. There seems to be no stopping donk.

Unless it’s a team nade, of course.