NAVI deep in trouble as Aurora's teething problems continue - BLAST Open Porto

It was a bad day at the office for both NAVI and Aurora as both suffered big losses on the opening day of BLAST Open Porto.

NAVI's is probably the worse of the two, dropping a 1-0 lead against M80 to back-to-back comfortable map wins.

JBa's stunning 1v3 pretty much sealed the deal on Inferno and ended any chance of a NAVI comeback, though only the most fanatical fanboy would believe it was ever truly on. NAVI are deep in trouble and look tired, stale and in need of changes - changes they've needed, and allegedly wanted to do for a long time.

Anubis was a walkover for the favourites, with w0nderful and b1t combining for a 32-12 scoreline, with M80 only mustering up 40 kills total. That was more in line with what we expect from NAVI, so it stung even more to see M80 dismantle them on Mirage and Inferno.

Of 14 CT rounds played on the final two maps, NAVI won just two. Both on Mirage, both retakes, and neither particularly clean. It's a firepower issue; they were getting opening kills, but only four multikills in those 14 rounds tells a story.

iM dragged NAVI to six on the T side of Inferno, but had himself a stinker on the CT side as M80 cruised to victory without dropping a map on the offence. JBa's stylish clutch obviously made sure of that, but NAVI didn't look like winning any other CT rounds.

Aurora spent quite a bit of money to 'upgrade' to kyxsan and Jimpphat, and so far neither have had the desired impact. They lost 2-0 to G2, who did at least need overtime on the second map.

Mind you, kyxsan found himself as the lone fighter against the tide on Anubis at times, and probably felt like he could have used a hand from his Turkish trio, who went missing. On a more positive note, this was a proof of concept map for G2's controversial pick-up of r1nkle. He dropped 32 in 28 rounds to power G2 over the line on the aforementioned Anubis. He looked excellent, and you can see the vision - his mechanical ability is pretty unquestionable.

He even aced with a FAMAS at one point. You have to be special to do that.

Inferno was a walkover, and this was another encouraging sign for G2 as NertZ took over and decided to win this map on his tod. He'd been one of the more disappointing players in our data last season, but if he can get firing, G2 will be terrifying.

Aurora on the other hand look disjointed; almost like a team who spent lots of money to switch to English and sidegrade their players...

DENDELE put up a fight - and rdy.gg favourite koala in particular impressed - but the unstoppable tide of donk is inevitable.

donk picked up 48 kills, including two aces in the second map (one of which a 500 damage for 0 taken ace, in the pistol round) to seal DENDELE's fate despite some encouraging signs.

Spirit remain wholly unconvincing in otherwise convincing wins, but when you have the best player to ever touch the game, it simply doesn't matter if the other four are inconsistent. donk quite literally killed everyone in the first round of Cache, which was quite symbolic of where we are at now.

We didn't learn much new from this game, but it's always a joy to watch donk play CS.

FURIA beat the pants off of paiN who barely laid a glove on their fellow countrymen.

It was a pretty awful showing from paiN, who continue to underwhelm and fail to produce meaningful results when it counts. YEKINDAR tore through them like a tornado on Cache, and ended the game before it even began.

There's little else to say. yuurih was superb, molodoy unplayable, paiN horrendous. vsm in particular had a day to forget. We used to really rate him, he's a likeable guy and he does some tough roles and he usually does them well, but as of late he's in a rough patch.

In his defence, he's not alone, and it's hard to be a support player to a flailing star core.

Just ask Jimpphat.