Evil Geniuses beats MIBR for BLAST Premier NA title

Evil Geniuses defeated MIBR in two maps and took the North American BLAST Premier Spring title. While they had to fend off a resurgent MIBR to do it, the win marks the team’s first tournament win since StarSeries iLeague Season 8 in October 2019.

Both maps were hotly contested, with Dust 2 ending 16-14 in Evil Geniuses favor while Inferno actually went to overtime after MIBR managed to tie the map in the final round of regulation. Ultimately, EG’s Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov was the star of the show, laying down 54 kills over the course of the two maps with a positive kill to death ratio of +16. On the other side, MIBR’s Epitacio “TACO” de Melo had a vintage performance, nabbing 50 kills of his own.

MIBR almost managed Dust 2 comeback before EG closed

The showdown between EG and MIBR was a tale of long runs, with both teams stringing together several rounds in a row before the momentum would swing in the other direction. EG started on the CT side and took nine of the first 11 rounds before MIBR bounced back with four to end the half. After halftime, the streaks were even more pronounced as EG took the first six rounds in a row to make the score 15-6.

MIBR didn’t back down. The Brazilian side won seven rounds in a row by elimination, allowing only one bomb plant in the 29th round. Taco managed to clutch that round against CeRq, and the defusal put MIBR in a position to take the map to OT. The final round, however, was all EG. A four-man catwalk push signaled the end of the game for MIBR, and Tarik “tarik” Celek’s walk through the mid-CT smoke to backstab Fernando “fer” Alvarenga all but sealed the win.

Inferno goes the distance as Evil Geniuses win BLAST Premier Spring

Inferno went much the same way as Dust 2 as both teams put up multiple rounds in a row over the course of regulation. EG and MIBR are two teams that carry momentum very well but struggle without it. That tendency results in both of the streaky maps that fans saw play out, as well as overtimes with clutch rounds swing the momentum back and forth. EG’s T side looked shaky at times, but some creative smokes and flash timings coming out from the EG camp managed a 9-6 first half in its favor.

EG needed a few hero plays to take Inferno as comfortably as they did. One came from team captain and in-game leader Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz, who managed to turn a two versus four against EG into four kills for himself and a round win on the B bombsite.

The second half came down to overtime as MIBR pulled off what it couldn’t on Dust 2. Down 14-15, both Vito “kNgV-” Giuseppe and MIBR newcomer Alencar “trk” Rossato came alive to secure overtime for the Brazilian team by putting the score at 15-15.

But Evil Geniuses never let MIBR gain a foothold in overtime. The North American roster took all three of their CT rounds before the overtime side switch before switching over to the T side to put the final nail in MIBR’s coffin as they won Inferno 19-15.

EG set to join Vitality, Complexity at BLAST Global Finals

EG now joins Vitality and Complexity in the BLAST Global Finals scheduled to take place on January 18, 2021, and features a $1.5 million prize pool. The qualification process for the Global Finals continues throughout 2020, with teams earning points for their placements in almost every tournament regardless of the tournament organizer. Next up for both MIBR and EG is Valve’s summer Regional Ranking tournament, CS Summit 6 where the two will face off against Team Liquid, FURIA, 100 Thieves, Gen.G, and two teams from the tournament’s ongoing open qualifiers. 

CS Summit 6 is scheduled to run through July 5.