Every time Natus Vincere face Vitality in a CS:GO tournament, the encounter is pretty much focused on the rivalry between s1mple and ZywOo. The two most prolific players in the scene at the moment will go toe to toe in the BLAST Premier World Finals’ opening round on Wednesday, Dec. 14 at 9am CT.
The Ukrainian and French snipers have faced each other five times in 2022 and NAVI have won four of them. The most recent encounter took place in the IEM Rio Major Legends Stage on Nov. 5, when NAVI defeated Vitality 25-21 on Mirage. S1mple stole the show when he dropped a 40-bomb and only died 28 times, while ZywOo finished with a 31-31 K/D. They also played one another in last year’s BLAST Premier World Final and NAVI eliminated Vitality following a 2-0 victory. S1mple finished that series with a 1.44 rating, while ZywOo couldn’t make a difference and produced a 0.84 rating.
The rest of the opening round matches of the BLAST Premier World Final will also be entertaining. Outsiders will play Team Liquid at 12am CT, FaZe and G2 will face at 3am CT, and Heroic will take on OG at 6am CT.
The $1 million BLAST Premier World Final will run from Dec. 14 to 18 in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and will feature only these eight teams. The group stage features a double-elimination best-of-three format with group winners advancing to the semifinals, while the second and third-placed teams in each group will play in the quarterfinals.
The playoffs of the BLAST Premier World Final will follow the single-elimination structure. NAVI won the tournament last year over Gambit (the current Cloud9 lineup) in Copenhagen, Denmark, and s1mple was named the MVP of the event.
Published: Dec 6, 2022 11:22 am