Heroic’s CS:GO squad has finally cracked open their trophy cabinet in 2023, taking victory at the BLAST Premier Spring Finals in Washington, D.C. on June 11 over BLAST Paris Major Champions Team Vitality.
The win is the team’s first for the calendar year after an abundance of losses at the final hurdle, including two second-place finishes at IEM Katowice and IEM Rio, as well as top-four exits at the Paris Major and IEM Dallas.
But against the Major champions in Washington, D.C., the Danish squad rose to the occasion and finally broke their grand final curse, downing Vitality in three maps. “We’ve been waiting for this for half a year, we knew we could do it,” said Martin “stavn” Lund following the match.
The win secures Heroic a spot in Abu Dhabi for the BLAST Premier World Finals in December, with Vitality and FaZe Clan already in attendance following their respective wins at the BLAST Paris Major and ESL Pro League.
Tournament MVP Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard echoed his teammate’s sentiment, adding, “We had a pretty clear view on how to play today. We’ve played [Vitality] a few times now, but I mean our individual skill of the team in this final was at the top level.”
A year on from his addition to the roster, jabbi’s MVP is the organization’s first, with their previous five titles seeing a player from the losing team claim the award. This time, there was no disputing jabbi’s efforts over the course of the event, with the 19-year-old averaging a 1.18 HLTV rating for the tournament.
Related: BLAST Premier Spring Final CS:GO 2023: Scores, brackets, results
It was an emotional moment for Heroic captain Casper “cadiaN” Møller, who praised his squad for holding their nerve after a season packed full of close misses. “I think today we hit a stride where we were more calm, more comfortable, trusting our philosophies. The mental strength it took for the team to handle the tough losses and expectations, but they kept trusting and kept working hard.”
Heroic will undoubtedly hold their second spot in HLTV’s rankings entering the player break, while Team Vitality remains the team to beat, and will no doubt still be celebrating their Paris Major title win in May.
The conclusion of BLAST Premier Spring sees the CS:GO competitive season enter its mid-year break. Competition is set to resume on July 11 with BLAST Premier Fall, with IEM Cologne slated for July 25.
It’s set to be quite the off-season, with top squads likely to make roster changes ahead of a packed finish to the calendar year and the official launch of Counter-Strike 2.
Published: Jun 11, 2023 07:46 pm