It’s one thing to make it to the top, but it’s another to stay there, and perhaps no teams know that better than CS:GO teams that just won a Major. Just about a month removed from the IEM Rio Major grand finals, where Outsiders triumphed over Heroic, both teams find themselves out of the running early at the BLAST Premier World Final.
At the final premier event of 2022, both Heroic and Outsiders have ended up missing the playoffs, finishing fourth in their respective groups. Outsiders squandered an early lead to Liquid and looked somewhat unprepared on Anubis, then lost 2-0 to G2, ending on an embarrassing 16-1 loss on Mirage.
Heroic put up a much better fight in losses to OG and NAVI in series that both went the distance. The Danish team was also competing without their man Martin “stavn” Lund, with former Astralis member Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke putting up a better-than-expected performance in his first LAN match in three months.
But after the two teams defied the odds (and most pick ’ems) to reach the grand finals of IEM Rio, this showing at the BLAST World Final from both teams is certainly surprising. For Outsiders, the way they lost is especially perplexing, nearly getting shut out by a team that didn’t even make the Major. For Heroic, it’s a sad follow-up to an emotional and long-awaited LAN victory at the BLAST Fall Finals in front of their home crowd.
Both teams will look to regroup after an end-of-year break and come back in fine form for IEM Katowice 2023 at the end of January, where both teams should directly qualify.
