NAVI brush aside Astralis to win BLAST Premier Global Final

The CIS giants put up a dominant performance to win the first tournament of 2021.

Natus Vincere won the BLAST Premier Global Final 2020 after recording a convincing 2-0 victory over world No.1 Astralis. Fresh off a three-map thriller against Vitality in the consolidation final, the CIS team showed no signs of fatigue as they put up a world-class display against an off-colour Astralis side that was outfought and outclassed.

Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev, who was crowned the tournament's MVP, was once again the main catalyst behind NAVI, but there were strong performances all around in the CIS team. Just days ago, when they were defeated by Liquid in the first round of the tournament, it would have been almost impossible to imagine such a comeback from the team, who capped off a dream lower bracket run with a display reminiscent of their IEM Katowice 2020 campaign.

"I think we are stronger than last year, as you can see we can actually pull off some comebacks and we have more belief in each other," s1mple said after the series. "We just keep practising every day, discussing things, fixing mistakes. Everyone wants to reach this goal. We want to stay at the top for as long as possible."

NAVI made light work of Astralis in a one-sided affair

NAVI made a hot start to the series, racing to a 4-0 lead on the T side of Nuke, their own map pick. Astralis, who handed Lucas "⁠Bubzkji⁠" Andersen his first game of 2021, responded with Desert Eagles and a MAC-10 and then tightened up, gradually taking the upper hand in this evenly-contested first half. The Danish team seemed to have gained a strong foothold in the game, but then NAVI put together another streak of rounds to end the half ahead.

Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev opened the action in the second half with a crisp quad-kill on the lower site to kick NAVI further into the lead. The CIS team held off a comeback attempt by Astralis and rallied to a 14-9 lead before clutch rounds by Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander and Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif restored hope amongst the Danish side's fans. However, there was no stopping NAVI, who locked down the map in the 28th round in style, Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy pulling off a jumping headshot with a P250 in a spectacular eco round from the team.

Inferno began with a flawless pistol round from NAVI, a sign of what was to follow: Astralis made things competitive for a while, but the game quickly became a one-way street as the CIS giants steamrolled their way to a 10-5 lead, led by Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov on 19 frags.

More misery was to come for Astralis, who lost the pistol round as newcomer Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy picked up a quad-kill on the A site. The Danish team still attempted a response, but NAVI refused to take their foot off the gas and wrapped things up without losing a single round in the half.

BLAST Premier Global Final 2020Best of 3

Astralis

Matchpage 0 2 24th January 2021

Natus Vincere 12Nuke 16 5Inferno 16

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossandergla1ve	31 - 39	-8	70.3	0.91
Emil 'Magisk' ReifMagisk	30 - 38	-8	66.4	0.88
Nicolai 'device' Reedtzdevice	26 - 37	-11	70.9	0.84
Lucas 'Bubzkji' AndersenBubzkji	14 - 18	-4	61.0	0.83
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussendupreeh	26 - 32	-6	57.9	0.83
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	9 - 16	-7	49.0	0.75

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple	50 - 29	+21	103.9	1.57
Ilya 'Perfecto' ZalutskiyPerfecto	36 - 22	+14	81.9	1.30
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie	21 - 15	+6	76.0	1.22
Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiyb1t	14 - 10	+4	84.0	1.18
Kirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovBoombl4	35 - 28	+7	68.0	1.10
Denis 'electroNic' SharipovelectroNic	24 - 32	-8	56.3	0.92

BLAST Premier Global Final 2020 standings:

1. Natus Vincere - $600,000
2. Astralis - $200,000
3. Vitality - $80,000
4. Liquid - $50,000
5-6. G2 - $20,000
5-6. Evil Geniuses - $20,000
7-8. Complexity - $15,000
7-8. FURIA - $15,000