A backlit keyboard is part of the gear online video game streamer Jordan Woodruff uses in his Gilbert home.
Jordan Woodruff
Team Spirit, HEROIC, Team Vitality and Astralis kicked off the BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024 with wins on the first day of group stage competition Monday in Copenhagen.
Spirit swept OG 2-0 and HEROIC did the same to Complexity Gaming in Group A opening matches. In Group B, Astralis beat Team Falcons 2-0 while Team Vitality rallied for a 2-1 win over GamerLegion.
The four losing teams are still alive in the competition but have dropped into the lower bracket of their respective groups.
The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event begins with a double-elimination group stage, with the field split into four groups of four teams. All matches are best-of-three.
The winners of each group will advance directly to the Fall Final. The four second-place teams proceed to the play-in stage, a pair of single-elimination, best-of-three matches to determine the remaining two berths for the Fall Final.
On Monday, Team Spirit dusted OG 13-3 on Dust II before winning 13-9 on Mirage for the sweep. Danil “donk” Kryshkovets had a team-high 37 kills for Spirit, while teammate and Russian countryman Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov added 36 kills on a team-best plus-19 kills-to-deaths differential.
HEROIC defeated Complexity 13-8 on Ancient before holding on for a 16-14 overtime win on Vertigo. Rene “TeSeS” Madsen of Denmark paced HEROIC with 46 kills on a plus-15 K-D.
In Group B, GamerLegion opened with a 13-10 win on Anubis before Team Vitality turned the tide with a 19-17 double-overtime win on Mirage. Vitality finished the job with a 13-5 victory on Dust II. French star Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut had 67 kills with a plus-18 to lead Vitality, with Israel’s Lotan “Spinx” Giladi was close behind with 63 kills on a plus-20.
Astralis moved past Falcons with a 13-7 triumph on Dust II and a 13-9 win on Ancient. Denmark’s Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard had 42 kills on a plus-12 to carry Astralis.
The group stage continues Tuesday with four matches:
–Team Spirit vs. HEROIC (Group A upper-bracket final)
–OG vs. Complexity Gaming (Group A lower-bracket semifinal)
–Team Vitality vs. Astralis (Group B upper-bracket final)
–GamerLegion vs. Team Falcons (Group B lower-bracket semifinal)
BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024 prize pool (money, BLAST Premier points):
1-4. $22,500, 2,400 points, qualifies to Fall Final
5-6. $12,500, 1,800 points, qualifies to Fall Final
7-8. $10,500, 1,300 points, qualifies to Fall Showdown
9-12. $8,500, 800 points, qualifies to Fall Showdown
13-16. $5,000, 300 points, qualifies to Fall Showdown
–Field Level Media
