BLAST Premier Fall Groups: Vitality & Astralis take Group B Openers

BLAST Premier Fall Group's opening day continues in Group B with two exciting matchups. After a shocking upset from Heroic, without their star AWPer, anything can happen in the Fall Groups. A Ztr-led GamerLegion hopes to topple Vitality. And what happens when former teammates clash in the Danish derby of Astralis vs Falcons?

Group B's first matchup was, on paper, a David vs Goliath battle. Vitality has been a consistent contender throughout CS2 but has failed to pick up any trophies in 2024. Still, against a young squad like GamerLegion, especially one that changed IGLs so recently, they would be massively favored.

The veto immediately made this an exciting matchup, giving IGL ztr a T-side heavy pool to make his mark. On Anubis, Vitality started both halves with pistol conversions, but GamerLegion was solidly in control during gun rounds. That set them up for a 6-6 half despite GL being on the less-favored CT side. After the half time break, the same story repeated, but with GL even more dominant. Only individual brilliance kept Vitality alive in the half, like the quad-kill from mezii. But none of that was enough to stop ztr's troops. GamerLegion picked up 3 rounds on the trot to close the map out 13-10, with the captain himself topping the charts.

Moving to Mirage, GL even took the pistol round hold on their CT side thanks to aNdu's 100% accuracy USP-s. Just one save from GL gave Vitality some hope, but apEX's squad was consistently being crushed in middle as GL extended to 5-1. Even when ZywOo singlehandedly broke into the B site, Vitality fumbled the round by leaving themselves open to a short flank. They finally managed to string rounds together at the end of the half, but GL led 7-5.

Third pistol win for Vitality, and finally, the defending Fall Finals champs showed signs of life as they marched up to double digits. This time, it was Vitality's turn to shut things down on CT, as they locked in map point thanks to a flameZ ramp hold. GL were not letting go of the map, even with their backs against the wall. Vitality nearly took the win just with pistols, but a brilliant sl3nd quad-kill kept them alive, and Volt locked in OT.

Overtime began with a Vitality win, but FL4MUS popped off from underpass to take three frags and an equalizing round. Between ztr and sl3nd, GamerLegion pulled out absolute miracles on B to take the lead 14-13. A T-sided double AWP setup started round 29, and an IGL 1v1 closed it in favor of ztr. GamerLegion now had match point, but Vitality's simple A take sent the game to double Overtime.

The two teams remained neck and neck, trading rounds up to 17-17. But with the Spinx-flameZ combo topping the charts with 66-frags combined, a Vitality win was inevitable. They took the game to Dust2 with a 19-17 win.

After the ultra-close loss on Mirage, GamerLegion was showing their inexperience. The team looked mentally checked out and allowed Vitality to control the game completely. The stars were missing, and no tactic seemed to work for ztr's T side. And with ZywOo finally picking up an AWP, he took over the game, leading his team's 10-2 halftime charge.

The mood in the GL camp still looked positive as they stepped into the server with a pistol round win to start the second half. Vitality still managed to take their 11th, but this was a much better showing from GamerLegion as they picked up a fifth round. But with ZywOo's AWP dominating, Vitality quickly closed the game out 13-5 to move on in the Fall Groups.

Astralis took on the Falcons in the other Group B opener. While the matchup had an interesting storyline of dupreeh and magisk facing off against Device, the Danish side is massively favored in the matchup. And it showed as they picked up a comfortable 2-0 win.

The game started off on Dust2, and right off the bat, things did not look good for the Falcons. A pistol round on the CT side for Astralis turned into a massive half with a 5 round streak to start. When the Falcons eventually found a way in, it was because of Astralis' mistakes in round 7. That was quickly shored up, and the Danes never looked back, locking in a massive 9-3 half. The only positive sign for the Falcons was SunPayus' Ace, which prevented double digits.

That combined with the pistol conversion in the second half, built the Falcons' scoreline up, but Astralis' lead was too large and they eventually closed the map out 13-7, with device leading from the front.

Ancient was a much more competitive affair, as the Falcons' successful gun rounds gave them momentum on their CT side. But 1v2 fumbles to both jabbi and device cost the team dearly. The half ended with a 6-6 score. Once jabbi found his way onto the CT side however, his mid-holds were incredible. Falcons' tactics to take control were no match, and the Danes carried his team to a 7-1 run on the defence. The series closed out 2-0, with Astralis moving on in the Upper Bracket.

Astralis will now face off against Vitality in the Upper Bracket Finals, while GamerLegion and Falcons battle it out for survival in the lower bracket. If GL brings the heat as they did in the Vitality match, they look like the stronger team. But with veterans on the Falcons side, the tide can turn quickly.

Stay tuned to esports.gg for more esports news and CS2 coverage.