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BLAST Pro Series Lisbon: preview

CS2 / News / 12 December 2018 — 22:00

What to expect from the Portuguese event?

We've got a very important even coming — the last event for ua NAVI.GG.BET CS:GO squad in 2018. BLAST Pro Series Lisbon will not only become a real celebration for all lovers of this sport, but will be the final say on many matters. Who deserves HLTV.org top-1? What will be the final rankings of the teams? The capital of Portugal will be the place to look for the answers.

From 14 to 15 November, Lisbon will host the fourth championship in the BLAST Pro Series. Before the tournament has already been held Copenhagen (twice) and Istanbul, the champions being br SK Gaming, dk Astralis and ua Natus Vincere. Now, our team has a great opportunity to tread the success path once again, keeping the title.

Altice Arena, a multifunctional indoor arena designed for 20,000 visitors, was chosen as the venue for the competition, as it is where large-scale concerts, exhibitions and sports events take place regularly. Here, fans of competitive Counter-Strike, no doubt, will enjoy not only the game of the best teams in the world, but also the colorful show, because this is what the BLAST Pro Series tournaments are famous for.

6 of the brightest teams received a direct invite to the event: ua NAVI, se Ninjas in Pyjamas, dk Astralis, us Cloud9, br MIBR and eu FaZe Clan. Participants will compete for a prize pool of $ 250,000 - exactly half of this amount will go to the triumphant. To get the reward, one must go through the group stage and beat the opponent in the final match.

At the BLAST Pro Series Lisbon teams will not be divided into groups: at this stage, the teams will play Bo1 Round Robin, that is, all contenders will fight each other. Two teams with the best scores will go to the grand final and play a Bo3 series. The team which takes the third, will take part in the show match with an additional cash prize of $ 20,000 and will choose its opponent from the three remaining teams. The format of the show match is five duels 1 vs 1.

NAVI.GG.BET matches
Teams Map Start time
(CET)
Match page
December 14
NAVI.GG.BET00se NiP Overpass 20:00
NAVI.GG.BET00dk Astralis Inferno 21:30
December 15
NAVI.GG.BET00us Cloud9 Overpass 15:00
NAVI.GG.BET00eu FaZe Clan Inferno 16:20
NAVI.GG.BET00br MIBR Mirage 17:40 / 19:40

Born to Win will begin their journey in the championship with a fight against se Ninjas in Pyjamas on Overpass. It is noteworthy that the last encounter between ua NAVI and “Ninjas” took place at the previous BLAST Pro Series tournament. Then the teams made their way to the grand finals of the tournament, and our players confidently took down the opponents on Mirage and Inferno. Sure, the Swedish five will do everything possible to take revenge, but the latest se NiP results suggest that it will be very difficult to do.

On the first game day, the “yellow-blacks” will also fight withdk Astralis, the team that is currently the most dangerous and decorated opponent. We haven't played with the Danes since Blast Pro Series Copenhagen, where ua NAVI defeated their opponent. Now, the matches will be extremely tense: the recent events, like IEM Chicago, ECS Season 6 and ESL Pro League Season 8 showed that dk Astralis squad is nigh unmatched. In addition, the guys took the main prize of Intel Grand Slam Season 1, and this indicates the highest level of the team.

Three matches are scheduled for the second day, one of which is against us Cloud9 on Overpass. The recent performance coming from se flusha and the team can hardly be called stable: the guys played on equal terms with us Ghost Gaming and us NRG, however, once they entered the fray against dk Astralis, a crushing defeat ensued. The statistics ofus Cloud9 fights on Overpass also testifies not in their favor, while the Born to Win can safely call this map one of the best studied in their arsenal.

ua NAVI is going to play against eu FaZe Clan, 5th best team according to HLTV.org rating on Inferno. This arena, no doubt, is well known to both teams, because the match has every chance to become the brightest in the group stage of the BLAST Pro Series. Despite the fact that after the brilliant victory at EPICENTER 2018, the European five slightly lost its ground, it would be a mistake to underestimate it. Even significant tactical flaws in any game can block the exceptional individual skills and rich competitive experience of each eu FaZe Clan shooter. At the peak of the form, this roster is able to beat any opponent.

The “dark horse”, making all the predictions risky, is the teambr MIBR, and the Born to Win will play with them on Mirage. The Brazilian-American team is rapidly making its way to the top of the world, giving dk Astralis quite a run fr their money, defeating eu mousesports, us NRG and other opponents, but falling to us Team Liquid at the ESL Pro League Season 8 semifinals, catching the community off-guard. At the BLAST Pro Series Lisbon, Mirageis probably the best bet for the opponent of ua NAVI, because over the past three months, br MIBR won fourteen out of twenty “mirages”.

Just by looking at the list of competitors, ua Natus Vincere fans can see this is far from a walk in the park. The last championship of 2018 will be a real test of strength, and each fight - a fundamental and incredibly important. We want the yellow-black to focus on the tournament and end the year on a positive note. #NAVINATION