With few surprises from the opening day, Day 2 of the BLAST Rivals went just as fans hoped. Falcons and Furia will pull ahead and book themselves a semi-final berth, while Passion UA, Vitality, Spirit, and paiN will fight it out in the quarter-finals.
Spirit makes quick work of MongolZ
Spirit, having lost against the Falcons on the opening day, faced MongolZ for a spot in the quarter-finals. Starting the series on Dust2, Spirit got back to their winning ways on the map, securing 8 rounds in the first half. MongolZ failing to make things competitive in the second half ensured an effortless early lead for the Russian side. MongolZ showed up with better form in the following map, securing five rounds in the first half alone; however, Spirit pulled ahead in the next half and secured a 2-0 win to make it to the playoffs.
Team Falcons survives PassionUA
A sketchy first half of Train got the Falcons off to a dicey start. While they pushed in a position of lead, the NA side recovered to end the half with a levelled scoreline before switching sides. PassionUA threatened to take away the map at several points in the game, but the Falcons’ individuals proved too strong for them, but not without serious effort. Having lost a close game on Train, PassionUA started Mirage on a better note, racking up seven rounds in the first half. They sent the Falcons into recovery mode for the second half. Having lost the opening two rounds, the Falcons started mounting their comeback and only lost one more round before closing the map with a 13-10 scoreline.
In a match where both teams progress, the Falcons will be heading to the semi-finals while PassionUA books their spot in the Quarters.
paiN outlasts Tyloo
Starting strong on their pick, paiN put Tyloo on the back foot right from the beginning, and keeping up the momentum in the following half, Nuke barely gave them any trouble before hitting a brick wall in the following map. paiN kept the momentum up on Tyloo’s pick of Ancient, closing the first half with an 8-4 scoreline, but a near-flawless streak from Tyloo turned the tide around to level the series and take us to the third map. Having lost the second map, paiN got off to a 6-0 start on Overpass and closed the half having secured 10 rounds. The second half got a little too close for paiN, but they managed to push it over the line and secure a quarter-finals berth in BLAST Rivals Season 2.
Vitality takes revenge on Furia
Covering the force buy to open the series, Furia started strong on Nuke, securing eight rounds on their CT side, only for Vitality to level the scoreline in the second half. Despite starting slow in the following half, Furia managed to put together a few rounds later in the game to edge Vitality out in a game that could have easily gone the other way. The second map of Overpass was yet another close context with regulation failing to separate both teams, but Furia losing out from brisk of a single series point, gave Vitality a lifeline and a shot at the series with the 3rd map. Inferno started poorly for Vitality as Furia steamrolled their defense to win eight rounds on their T side before switching sides. Furia, having converted another force buy, built on its lead to close the game and secure a semi-finals berth, dominating the best team in the world.
An action-packed conclusion of day 2, but without any surprises or major upsets. All of the big names will be in the playoffs, and the arena will be where the real action will unfold.