The last tournament for most teams before they leave to prepare for the Major has kicked off on the highest note, with the Titans securing convincing victories on Day 1 of BLAST Rivals Season 2.
PassionUA shocks MongolZ to kick off the event
MongolZ have been pulling off convincing upsets in a consistent fashion that led to them being feared amongst the elite of Europe, but their opening match in Hong Kong did not go as expected. Underdogs, Passion UA lost the opening map, then secured back-to-back 13:11 scorelines in the following maps, stunned the Asian powerhouse on home soil. The former Complexity line-up playing for Passion is packing some serious punch and can prove to be fatal for teams if taken lightly.
Falcons ease past Spirit in back-to-back events
Having faced a few days back in IEM Chengdu, Spirit failed to secure a single map against Falcons once again. NiKo proving to be the kryptonite of donk in back-to-back series with Kyosuke and m0NESY dropping the big numbers, Spirit pulled up against Falcons in similar maps, but went home empty-handed. The CIS side did manage to push Falcons to overtime in Dust2, but stood no chance against them in Nuke as the latter secured a playoff spot with a 2-0 scoreline.
Brazilian derby goes FURIA’s way
Start the series with paiN proving dominant on Nuke, FURIA took to the second map to go back to their winning ways. Having lost the opening map, falleN and team hit back hard on Overpass to level the scoreline in the series. The final map of Mirage is where both teams traded blows for blows until the very end, where FURIA snatched a win to book their spot in the next round of play over paiN. Yuurih and Molodoy topped the charts, and their firepower stood out as the key difference-maker across the final two maps to see FURIA through.
Vitality stomp Tyloo
Home favourites Tyloo became the unlucky team to face the world number 1 in Vitality on the opening day, and the result was brutal but expected. Tyloo’s pick Overpass saw the Chinese side manage no more than 2 rounds as Vitality’s defence casually picked up 10 with little effort. Vitality closed the map without losing a single round in the second half before continuing their domination on Nuke. Tyloo managed 4 rounds, that’s 2 more than the previous map, but that was it. Vitality were the better team by a big margin, as the scoreline would say.
Next Round of Play
Group A
- Upper Bracket Finals (10:00 AM IST): Falcons vs PassionUA
- Lower Bracket Finals (07:30 AM IST): Spirit vs MongolZ
Group B
- Upper Bracket Finals (15:00 PM IST): Vitality vs FURIA
- Lower Bracket Finals (12:30 PM IST): paiN vs Tyloo
Given the teams playing in this event, it is hard to predict a winner, given that FURIA have emerged as strong contenders, with Falcons aiming for nothing less than the trophy, and Vitality looking to keep their place as the best team in the world. The opening day results went as expected, more or less, but OG CS fans know better than to judge teams based on the first day of a tournament.


