The review of BLAST Pro Series Lisbon 2018

The final of the eighth season of BLAST Pro Series Lisbon 2018 has recently finished, which had taken place in Portugal on December 14-15. The time has come to make a conclusion.

The atmosphere:

First we would like to notice the atmosphere, which was at the venue “Altice Arena”, because it was excellent and unlike any other tournament - besides a full venue (all tickets were sold out), the CS:GO fans will remember “the Spartan cry” performed by the visitors of the competition.

This is the public before the grand final:

If the CIS representatives had been considered to be the most dedicated fans who created an incredible atmosphere, we can state for sure after the first competition in Portugal that the above-mentioned region now has the decent competitor.

Teams that have surprised:

Cloud9 (a place in the rate by HLTV after BLAST — #16)

The guys from Cloud9 came to the championship as obvious underdogs, because besides awful results and recent changes on the roster, the team came to the competition with a stand-in in the face of Ismail "refrezh" Ali. However, the mix had almost three weeks to prepare for the competition and managed to surprise not only the opponents but the community in general - the team won three matches out of five in the group stage and the match against Astralis was over with a score 16:14 in the favor of the Danes. As a result, the team didn’t make it to the grand final but the third place is a good result for the guys with an unstable roster.

It’s worth to notice that Cloud9 also competed in a showmatch where lost 2 kills to FaZe Clan.

The roster of Cloud9 and the rate of players at BLAST:

Timothy “autimatic” Ta — 1.12
Will “RUSH” Wierzba — 0.90
Ismail "refrezh" Ali — 1.06
Robin “flusha” Rönnquist — 1.08
Fabien “kioShiMa” Fiey — 0.99

Teams that have disappointed:

FaZe Clan (a place in the rate by HLTV after BLAST — #6)

We had told about the non-permanency of the team in the preview and the guys frankly failed at the tournament, because they were not able to achieve a victory during the whole group stage - NiKo and the company made a draw against NiP and MiBR. As a result, the fifth place out of six possible was held and Karrigan was benched.

It’s worth to notice that despite a bad team play, the personal skill of each player is undoubtful because the guys won a showmatch in a 1vs1 mode.

The roster of FaZe Clan and the rate of players at BLAST:

Håvard “rain” Nygaard — 0.86
Finn “karrigan” Andersen — 0.84
Nikola “NiKo” Kovač — 1.03
Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács — 0.97
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer — 0.95

NiP (a place in the rate by HLTV after BLAST — #7)

The guys from NiP had shown a good performance during the major part of autumn and performed well at Esports Championship Series Season 6 - Finals, which made us think about their good shape, however, the team didn’t consider this tournament to be important or simply got tired, so they were unable to show their best condition. In the group stage, f0rest and the company made a draw against FaZe Clan and they were unable to win the rest of matches, which guaranteed them the honorable last place and a deserved rest before the new season.

The roster of NiP and the rate of players at BLAST:

Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg — 0.94
Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund — 1.00
Fredrik “REZ” Sterner — 0.93
Dennis “dennis” Edman — 0.97
Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson — 0.77

Teams that have played on their level:

MiBR (a place in the rate by HLTV after BLAST — #4)

The roster of MiBR came to the championship with a stand-in, so a victory at the competition by FalleN and the company was unlikely to be expected, however, the team performed pretty decently, having placed fourth with two victories, one draw, and two losses. It’s worth to notice MiBR’s victory over Natus Vincere with a score 16:02, because S1mple and the company were in a good shape.

It’s also worth to pay the attention to the fact that there is not the perfect atmosphere on the roster of MiBR - there are rumors on the web about the return of TACO and Felps, so the fourth place can be called a normal result.

The roster of MiBR and the rate of players at BLAST:

Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo — 1.05
Marcelo "coldzera" David — 1.31
Jacky “Stewie2k” Yip — 1.02
Tarik “tarik” Celik — 1.09
Braxton “swag” Pierce — 0.98

Natus Vincere (a place in the rate by HLTv after BLAST — #2)

Natus Vincere, as the champions of the previous tournament in BLAST series and the team that enters the top 3 of the rate by HLTV, had to show itself decent and to advance to the final, which they did, actually. However, the guys met their “kryptonite” in the face of Astralis in the grand final and gave the Danes one more gold medal but the grand final was not a one-way track, so the second place with a good play against Dev1ce and the company can be called a satisfying result.

The roster of Natus Vincere and the rate of players at BLAST:

Ioann “Edward” Sukhariev — 0.75
Egor “flamie” Vasilyev — 1.09
Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev — 1.22
Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko — 0.69
Denis “electronic” Sharipov — 1.05
Mykhailo “kane” Blagin — a coach

Astralis (a place in the rate by HLTv after BLAST — #1)

This year is obvious the Astralis’ year because the guys win always all tournaments where they play and BLAST Pro Series Lisbon 2018 is not an exception. The team lost only one map at the competition and this one was in the grand final against Natus Vincere. It’s remarkable that the championship was not the best for Xyp9x, because he had the statistic below one for the first time over the last four months but Astralis is strong with the fact when one part of the roster doesn’t play well, the rest four parts play on 125%.

The roster of Astralis and the rate of players at BLAST:

Nicolai “device” Reedtz — 1.14
Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth — 0.98
Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen — 1.39
Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander — 1.05
Emil “Magisk” Reif — 1.39

Interesting facts:

• Emil “Magisk” Reif showed the best ratio of kills and deaths for him after the transfer to Astralis.
• Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander crushed the second trophy this month - the medal on his neck didn’t handle happy jumps of the player and fell on the floor (the main cup broke in the player’s hands at Intel Extreme Masters XIII Chicago)
• BLAST Pro Series Lisbon has become more viewed than the previous tournament in BLAST series, which had been hosted in Copenhagen. The peak of viewers at the competition in Portugal amounted 237949 without the Chinese viewers.
• Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko and Ioann “Edward” Sukhariev showed worse personal results in the ratio of kills and deaths. The captain finished the championship with the ratio 0.69 and Ioann scored 39 frags less.

The highlights from the championship: