eSports

SAW and Spirit round out BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024 lineup

March 11, 2024

With the completion of the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2024, we now have the full list of teams heading to London for the Spring Final later this year. Two complete brackets were played out online, with both SAW and Spirit making it all the way to the top.

As the dust settles, we’re looking at how SAW and Spirit beat OG and Metizport respectively, to secure their places at one of the biggest CS2 tournaments of the year.

SAW on top

Credit: BLAST

It was a great day for Portuguese CS, as SAW secured their place at their biggest tournament since the Thunderpick World Championship 2023 in October of last year. The team came into their side of the bracket as underdogs, but wins against Liquid and Cloud9 ensured they were still in with a chance at London until the very last day. With OG awaiting, SAW did not disappoint.

On the day, every single one of SAW’s players showed up, with story and ewjerkz proving to be a real handful for OG. On the flipside, OG will feel hard done by, having lost their star player HeavyGod to illness pre-match. Still, regali stepped up in his absence, but it wasn’t enough to stop the SAW machine from rolling on.

Having shown some extremely promising CS at the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2024, SAW won’t want to go to the Spring Final just to be whipping boys. After this showing, they’ll feel they have a shot at causing some real damage to CS’ heavy hitters in London.

Spirit escape a scare

Credit: BLAST

Coming into the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown, you’d have been brave to bet against Spirit making it out of their side of the bracket. Until now, it had been business as usual, with donk continuing to dominate on the server. However, Metizport were no pushovers in the Final. The Swedes picked Vertigo, which seems to be the meta right now if you want to get a result against Spirit. It almost paid off, with Metizport winning the first map comfortably.

On Mirage and Nuke, Spirit came alive once more. Once they got going, Metizport struggled to keep up, and there was only one likely outcome. With donk in this sort of form, the only concern will be the team’s form on Vertigo. There’s a huge vulnerability there that better teams will definitely try to exploit going forward.

While Metizport might not be heading to London, they can be proud of their performance here. They’re a young team putting Swedish CS back on the map, and there’s no shame in falling to the team who likely head to the BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024 as favorites, especially after their IEM Katowice 2024 win. We can’t wait to see more from them.