The BLAST Open Spring 2025 Group Stage is officially over, with the tournament now moving from Copenhagen’s BLAST Studios to the big stage in Lisbon, Portugal. Today’s matches had big implications for the final Playoffs bracket, featuring both upper and lower bracket matches in the Groups. Upper bracket matches determined who would skip straight to the Semi-Finals, while lower bracket matches were set to decide the final two teams who would reach the Playoffs. Let’s look at how it went, shall we?
Spirit and G2 complete lower bracket runs
Credit: Stephanie Lindgren | BLAST
The first match of the final day of the BLAST Open Spring 2025 Groups was Spirit vs. Virtus.pro, a battle of the CIS teams. In truth, this was about as straightforward a series as you’ll ever see. Virtus.pro, still exhausted from their marathon match against Falcons yesterday, offered very little as donk dominated to take Spirit to the Lisbon Playoffs in 2:0 fashion. Spirit were always the favorites in this lower bracket, so there’s little surprise here.
Over in Group B, we got a slightly more shocking result in the match between G2 and The MongolZ. Of late, G2 have massively struggled for form, while The MongolZ have been on the up-and-up, impressing with a few strong Playoff runs. Here, G2 won out 2:0, winning what wasn’t even a particularly competitive series. The difference between a usual day for G2 was Snax coming up massive for the team. It’s incredible how high the floor for G2 lifts when their low-fragging IGL manages to shoot back for once.
Vitality and Eternal Fire go through to the Semis
Credit: Stephanie Lindgren | BLAST
The stakes in the upper brackets were not quite so drastic, with all teams involved having already secured their place in the Lisbon BLAST Open Spring 2025 Playoffs a few days ago. Still, with a place in the Semi-Finals on the line, it was worth it for all these teams to give their all and lock in a top-four finish before they even set foot onto a stage.
The first match between MOUZ and Vitality was thrilling, finishing 2:0 but with both maps going the distance at 13:11. The winner? Vitality, of course. They’re the best CS2 team in the world right now; there’s no argument about that. However, they weren’t at their best here, so it says a lot that they were still able to get over a MOUZ team that frankly played pretty well. I expect Vitality to go on and win the event now, but I’d think that even if they had lost here and had to face the Quarter-Finals.
Later in the day, it was Eternal Fire and NAVI‘s turn to duke it out for a spot in the Semi-Finals. It proved to be a record-breaking match, with Eternal Fire beating NAVI for the first time in their history. It was 2:0, too, in a series that NAVI never once looked competitive in. It’s a Playoff spot for NAVI regardless, sure, but there remain some alarm bells around this team.