The last tournament of the year 2021, the BLAST Premier World Final, has begun. Today, CS.MONEY is going to refresh your memory as we take a retrospective look at the players who received the MVP title in the four most recent large-scale BLAST Premier finals.
BLAST Premier: Fall 2020 Finals
The BLAST Premier Fall Final 2020 was one of the last tournaments where teams actively employed six players. For example, Natus Vincere’s Egor “flamie” Vasilyev was replaced by Valeryi “b1t” Vakhovskyi, Vitality had Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom as back-up, and Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen often played in the Astralis roster.
The top 1 of the world was then occupied by Vitality, who also won the competition. The MVP went to the permanent headliner of the Bees, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaugh. We also can’t help but mention the great shape of Vitality’s youth at that tournament: Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier and Nivera really shined in the matches, becoming the 3rd and 4th best players, respectively.
By the way, we recently held an exclusive interview with Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier and learned quite a lot about this guy in the process!
BLAST Premier: Global Final 2020
At the beginning of 2021, no one could predict who would dominate the scene for the coming 12 months. The triumph of Born to Win was unexpected — and therefore particularly sweet. Many fans will remember the Nuke versus Vitality match as a momentous game: after a 9–15 lead, the CIS-based team clinched their hard-fought victory. This map allowed them to crush the French 2–1 on maps and proceed to take revenge on their notoriously difficult opponent, Astralis. The El Clasico of the CS world ended with NAVI’s 2–0 victory. This was B1T’s first big win — and a significant step forward for the entire organisation.
The tournament’s MVP was Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, NAVI’s constant top 1 player and their permanent AWPer. His ratings of 1.41 and 1.52 KD are unattainable peaks for his competitors.
BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2021
By the beginning of the tournament, the scene’s favorites included NAVI and, unexpectedly, Gambit, who had progressed rapidly from the academic roster to the level of tier-1 squads. At that time, the Reds enjoyed their big time: they won tournament after tournament, sometimes inflicting on their opponents defeats nothing short of devastating. This BLAST Premier event was no exception: NAVI, the world’s top 2, failed to stop them, all their efforts notwithstanding.
Abai “Hobbit” Hasenov won the MVP. In 2020, some wrote him off as a seasoned retiree. Few expected him to rise from the ashes like a phoenix in 2021 and start annihilating enemies again like he did in 2017. His 2.0 rating surpassed even that of Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, testifying yet again to the high skill level of the Kazakhstan-based player. On top of that, this event was the beginning of the end for Complexity: soon after the tournament ended, players started to experience inconsistency in their performances on the server, with the endless reshuffles and stand-ins quickly leading to a drop in performance.
BLAST Premier: Fall Finals 2021
Something a lot of people have missed is finally back: LAN tournaments. Live emotion, screaming arenas, posters, fan slogans, pre-match interviews, and so much more that we didn’t get to enjoy in the online era. The return of tournaments to stadiums coincided with NAVI’s ascension to the throne as they began to win every event in the second half of 2021 which they attended. The Fall Final 2021 was no exception: despite some issues in the matches against Heroic and Vitality, Born to Win once again defeated all European competitors who made multiple substitutions after PGL Major Stockholm.
The title of the Maersk MVP BLAST Fall Final 2021 was eventually awarded to s1mple. The Ukrainian AWPer scored a rating of 1.39. But there’s more: this BLAST was also memorable in making it clear that NAVI is mostly fuelled by the planet’s 3 best shooters: Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, Denis “electronic” Sharipov, and Valeryi “b1t” Vakhovskyi. Although everyone wants to learn how to play like Natus Vincere, no one has managed to reach their level as of yet.
That covers the most recent BLAST tournaments and their MVPs. Did you dig the post? If so, we suggest you also check out our selection of 10 memes from the most recent Major and an insight into North American CS. Also, stay tuned to the CS.MONEY Blog — we won’t let you get bored!
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