CS:GO Turkish Delight – Blast Pro Series

Most Esports tournaments continue for a few days, but events of Blast Pro Series are exceptional. All the participants here play their matches on one day only. Thus, finalists should complete six games, and that is significant pressure even for pro-players – a kind of CS:GO marathon.

There were only two such blasting CS:GO events. SK Gaming won the first one, in Copenhagen, in 2017. The second took place in Istanbul, Turkey, on September 29, 2018. Astralis took the grand prize here – just a week after their glorious victory at Faceit Major in London.

Astralis the winner of Blast Pro Series Istanbul 2018

Group Stage: Five Bo1 Matches, no Overtimes

There were six teams at this tournament – all of them are world-famous participants of the latest Major:

Astralis;
Cloud9,
MIBR;
NiP;
Space Soldiers;
Virtus.pro.

The group stage contained five rounds, where the teams faced off against each other. The top two got tickets to the Grand Final. The organizers tried to make matches of this stage time-limited (for obvious reasons) – all games were of the Best of 1 format with no possibility of overtime.

Astralis won all their matches. Only NiP put up resistance and finished the match 16:11. Other contenders lost with no better than 16:7.
MIBR had not such a powerful start. In the second round, they played 15:15 with NiP. In the last (fifth) round, MIBR lost to Astralis.

Pro Standoff – NiP vs Space Soldiers

After the Group Stage, viewers witnessed quite a unique CS:GO competition – five 1v1 duels with five different weapons for every pair. Each duel continued till 7 kills. A team with the most kills wins.

The winners of this Pro Standoff were Ninjas in Pyjamas, who finished the Group Stage in third place and could choose their opponents. They chose Space Soldiers and defeated them.

The Grand Final – Failed Revenge

MIBR had a very negative experience with Astralis. These teams played at the Legends stage of Faceit Major, and Astralis defeated their opponents with no chances. That match is the first and only CS:GO Major bout with the score 16:0. A bit before, MIBR played with Astralis in the quarterfinal of DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018, and the result was similarly unsatisfying for the Brazilian team – they lost 0:2. What a motivation they had to take a revenge at the Grand Final of Blast Pro Series in Istanbul!

Astralis vs MIBR – 2:1

First, it seemed like MIBR had no chance – they lost the first map with the score 16:3 (Train). Still, they managed to put up a nice fight on Overpass and took this map with the score 14:16. The deciding map also wasn’t easy for Astralis. Both teams took some rounds in a row. Both were just incredible! At the end, Astralis won on Inferno 16:14.

The prize pool of this tournament was $250,000. Astralis got $125,000. This is not a bad addition to their haul in 2018 – which already includes the prize money for victory at ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018.

Blast Pro Series Istanbul 2018 The next event of Blast Pro Series will be in Copenhagen, on November 3, 2018.

Some great CS:GO teams missed this tournament because they participated in another one – ESL One: New York 2018 which took place on September 26-30.

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