In the last counter-strike tournament of the year, Team Liquid made a dream start. In the opening game of the Blast Premier World Final, the US team defeated the major winner Natus Vincere with 2:1 (16:11; 7:16; 16:7) - the first tournament defeat for Navi since October.

For the time being, it is the last tournament for Liquid's lineup. Due to insufficient results, the e-sports organization is looking for new players for the coming year. That's not the only reason why the victory over Navi is a surprise: "Since the Major in October, we have hardly trained together," said Liquids Jacky "Stewie2K" Yip in an interview after the game against Navi.

"We have no more pressure, everyone plays as he wants. It just works," Captain Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski said. "If we can beat Navi, we can win the tournament.»

Heroic and NiP with Substitute players

Two of the eight participating teams have to use a substitute player, which is initially reflected in the results for both teams. For example, Ninjas in pajamas, in which star player Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz is missing due to injury, lost the first tournament game with a score of 1:2 against G2 Esports.

For Heroic, with Johannes "b0RUP" Borup filling in for Martin "stavn" Lund, the Blast Premier World Final is even over. The Danes were the first team to drop out of the tournament after two 0-2 losses to Gambit Esports and Navi.