The opening round of the BLAST Open Porto group stage concluded on Thursday, delivering immediate drama at the BLAST Studios located in the outskirts of Copenhagen. While the playoffs will take place next week in Portugal, the studio phase opened with two major upsets that sent title contenders straight to the lower bracket.
Opening round results and bracket overview
The main storylines of the first two days emerged from the defeats of Natus Vincere and Vitality. On Wednesday, M80 secured a 2-1 series win over Natus Vincere, while Inner Circle closed out Thursday’s action with a 2-0 sweep against Vitality. Both defeated rosters now face single-elimination pressure for the remainder of the group stage.
The remaining series followed expected lines. On August 26, FURIA took down paiN 2-0, Spirit defeated DENDELE 2-0, and G2 won 2-0 against Aurora. On August 27, Falcons edged past Lynn Vision 2-1, Legacy recorded a 2-0 victory against FUT, and MOUZ swept 9z 2-0.
August 26 results
- FURIA 2 – 0 paiN
- Natus Vincere 1 – 2 M80
- Spirit 2 – 0 DENDELE
- Aurora 0 – 2 G2
August 27 results
- Falcons 2 – 1 Lynn Vision
- Legacy 2 – 0 FUT
- MOUZ 2 – 0 9z
- Vitality 0 – 2 Inner Circle
Top individual performers on the server
Danil “donk” Kryshkovets set the benchmark for individual output during the opening round. The Spirit rifler recorded a 2.14 rating across two maps against DENDELE, alongside a +22 kill-death differential and a 1.85 K/D.
Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis posted a 1.64 rating (+13) in FURIA’s sweep of paiN, matching the 1.64 rating (+28) registered by Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov across Falcons’ three-map battle with Lynn Vision. Artem “r1nkle” Moroz also put up strong numbers for G2, finishing with a 1.56 rating (+24).
For the underdog winners, Inner Circle’s cptkurtka023 led the charge against Vitality with a 1.58 rating (+13), supported by Daniil “headtr1ck” Valitov at a 1.37 rating (+18). M80 received a balanced contribution against Natus Vincere, led by JBa with a 1.30 rating (+7) and slaxz- with a 1.06 rating (+9).
Several star names found themselves on the lower end of the statistical board. Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut finished Vitality’s 0-2 loss with a 0.78 rating, matching the 0.78 rating posted by Natus Vincere in-game leader Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen in their defeat to M80.
Upcoming schedule and next matches
The tournament continues on Friday, August 28, with the first set of lower bracket elimination matches and upper bracket qualification games.
Friday, August 28
- 11:00 CEST: Aurora vs DENDELE (Lower bracket)
- 13:30 CEST: G2 vs Spirit (Upper bracket)
- 16:00 CEST: Natus Vincere vs paiN (Lower bracket)
- 18:30 CEST: M80 vs FURIA (Upper bracket)
Saturday, August 29
- 11:00 CEST: Vitality vs 9z (Lower bracket)
- 13:30 CEST: Inner Circle vs MOUZ (Upper bracket)
- 16:00 CEST: FUT vs Lynn Vision (Lower bracket)
- 18:30 CEST: Legacy vs Falcons (Upper bracket)
