Ancient and Vertigo out in the cold at BLAST
Neither Ancient nor Vertigo have been picked a single time at BLAST Premier Fall Final 2021
In the map pool, we have seven maps: Mirage, Inferno, Dust2, Overpass, Nuke, Vertigo, and Ancient. Out of the 36 maps that have been picked in 12 matches so far, Vertigo and Ancient have not been amongst them once.
In comparison, these maps were at the receiving end of 27% of the picks at the PGL Major Stockholm, which is the most recent big event of the CS:GO scene.
Now, what is the reason for this? Obviously, some teams might have either Ancient or Vertigo as their perma-ban, and sometimes these teams will face each other. But this is not the case. For example, if we take a look at the first match of the tournament which was Vitality vs. Liquid. These teams both perma-ban Ancient, thus Vertigo is an option to play for both teams. So what is the reason for these maps to be shunned here at BLAST? Do the teams still need more time to adjust to Ancient? Have the players suddenly developed a fear of the heights of Vertigo? We might never know.
