The first day of the BLAST Premier Showdown will bring us three interesting matches with six teams. Will Liquid finally show us its natural strength, or will SAW continue succeeding after qualifying for PGL Major? Can Complexity finally find some consistency, or will it be another tournament to get them experience? Can OG hype themselves up enough to continue playing after losing qualifiers and showing results without roster changes after failing PGL Major qualifiers? What is the new Monte team roster capable of? Can they stand against teams from Brazil, such as Imperial, who have yet to get their experience against world-level teams? We must see all that on BLAST Day 2; don’t miss the action!
Second Day (March 7) Schedule:
- Liquid vs. SAW starting at 15:30 CET
- Complexity vs. OG starting at 18:00 CET
- Monte vs. Imperial starting at 20:30 CET
Liquid vs. SAW
Liquid didn’t qualify for PGL Major, and now, for that reason, this tournament might become much more critical for them since it’s their chance to get a spot at another tournament and have something big to play shortly. Other than their run at PGL qualifiers, they didn’t show good results previously, either. They still can’t find their ground with their new roster and in-game leader.
On the other side, SAW played their EU PGL Major qualifier and managed to qualify as the underdogs to do so. So we can say they’re in good form right now and might be ready to surprise us even more if they keep their win streak at this tournament.
The match will be interesting. That’s one thing we know for sure. It’s experienced players and a team who haven’t found their ground yet against a much younger and less experienced team that seems to be successfully building its way to the top. And based on everything and odds being more than 2.1 for the SAW side on every possible bookmaker out there, we would say that SAW to win this match seems like a valuable choice here.
Complexity vs. OG
Complexity successfully qualified for PGL Major, which shows that they’re in good shape and ready to fight. Other than that, they didn’t have that much success previously when they played different tournaments with EU- and CIS-based teams. This tournament is another chance for them to show what they’re capable of against teams from other parts of the world.
OG is still having difficulties, and it’s already been a long, hard time for them. They didn’t qualify for the PGL Major or show no success at other tournaments, either. It’s hard to tell what they’re missing to find some success, but we can only hope they can do it at some point.
With everything said above and based on the team shape, we would say that Complexity should win this match since they got their motivation and taste of winning from the PGL Major qualifiers. It would be good for them to keep that way and get even better and more experienced as a team before PGL Major kicks in.
Monte vs. Imperial
There’s not much to say about Monte here. After losing PGL Major qualifiers and being in bad shape even before that, they decided to change their roster, and it’s yet to be determined what their roster will be in the future. At this tournament, they will play with two temporary stand-ins.
Imperial won their spot at PGL Major through the qualifiers, and now it’s time to show themselves against world teams and maybe even try to get one more spot at another big tournament to play in the future.
Since Monte hasn’t even completed a new roster yet, it’s a massive advantage for Imperial, who have to be in a good mood since they got themselves a spot at the biggest tournament coming soon. Based on this, we would say that Imperial has a better chance of winning this match.
We will be back with our predictions for BLAST Day 3 soon. Stay tuned!
