Heroic survive Imperial to advance to BLAST Spring Final title decider

The Brazilians' eyebrow-raising run has been halted in the semi-finals after a laborious three-map thriller versus Heroic.

Heroic are the first team through to the BLAST Premier Spring Final title decider after taking down Imperial in a marathon three-map series. The Danes drew first blood after a hotly-contested brawl on Overpass (16-13) before conceding their Inferno pick (11-16) and needing a trip to overtime on the Nuke decider (19-17) to clinch victory.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023
11/06/2023	Heroic 20:30 Vitality	Match

Heroic can now breathe a sigh of relief after their narrow victory over Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo and company. The Danes have infamously been unable to move past lesser-ranked teams on a number of occasions in recent times, something Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller joked about in an interview with HLTV on Friday. The same looked to be true versus the Brazilians in this semi-final, with Heroic dropping their Inferno pick, despite being 11-7 up at one point, before letting eight series points slip through their fingers on Nuke, ultimately requiring a full set of overtime to separate the two teams.

Read more

cadiaN jokes: "It was a nice run, another top-four, we're happy about that"

Regardless, Heroic now progress to their third Big Event grand final of 2023 after previously reaching the last hurdle at IEM Katowice and IEM Rio. This time, however, they'll be looking to go the whole way and pick up their first silverware of the year when they play the winner of G2 versus Vitality on Sunday at 20:30 .

Conversely, Imperial's surprisingly strong run through the BLAST Premier Spring Final has reached its end. The Brazilians made the trip to Washington, D.C. with rumors of their captain FalleN potentially flying the nest, but still managed to take down Complexity and the No. 1-ranked Vitality, whilst also making G2 and Heroic sweat in hard-fought three-map affairs during what could be their final event as a fully-fledged quintet.

It was Imperial who got off to the better start in the tournament's first semi-final bout, with Marcelo "⁠chelo⁠" Cespedes and Jhonatan "⁠JOTA⁠" Willian combining for 16 kills on the T-side to spearhead an early 5-1 lead for the Brazilians. It took a triple kill from cadiaN and his AWP in round seven for the Danes to get on the board, and the script was completely flipped from that moment on. Heroic went on to mount a near-impenetrable defense, forcing Imperial to save their guns time and time again to allow the world's No. 2 side to sit ahead by one at the break.

Heroic quickly extended their lead once it was their turn to attack, consistently out-gunning and finding gaps in the Brazilians' defensive line to sprint past double digits and leave their foes in the dust. A quad-kill hold of the A bombsite by JOTA, much to the jubilation of the Washington, D.C. crowd, was a key reason why Imperial were able to take control of the momentum and tie things up at 13 rounds apiece, but this only served to prolong the opening map.

Heroic dug deep in Overpass' dying stages, steadily chaining together a round at a time en route to victory, with cadiaN and Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard even overturning a 2vs4 in round 29 to get the Danes over the line, 16-13.

Much like Overpass, Imperial enjoyed a hot start on Inferno, a 1vs3 clutch from FalleN in round five enabling the Brazilians to keep their flawless T-side going that little bit longer. This domination continued until Heroic were able to win two rounds via time expiration, victories which emptied the Brazilians' coffers and provided a perfect opportunity for cadiaN and company to inch back into contention. Again like the series opener, Heroic's uptick in form endured for much of what was left in the half, culminating in the Danish ensemble heading into their T-side sporting yet another one-round advantage, 8-7.

The neck-and-neck nature of the battleground remained in place at the outset of the second half; a Danish three-round spree was met with a Brazilian five-round streak, the two teams reaching an 11-11 stalemate. Imperial turned to Vinicius "⁠VINI⁠" Figueiredo to help remove the logjam; the 24-year-old was a stalwart on the B bombsite, single-handedly locking down his area of the map and even pulling off a 1vs3 with a ninja defuse to get his team on map point. From there, it was simply a case of shutting down a fast Heroic play up middle to cap off the nine-round streak and force a three-map affair, 16-11.

Heroic hopped back in the driver's seat once Nuke rolled around, accruing a 5-1 lead on the CT-side in a bid to brush off their lackluster end to Inferno. The Danes' grip on the game only tightened as their CT-side flew by, with Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund in particular coming alive after a particularly quiet series by his standards up until that point. The 21-year-old went above and beyond the call of duty and ended the 11-4 half with a 24-5 K-D differential, with eight double kill rounds and a 162 ADR.

Imperial were able to kick-start a piercing comeback once they were on the CT-side. Key site holds from Ricardo "⁠boltz⁠" Prass allowed the Brazilians to steadily eat into the deficit, piling the pressure on the Danes and staving off eight series points to force overtime on the Nuke decider. Once there, the winds continue to lean in Imperial's favor and the FalleN-led roster extended their streak to 12 rounds in a row, but crumbled when victory was in touching distance, with cadiaN clutching a 1vs2 in round 35 to guide his troops to a slender 19-17 victory in the USA.