Russian esports organisation Team Spirit won the Blast Premier Spring Final 2024 in London today.
They defeated Navi 3-1 in the grand final thanks to some solid teamwork, plays and communication.
Team Spirit started off dominant in the first two games, but Navi did fight back on both occasions, with Spirit winning the first two maps 13-9 (on Ancient and Dust 2).
Then, on map three (Mirage), it was Navi’s turn to start off on top. They went 8-0 ahead, before Spirit swung back in after a break, with Navi eventually winning the game 13-4.
But Spirit’s roster of Russian players chopper, magixx, donk, sh1ro and Ukrainian zont1x were too much for Navi (consisting of Ukrainians b1t and w0nderful, plus Finnish player Aleksib, Lithuanian player jL and Romanian iM). They won 3-1 overall.
magixx told host James Banks after the win:
“It feels great, because the results has not been decided by the lag, but how we played. I’m happy. Every crowd I’ve faced was against me, so I’m used to it. It’s not an issue, we’re used to it and we can play well.”
magixx, Team Spirit
The Blast Premier Spring Final 2024 saw 18,000 fans flock to the Wembley Arena across the three arena days, with 8,000 watching today’s grand final in person alone.
Elsewhere in the tournament, Saw and G2 finished bottom of group A and B respectively. Virtus Pro knocked out Astralis 2-0 before falling to Navi in the first semi-final 2-0.
Team Vitality knocked out Faze Clan 2-1, before falling 2-1 to Spirit in the other semi-final.
Both Navi and Spirit have already qualified for the Blast World Final 2024 which will take place in November. The world rankings leaderboard currently includes a top five of Faze, Navi, Vitality, Spirit and G2.
The news comes a few days after global Counter-Strike tournament series Blast Premier revealed plans for a revamped Blast Premier 2025 circuit.
Related article: Mezii on the ‘special’ home crowd at Wembley, reflecting on the semi-final loss, and looking forward to the break
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
