FURIA and Team Spirit advance to BLAST.tv Austin Major Playoffs

Team Spirit and FURIA have become the first teams to qualify for the Playoffs at the BLAST.tv Austin Major. 

The two sides ended their Stage 3 campaigns with a third successive win to claim a flawless record in this section of the competition. Moreover, Day 2 of Stage 3 also saw Team Liquid and Nemiga exit from the Austin Major.

The Brazilian Counter-Strike scene will be represented at the Moody Center, after FURIA secured qualification with relative ease against Virtus.Pro.

A 13-3 victory on Mirage followed by a 13-5 win on Train wrapped up the best-of-three series in convincing fashion. For Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo, the Austin Major is the first time the Brazilian icon has qualified for the Playoffs since 2019.

Virtus.pro has two more chances of earning a Playoff place as a result of its 2-1 record. 

Defending Major champions Team Spirit also booked its place in the Playoffs after defeating an in-form NAVI in round three. A closely fought 13-11 win on Anubis laid the foundation for the team to dominate Train, taking the map and series with a 13-3 score line. 

Team Spirit is now in an excellent position to defend the title it won at the Perfect World Shanghai Major. Meanwhile, NAVI heads into the 2-1 bracket with a second chance of earning a Playoff place.

After defeats to Virtus.pro and FaZe Clan in the first two rounds, MOUZ found itself on the verge of a shock elimination despite heading into the Austin Major as the second-best team in the world.

The German organisation kicked off its series against Team Liquid with a 13-8 win on Dust II before the North American representative responded with a 13-4 win to take the series to a deciding map, Mirage.

After building an 8-1 lead, MOUZ was in the driving seat. However, an inspired effort from Liquid managed to force triple overtime. Nevertheless, it wasn’t enough to stop MOUZ from scoring a 22-19, knocking Team Liquid out of the Major.

Elsewhere, Nemiga kicked off proceedings against paiN Gaming with a 13-8 win on Ancient. But, the Brazilian team responded with a 13-8 victory of its own on Anubis to force a third-map decider on Dust II. Despite Nemiga’s best efforts, PaiN’s defensive strength shone through, winning 13-7 to eliminate Nemiga from the competition.

Following the conclusion of round three, attention turns to rounds four and five to determine the final teams that will compete at the Playoffs.

The losers of the 2-1 matches will advance to round five, where they will compete against the winners of the 1-2 matches to decide which teams qualify to compete at the Moody Center.

Fans can tune into the final matches of Stage 3 across BLAST’s YouTube and Twitch channels.