London has performed host to the Counter-Strike 2 Blast Premier Spring Final, where a 17-year-old player took home the £158,000 prize.
This weekend Counter-Strike 2 and its relentless schedule, which sees professional players travel around the world to participate in new tournaments, returned to London, with the first international tournament in the capital since 2020.
The roughly 8,000 fans who attended the final on Sunday at OVO Arena Wembley, and the 18,000 who showed up between Wednesday and Sunday, were ecstatic to watch their favourite shooter in a live setting once again.
The Blast Premier Spring Final saw the best teams in the world battle against each other to take home a cool £158,000 first place prize, and it was a 17-year-old wonderkid who stole the show.
Team Spirit and Natus Vincere reached the final on Sunday, where the former was seen as the favourite to lift the trophy, with Dmitry ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov and youngster Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets dominating much of the final series.
The final used a first to win three maps format, where a team is said to have won a map by accumulating 13 rounds.
Team Spirit got off to a great start and was up 6-0 and 5-0 in rounds on maps Ancient and Dust2 and, despite heroic efforts to climb back by Natus Vincere, they eventually won both maps 13-9.
It could’ve all ended on the third map, Mirage, but Natus Vincere blew Team Spirit out of the water with a 13-4 win.
The series was then 2-1 in favour of Team Spirit, with the next map, Nuke, being a closer affair.
Natus Vincere got off to a 2-0 start, but Team Spirit fought back to make it 3-3 and eventually a 7-5 lead in their favour. 7-5 turned into 11-6 and Team Spirit won the map – and became Blast Premier Spring Final winners with an impressive 13-6 victory.
17-year-old prodigy ‘donk’ was crowned the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the tournament, and his talent shone through in the finals, where he choked up the most kills of everyone.
He finished the final series with 54 kills, six more than the second best player, and fellow teammate, ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov, further solidifying the young rifler’s reputation as one of the most feared players in the game right now.
Calm as can be after just lifting the trophy, and celebrating with his fans, donk wasn’t quite sure why he is so good at such a young age.
‘I don’t know… I think it’s because I believe in myself when I play CS [Counter-Strike 2] and that I like to play CS, and I’m really enjoying my time when I play CS,’ he told Metro.
‘I just want to be better every day that I spend playing this game. And I’m sure I can be much better than what I am right now.’
He said he can’t describe the feeling of winning the tournament, but that he was tired after giving his all in the finals and wanted to continue the celebration by finding some time to relax.
On the other hand, Natus Vincere’s top fragger, Justinas ‘jL’ Lekavicius, was clear on why they lost against Team Spirit.
‘I just don’t think we were there as a team, we’re not prepared to play for the win. I think we’re most scared about not losing. That was probably the main reason we lost, because the only map where we played for the win was Mirage.
‘I don’t think it was Team Spirit at all. It was us, Navi, that failed to show up. No matter the team we played, I don’t think we could’ve beaten a team. who came to win,’ he said.
For those not invested in either team, it was still a very entertaining final series, and the production and presentation of the event was equally impressive.
The players were lifted up from under the stage before the match, during team intros, and pyrotechnics fired up every time the in-game bomb exploded. The venue was also rigged with lots of cameras to capture it all on numerous livestreams across the internet and on the three big screens above the stage.
Counter-Strike 2 fans have gained a reputation as an amusingly overzealous bunch, which was also on show, with loud cheers for every kill and many holding up posters with silly captions, such as: ‘Get donked,’ and, ‘I missed Taylor Swift for this.’
The pros now get a month to go home and get ready to get back on the carousel again for the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where a new Counter-Strike 2 tournament starts up July 17 and first place takes home no less than £315,000.
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