Na’Vi wins BLAST Premier Global Final as event sets viewership record

Team Na’Vi has won the BLAST Premier Global Final by defeating team Astralis, even as the event witnessed record viewership of over 568k viewers

Natus Vincere (Na’Vi) swept Astralis 2-0 in Sunday’s grand finale to claim the title at the BLAST Premier: Global Final 2020. Na’Vi won 16-12 on Nuke and then clinched the triumph with a 16-5 win on Inferno.

The $1 million Counter-Strike: Global Offensive online extravaganza saw eight teams battling it out against each other. The tournament featured a double-elimination bracket with all matches best-of-three, including Sunday’s grand finale. Na’Vi won a prize money of $600,000.

Record viewers for BLAST Premier Global Final

What’s more, this final day of the event broke the record for an online CS:GO event’s concurrent viewership on several different occasions. The record was originally set during ESL Pro League Season 12 Europe when Natus Vincere and Astralis faced off in the finals in front of 568,406 live viewers.

That number was topped four different times during the event, with Na’Vi as the connective factor between the numbers. The other two record-breakers were a result of Na’Vi playing Team Liquid, with a peak viewership of 569,159 for their day-two matchup. 592,089 viewers watched when they faced off in a playoff elimination game on day five.

BLAST Premier Global Final game flow

Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev of the Ukraine led Na’Vi with 50 kills and a plus-21 kills-to-death ratio, while Ilya ‘Perfecto’ Zalutskiy of Russia produced 36 kills and a plus-14 ratio. Neck-to-neck was Kirill ‘Boombl4’ Mikhailov, who had 35 kills and a plus-7 kill-to-deaths ratio.

Na’Vi trailed 7-5 in the first half on Nuke before they closed the half with three straight points to take an 8-7 lead at the break. They won six of the last nine points in the second half to go up 1-0.

They also emerged victorious in six of the last seven points in the first half on Inferno for a 10-5 halftime lead. They then closed out the victory with the first six points of the second half.

Two players from Denmak, Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander and Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif, had 31 and 30 kills respectively for Astralis in the losing cause. Magisk and gla1ve each had a minus-8 kills-to-death ratio.

Prize pool for the BLAST Premier Global Final:

1. Natus Vincere: $600,000
2. Astralis: $200,000
3. Team Vitality: $80,000
4. Team Liquid: $50,000
5-6. Evil Geniuses, G2 Esports: $20,000
7-8. FURIA Esports, Complexity Gaming: $15,000