My oh my, this was definitely one of those CS:GO tournaments you just had to see to believe. There were huge (GIGANTIC) upsets all across the board with some of the biggest teams not even qualifying for the Finals or show match. Truth be told, this event really showed CS:GO in the best of lights. Packed with no shortage of thrilling matches, it left the live audience at the edge of their seats and millions of Twitch viewers craving for more. If you’ve missed out on the action, here’s a short BLAST Pro Series Miami Recap that’ll get you informed in a jiffy!

BLAST Pro Series Miami Recap – Everything You Need to Know

As you all know, BLAST Pro tournaments lead to the Global Final scheduled for December. The Global Final features the top four teams battling for a whopping $500,000. Needless to say, all these teams will be looking for good performances in the upcoming Madrid and Los Angeles events scheduled for May and July.

Additionally, BLAST Pro Series events have a unique format which can either be great or a total train wreck for some teams. All group stage matches are Bo1 which means high upset potential. Plus, there’s a ton of matches to be played across just two days. This brings fatigue into account too, something which is getting more and more important in the world of competitive esports.

Schedule tightness, fatigue and jet lag must’ve had some effect on these surprising results. So, without further ado, let’s start digging through all five group stage rounds after which we’ll round things off with the show match and grand finals!

Round 1 Recap

The first round of BLAST Pro Series Miami matches was pretty straightforward. All three matches finished without upsets. NaVi confirmed their dominance over MIBR, Astralis took down Cloud9 and Team Liquid before annihilating FaZe on Nuke. Nothing much to add here. The favorites justified their place in the power rankings and the underdogs were left with nothing but scraps to feed on.

Round 2 Recap

Much the same can be said about the round two matches. More or less, anyways. You see, Team Liquid won a hard-fought match against the all-new Cloud9 roster. Even though Cloud9 finished the tournament with a rather awful score, their new roster looked brilliant in certain situations. Their match against Team Liquid finished 14-16 but it really could’ve gone either way.

Natus Vincere lost to Astralis on Inferno with a brilliant performance by Xyp9x and Magisk. And lastly, FaZe and MIBR came to a draw after FaZe failed to close out yet another match. NiKo was, once again, the main gun in FaZe’s arsenal. He finished off his Friday with incredible 32 kills, 7 assists and 20 deaths in what was a splendid all-around performance.

Round 3 Recap

Moving on with this BLAST Pro Series Miami Recap, the third round is where things took a surprising turn. The third round of matches utterly floored everyone, and that’s not even giving this surprise enough justice. MIBR, a team that lost against NaVi and barely managed a draw against FaZe Clan, completely obliterated Astralis, the most dominant CS:GO team ever.

The map was Overpass and it started in a pretty standard fashion. Yes, MIBR took the pistol round but Astralis came right back at them at 1-1. Then MIBR went up again (2-1) but Astralis came back with another force buy to square it off at 2-2. And that’s basically the last round Astralis managed to win against a perfectly balanced MIBR team. Before you knew it, half-time was on and MIBR was leading with 13-2 on the scoreboard. A swift pistol round win followed by two final rounds to finish things off and deal the final blows to the best CS:GO team at the tournament.

In other matches, NaVi lost to Team Liquid on Inferno in what was a pretty close match from start to finish. FaZe Clan, on the other hand, started their day in a brilliant fashion, defeating the new Cloud9 roster 16 to 7 on Overpass.

Round 4 Recap

FaZe Clan couldn’t have had a better Saturday. After warming up against Cloud9 they went on to take revenge on S1mple’s NaVi for their Katowice Major quarterfinals defeat. S1mple did have a solid match, but he was nowhere near his brilliant self. NiKo, on the other hand, had several outstanding rounds and a generally stellar performance, snatching 22 kills across 26 rounds.

Team Liquid vs Astralis was the match everyone was interested in. The clash of titans, two of the best CS:GO teams out there, teams that met at the grand finals of the last BLAST Pro Series event in Sao Paulo. And it’s safe to say Team Liquid took their revenge as well. Even though the Great Danes had the momentum to take the match near the end, NAF, Twistzz, Stewie2K, and the boys made sure their presence was known in the last two rounds. 16 to 14 was the end result, slamming down Astralis and making them fight for the grand finals against FaZe Clan.

Lastly, Cloud9 suffered their fourth consecutive defeat against MIBR. The map was Cache and MIBR’s felps made a proper appearance with 23 kills. The end score was 16-6 in favor of the Brazilians, meaning all hopes for C9’s top three finish fell into the water.

Round 5 Recap

Let’s address the elephant in the room first. Yep – Astralis lost yet another match managing to get just five rounds on the scoreboard. FaZe Clan played probably their best match in a while, completely obliterating the Great Danes on Dust II and sending them packing home. NiKo, rain, and AdreN were proper beasts, making 63 kills combined across 21 rounds.

NaVi and Cloud9 played a formal match in which the NA team suffered their fifth defeat. Neither team had chances of making the grand finals or finishing in the top three, so yeah, the match was merely a formality.

The final match saw MIBR go up against Liquid. The crowd favorites were already cemented at the first spot and played their final match without any pressure. MIBR, on the other hand, needed a solid win to qualify for the grand finals. Even though they were off to a great start, NAF, EliGE, and Twistzz pulled their team back together and finished off with a 16-10 win. This resulted in MIBR choosing their opponents for the BLAST Pro Standoff (they chose C9) and FaZe going through to the grand finals.

BLAST Pro Standoff

Nothing much to say here. We enjoyed a splendid match on the all-new BLAST Pro Standoff map (you can download it here). There were a couple of great duels as well as an insanely intense CZ75 round with both players having just one bullet left in their guns. In fact, if you’re up for a thrilling contest I warmly suggest you go and watch this. It’s worth it!

As expected, MIBR took the W in the end and secured an additional $20,000 on top of the $25,000 they earned as the third-place team.

Grand Finals Bo3 Match

And, once again, Team Liquid failed to close out a tournament. Even though they looked like the most dominant team throughout the group stage matches (5-0), NiKo and the boys took them by surprise and won in a quick fashion. Mirage was a rather surprising pick for FaZe but NiKo and AdreN were up to the task. Despite Stewie2K’s Tweet just before the grand finals, he once again failed to deliver and was left with just 9 kills on the first map. The second map started out in a similar fashion but Team Liquid came close to a proper comeback. Unfortunately, NiKo secured his MVP status and brought FaZe Clan an important title. Not just for the sake of the team itself but for the sake of the BLAST Pro Season Leaderboard placement as well…

Road to BLAST Pro Series Global Final 2019 Got a Lot More Complicated

Here’s a look at the current BLAST Pro Season Leaderboard after the end of Miami event. As you can see, Astralis have been taken down the top spot by Team Liquid. FaZe is at their heels too. The two European teams are tied with twelve points each. MIBR is now in the top four but this will all certainly change since there are five more stops in the BLAST Pro Series season.

To finish off with this BLAST Pro Series Miami Recap, here’s a quick look at the official BPS leaderboard: