BLAST Open London 2025 Prediction. Who Will Become Champion and Why Spirit and NAVI Didn’t Make the Playoffs
Many have already started to forget what tier-1 online tournaments are like, but BLAST still resort to this format, especially in the early stages of competition. 16 teams were divided into two groups and only 6 of them will travel to London to play 2 quarterfinals, semifinals and determine the winner in the grand final. In this material, we’ll tell you how the groups went and who will lift the trophy in the capital of Great Britain.
Spirit and NAVI's Failure. Coincidence or Pattern?
Let’s start with the Dragons, who are failing their second tournament in a row after victories at IEM Cologne and BLAST Bounty S2. The deterioration in results came immediately after rumors about replacing TN1R with zontix, which looks quite logical. There’s a feeling that the potential transfer is still a forced measure, not a conscious step to improve the roster. Immediately after the defeat, rumors spread that the Dragons allegedly didn’t have time to process visas and lacked motivation to win, but honestly, these sound extremely dubious.
What we can discuss without doubt is the lackluster play of the team captain, who didn’t control the events happening on the server. Leonid recently went through a divorce and it’s not excluded that IRL problems had a negative impact on his performance. Momentary criticism directed at chopper and devaluation of his contribution to the team’s results caught up with him very quickly, but we wouldn’t rush to join this.
Everyone has already seen similar failures from Team Spirit last year. The team is quite young and the guys can deliver maximum performance over short distances, but they’re clearly not ready to dominate the entire season. Given such a number of circumstances, there’s no point in expecting any stability from them at all. So we’re waiting for news that promises to appear the day after the final in London.
As for NAVI, in our view everything here is less intriguing and interesting. Even after the IEM Cologne playoffs, we wrote that NAVI didn’t impress us at all, and reaching the semifinals was helped by iM’s incredible individual form and makazze’s successful debut. Now the guys lose to FaZe without chances, and then get eliminated by M80 altogether. The current roster has no bright spots except B1ad3 and, apparently, the head coach understands this himself. The team is looking at the long-term perspective, but one replacement might not be enough to return to their previous level.
MOUZ vs M80. New Faces on the Big Stage
Undoubtedly, the Americans became the main sensation of the tournament, managing not just to reach the playoffs, but to beat VP, NAVI on their way and crush Vitality on Overpass 13:3. This roster has been playing together for more than a year, but HexT joined them a month ago. The Canadian immediately fit into the collective, becoming the team’s main firepower. Now the guys have an 88% win rate on three maps at once, which is really impressive, however all this was online and quite naturally this format became a significant advantage for them. Now let’s see what they show on LAN against one of the most stable teams in the world.
What about MOUZ? “Everything is fine, we don’t see a single reason why the Mice should lose this match.” We would say if we hadn’t looked at the bans/picks and seen that on M80’s two best maps – Ancient and Overpass, MOUZ only have 25 and 33 percent wins. It’s possible they’ll have to pick Dust 2, on which they haven’t won for more than three months, as this is the Americans’ only weak spot.
But still, let’s not forget that the match will take place in a huge arena, where M80 will find themselves for the first time. Playing with spectators is completely different CS, which can only be learned by gaining experience. Dry statistics don’t always reflect the real picture either, as M80 accumulated these numbers at tier-3 tournaments, while MOUZ consistently play against the best teams in the world. We believe in MOUZ’s victory and their next battle against Vitality.
FaZe vs G2. Who Will Get Out of Crisis First?
We’ve been burying FaZe since the beginning of the season and it took the team just two months to realize the mistakes of the summer transfer campaign. It’s hard to say whether picking up the young Pole will be a panacea, but “rejuvenating” the roster was inevitable. Unfortunately for ELiGE, he became the “scapegoat,” which is logical since karrigan and rain are the untouchable pillars of FaZe (but their turn will come too). jcobbb hasn’t proven himself yet, but most importantly – he’s absorbing experience, while who really stands out is broky, who seems to have finally returned to his prime.
The Samurai realized all their problems a bit earlier and this tournament has already shown the first fruits of their work. The elder Kovac has clearly flourished in the captain role and the team looks much more energetic than when they arrived at IEM Cologne. Only one thing remained unchanged – SunPayus’s play, who still can’t show at least 50% of his level from the previous version of the game. After two years, no excuses like “CS2 killed snipers” work and the Spaniard needs to fix things urgently.
The match is literally 50-50 and it’s incredibly difficult to pick a favorite here. Despite the statistics, individually, head to head, G2 look slightly more interesting, but the difference in sniper level could simply negate the efforts of the other four. FaZe managed to reach the playoffs without significant participation from jcobbb, so it’s quite possible that his inexperience will have less effect than the difference between broky and SunPayus’s form. We decided to base our decision on this take and with a slight edge, we bet on FaZe’s victory.
Vitality. Not the Same Anymore or Still Worthy?
Three tournaments in a row we believed in Vitality’s championship, it turns out: “once – accident, twice – coincidence, three times – pattern?” Let’s reason. All recent events Vitality fail in the semifinals, and this time they’ll most likely meet against MOUZ, with whom the streak of failures began. In our view, this match will be decisive. If Vitality break the trend, then in a BO5 grand final, not a single team from the lower part of the bracket will compete with them. Perhaps M80 will even make their task easier and give themselves up for destruction in the semifinals.
So far apEX and company still don’t look like themselves and give away one map in each match. mezii especially declined and maybe the home arena will help the Briton return to his form from the victorious Major. Insanity is repeating the same action exactly, but we again make Vitality favorites, though not with such a huge gap as it was in previous tournaments.
FURIA. An Experiment That Continues to Surprise
It’s hard to name a team that made a bolder reshuffle and got such a huge boost. Reaching the playoffs has already become routine for them, and each player in the roster is developing more and more. Progress is obvious, especially in the smart use of players’ strengths. The same molodoy continues to be faithful to his aggressive style and while this negatively affects his statistics, his work on the map is very impressive. FalleN can definitely be satisfied with his successor, as can all Brazilian fans who haven’t seen their collective in the HLTV top-5 ranking for a very long time.
Given that on their way to the playoffs they beat Spirit and MOUZ, hardly anyone can call this result a coincidence. Maybe it’s all about online? This is what we have to find out. Preliminarily, we quite assume that not only reaching the grand final is within their capabilities, but also winning the event.
Victory Chances
- Vitality — 34.02%
- FURIA — 23.49%
- MOUZ — 20.99%
- FaZe — 9.86%
- G2 — 8.88%
- M80 — 2.76%
Alex
Alex is an author and esports observer with more than seven years of experience. He specializes in analyzing new releases in the world of computer games, gaming services, and in-game economies. Alex shares practical experience and an expert perspective on the development of gaming, helping readers understand complex mechanics and stay up to date with the latest news.
