Paytyn “junior” Johnson shines in an unexpected victory against his former team.
The BLAST Premier Spring Showdown Americas has reached the semifinal stage after two action-packed days, with paiN, Liquid, Imperial, and EG Black advancing to the top four.
In the tournament’s most shocking result so far, Evil Geniuses, after facing criticism for their decision to field their secondary squad, eliminated one of the favorites, FURIA, from contention for the single spot at June’s BLAST Premier Spring Final.
Junior has been in excellent form since joining the academy team and was once again outstanding in the 2-1 series against his former team. The 22-year-old AWPer took the lead in the two map wins with a 24-7 score on Mirage (1.82 rating) and 31-13 on Inferno (1.65 rating), where EG Black made a comeback from a 6-13 deficit.
EG Black will face Imperial in the semifinals next. Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo’s team eliminated Complexity from the tournament in the quarterfinals, during which the North American team’s star, Håkon “hallzerk” Fjærli, had to play from Norway on high ping as he was unable to travel to the United States.
On the other side of the bracket, paiN and Liquid will compete for a spot in the grand final after defeating MIBR and Nouns, respectively, in the tournament’s opening round.
