BLAST Premier Fall is just around the corner, and WIN has all the information fans need.
With the tournament's groups revealed, there's no safe place to hide for teams trying to sneak their way into the group stage. This year's leap backward to online competition has turned some players into Counter-Strike gods. Some teams can't take the pressure of the LAN environment or simply play better from the comfort of their own homes.
BLAST Fall Series brings CSGO's first international competition in months
There are some changes coming to BLAST Premier for the fall season. Instead of two regional tournaments, teams will travel to Europe to compete in CSGO's first international event since travel restrictions were adopted worldwide. BLAST is here to shake things up after months of regional leagues by having international competitions featuring teams from the Americas and Europe.
All of the teams attending are household names, and fans won't have to wait until the playoffs to see a variety of different CSGO styles clash.
That said, the BLAST's Fall series is missing some notable names. 100 Thieves pulled out of CSGO entirely early in October, while Team Liquid withdrew from the event after negotiating a spot in BLAST's Fall Showdown. In reality, the absence of these teams may have ended up giving fans the kind of CSGO they like to see.
Group 1:
Group 2:
Group 3:
Astralis vs. FURIA the highlight of BLAST group stage matchups
The highlight of the group stage is expected to be a showdown between the two ESL Pro League Season 12 regional champions. FURIA and Astralis find themselves in the same group. Group C will likely come down to which one of these two teams takes a win off the other. Usually there's always a chance in CSGO, but the new champions of the Americas and Europe's long-reigning kings are joined by MIBR and G2 Esports. MIBR currently only has two active players, and G2 has plummeted in the rankings after a strong summer.
In fact, all three groups have contenders for Fall Series' top spot. Benjamen "blameF" Bremmer and Complexity's roster are a sneaky good team, no matter who ends up filling the spot left by Owen "oBo" Schlatter. Recent losses don't tell the full story of Complexity, who took both Fnatic and Team Vitality down to the wire at IEM New York Online. On the topic of underdogs, Ninjas in Pyjamas is another team fans should keep their eyes on.
The team could easily put away Na`Vi, who will most likely play without Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy due to illness. OG has been consistently hit or miss, but the team has grown under Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen in the year since its formation. But Group 1's wildcard is almost certainly Evil Geniuses.
Evil Geniuses enters BLAST on a hot streak with Global Finals on the line
The North American team will travel outside the states for the first time in almost a year for BLAST, and comes into the event with a 12-4 record since July's player break. EG's losses came against 100 Thieves and FURIA, so with 100 Thieves phased out of CSGO and FURIA poking at Astralis in Group 3, EG might be the favorites in what seems like the weakest of the three groups.
There's a lot of money on the line. The Fall Series leads to BLAST's ultimate tournament, the $1 million BLAST Global Finals. The finals are worth as much as any CSGO major to date.
But BLAST has once again been clever in its scheduling. As two other CSGO tournament organizers fight over what would have been ESL's Major dates, BLAST has avoided scheduling conflicts with FLASHPOINT 2 or ESL's IEM Beijing-Haiden tournaments, both of which take place the week after BLAST's Fall Series ends. BLAST is all set to kick off its Fall Series with the day's first matchups, Na`Vi vs. NiP and Evil Geniuses vs. OG. BLAST has spread out its matches and won't have any overlapping games, meaning that it will be a good week of Counter-Strike for fans tired of the regional back-and-forth.
FURIA versus G2 Esports in Group 3's opening round is the must-watch game and will give analysts enough footage to work with to see if FURIA can hang in the international crowd. Astralis is set to take on MIBR, so fans should watch the better Brazilian team if they can only snag one game. A two versus five isn't fun.
