BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022 preview & predictions

BLAST Premier: Fall Groups is one of the three remaining BLAST Premier 2022 events ahead of the BLAST Premier: World Final, which features the top eight CS:GO teams in a battle for $1 million in prize money.

As usual, the competition starts with three groups of four teams. Six of the 12 participants advance to BLAST Premier: Fall Finals, while the other six will get a second chance to qualify for that tournament in the Fall Showdown.

Fall Groups preview

BLAST Premier 2022 Fall Groups is a LAN event that takes place in Copenhagen, so we can expect very exciting matches to watch. The competition starts on August 19 and will run until August 28.

Participants

Here’s the full BLAST Premier 2022: Fall Groups line-up:

• Astralis
• BIG
• Complexity
• Evil Geniuses
• FaZe Clan
• G2 Esports
• Heroic
• Natus Vincere
• Ninjas in Pyjamas
• OG
• Team Liquid
• Team Vitality

Format

The 12 prticipating teams are divided into three groups of four. The winner of each group advances to the finals of the play-in stage, while the runner-up advances to the semifinals. Lastly, the bottom two teams advance to the quarterfinals.

The group stage consists of three groups that use a double-elimination format, while the play-in stage consists of three independent single-elimination brackets. The winners of these competitions qualify for the Fall Finals. The second and third place teams get one more chance to qualify by playing a final match against one of the other teams that failed to win. In the end, six teams qualify for the Fall Finals while the other six go to Fall Showdown for another chance.

Prizes

Given that this is just the regular season-type of event, its prize pool is quite low ($177,000), so the teams will mostly focus on finishing in the top six. Everything else is of little importance.

Predictions

The groups of the tournament are these:

Group A

• Team Vitality
• OG
• NiP
• Astralis

The clear favorites in this group are NiP, Astralis, and Vitality. All four teams will advance to the play-in stage, but it’s likely that either Astralis or NiP will be the winners.

Group B

• Natus Vincere
• Complexity
• G2 Esports
• Team Liquid

In group B, Natus Vincere and Team Liquid are the main favorites. At this point, it’s hard to take G2 seriously because their latest roster moves look like a downgrade from the outside.

Group C

• FaZe Clan
• Evil Geniuses
• Heroic
• BIG

FaZe Clan and Heroic should have an easy path to the Grand Final, but BIG might upset Heroic and steal their spot. There can only be one winner here, and that’s FaZe.

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