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BLAST Premier: Spring Final group A preview

The name of this event is a bit funny given that Summer has just begun. But that aside, this... Radu M. | 3. June 2023

The name of this event is a bit funny given that Summer has just begun. But that aside, this will be a great CS:GO tournament that features eight teams, many of which are among the world’s best.

In fact, only two of the participants are not among the best of the best: Imperial and Complexity. Astralis could also be included in the underdog category, but in the last few weeks we’ve seen them beating some really strong teams, including Cloud9, Team Liquid, and OG.

BLAST Premier: Spring Final is scheduled to take place between June 7-11. Its prize pool will be $425.000. As usual, the action will be divided into two parts: groups and playoffs. The group stage lasts for two days. The playoffs will take place over three days. BLAST’s formula has been used multiple times already and it works well for everyone.

Group A participants

Here are the four teams that will compete in group A of BLAST Premier: Spring Final:

  • Team Vitality
  • G2 Esports
  • Cloud9
  • Imperial Esports

This is a group that will be heavily dominated by Vitality. Unless, of course, the Paris Major champions have decided to take a complete break from CS:GO after they won the tournament.

Most likely, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and his teammates went back to training just days after their epic victory, which marked the first time when Vitality wins a CS:GO Major.

In the case of G2 and Cloud9, we know that both of these teams are highly skilled, but their recent form has been poor. Since March 2023, G2 participated in two S-tier tournaments: ESL Pro League S17 (9th-12th) and BLAST.tv Paris Major (12th-14th). In both cases, the result was far below everyone’s expectations.

For Cloud9, the story is similar but slightly better. However, the NA team compensated by failing to qualify for the Paris Major. Apart from that disappointment, C9 finished 3rd-4th at IEM Rio 2023, 1st at Brazy Party, and 7th-8th at IEM Dallas 2023.

Unfortunately for Imperial Esports, at this competitive level they have absolutely zero chances of winning a match. In fact, everyone would be surprised if they managed to win a map against one of these group opponents.

For Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, this season marks the end of his epic Counter-Strike career, which spanned more than 20 years. For most esports athletes, even five years is a long time.

Header: BLAST