BLAST Premier Spring Groups Preview

BLAST Premier is what a Counter-Strike season starts and ends with. Between January 22 – 28, BLAST Premier Spring Groups will be played in Copenhagen.

The event features 16 world-class teams and offers $190.000 in prize money. However, the amount is not important here. What matters is the points and the placement. As usual, the top six teams will qualify for the Spring Final, while the bottom 12 will get one more chance in the Spring Showdown.

Participants

Here are the 16 teams that will compete in BLAST Premier Spring Groups:

• Astralis
• Complexity Gaming
• Cloud9
• BIG
• FaZe Clan Natus Vincere
• G2 Esports
• Heroic
• Ninjas in Pyjamas
• OG
• Team Liquid
• Team Vitality
• GamerLegion
• Team Falcons
• Team Spirit
• Virtus.pro

Just by looking at the list of participants we can already tell that this is going to be a very exciting tournament to watch. The only downside is that its structure practically divides it into four relatively independent events.

🚨 ONE WEEK UNTIL SPRING GROUPS STARTS 🚨#BLASTPremier pic.twitter.com/J3FT4ieHN0

— BLAST Premier 💥 (@BLASTPremier) January 15, 2024

Format

Each group, from A to D, will have one winner. This team qualifies to BLAST Premier Spring Final. The four finalists who lost right at the end will receive one more opportunity to avoid the Spring Showdown by competing among themselves in a Play-in Stage. This stage consists of just two matches and their winners are qualified.

During the tournament, every match will be a best-of-three series. The groups are played using the double-elimination format. This means that the four teams will have excellent opportunities to prove themselves. But, as I mentioned before, since only one team per group will qualify, this format is probably quite unpleasant for the participants.

For the viewers, the format of BLAST Premier Spring Groups is very enjoyable because the groups are typically played sequentially or at least two at a time. This means that if you really want to watch most of the action, you can.

Typically, fans like to watch the important matches and the ones that feature their favorite teams. A format in which there’s only one match at any given time is absolutely perfect.

Rewards

The group winners will receive $22.500 each, along with 2400 BLAST Premier points. The 5^th and 6^th place teams will receive $12.500 each and 1800 BLAST Premier points. The a lesser extent, the remaining teams will be rewarded as well.

Other details

We do not yet know who the desk host is going to be and which teams will compete in each group. That information is likely to become available later this week.

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