For the teams that didn’t finish in the top 6 at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups, BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown is the last opportunity to qualify for BLAST Premier: Spring Final.
A total of 16 teams will compete in this tournament and only two of them will advance.
Tournament Details
The competition is scheduled to take place online between March 6 – 10 and will offer just $135.000 in prize money.
The format used is single-elimination. Every match is best-of-three. To qualify, a team must win three consecutive matches. This means that the winners will be tested by very strong teams along the way.
Participants
Here are the 16 participants:
- Cloud9
- Rare Atom
- Team Liquid
- SAW
- Heroic
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- Complexity
- OG
- Team Falcons
- Metizport
- Monte
- Imperial Esports
- Team Spirit
- Elevate
- GamerLegion
- BIG
Most of these teams are quite famous. Among the less popular ones are Elevate, Rare Atom, and Metizport. Given the low number of available spots, such teams have very small chances of achieving their goal.
Favorites
Because Spring Groups took place a while ago, when some of the world’s current best teams were not yet ready to compete against the likes of Team Vitality and Natus Vincere, this BLAST qualifier is full of formidable competitors.
The list includes Team Spirit, Team Liquid, and Team Falcons, among others. Given the roster changes that occurred in the last month, it will be very exciting to see which of these teams will qualify for the Spring Final.
On paper, Team Spirit and Team Liquid should be the winners. But Danil “donk” Kryshkovets will probably encounter Team Falcons at some point, and Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev won’t be easy to beat. The Ukrainian superstar joined Falcons just two weeks ago and will enter the tournament with several weeks of training with the team.
Normally, given the fact that he missed for four months, he will not be able to play as well as he usually does.
But on the other hand, it’s hard to believe that one of the best players in the history of Counter-Strike will not be able to make a substantial contribution, especially when he has the best coach in the game (Danny “zonic” Sorensen) and also one of the best players (Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia).
The best-of-three format increases Falcons’ chances significantly. A strong team can be beaten in a best-of-one, but rarely in a best-of-three.
Header image credit: BLAST
