BLAST Premier Spring Final is about to start. Only eight teams will compete in the tournament but almost all are in the top 10 in global rankings.
The competition is played between June 12 – 16 in London and offers $425,000 in prize money, as well as BLAST Premier points. The winner qualifies for BLAST Premier World Final directly.
Group A Favorites
Group A of BLAST Premier Spring Final features these four teams:
- Astralis
- FaZe Clan
- Natus Vincere
- SAW
Thanks to the format, three of them will qualify for the playoffs. The winner goes directly to the semifinals. The 2nd and 3rd place teams go to the quarterfinals.
Based on what we saw at IEM Dallas, ESL Pro League S19, IEM Chengdu, YaLLa Compass, and other CS2 tournaments that were played in the last three months, Astralis and FaZe Clan are considerably stronger than Na’Vi and SAW.
Overall, the expectation for this group is that Astralis will win, followed by FaZe and Na’Vi. SAW’s chances of surviving this group are relatively low but that doesn’t mean they can’t cause an upset if they’re in great shape.
The issue here is that they lost six of their last ten matches despite playing against opponents who were much weaker than the likes of Na’Vi and FaZe.
Group B Favorites
In group B, the competitors are:
- G2 Esports
- Team Spirit
- Team Vitality
- Virtus.pro
This is a terrifying team and everyone will struggle to qualify for the playoffs, with the possible exception of Team Spirit.
At first glance, the weakest team of the four is Virtus.pro. In the last three months, VP finished 9th – 12th at PGL Major Copenhagen, 5th – 6th at IEM Chengdu, 5th – 8th at ESL Pro League S19, 5th – 6th at BetBoom Dacha Belgrade, and 9th – 12th at IEM Dallas.
These results are decent, but their group opponents have played much better over the last three months, winning tournaments or at least finishing in the top four.
At one of the more recent CS2 events, G2 defeated Vitality in the Grand Final. Team Spirit were also in the race and were defeated by Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut’s team. However, because Spirit are such a great competitor in the group stage of pretty much every tournament they attend, many expect them to win the race.
