With the 2023 competitive season for CS:GO kicking off, BLAST is rekindling the BLAST Premier franchise of events. Accordingly, inviting the partner teams to kick the season off, BLAST Premier Spring Groups kicks off next week. Read on as we lean how to watch this anticipated event in this featured article!
Event Background
For those unaware, BLAST Premier is a premier franchise of tournaments organized by BLAST within one circuit. Offering a mixture of BLAST Partner teams and open events, these events are at the top of CS:GO.
With 2022 concluding with the BLAST World Final, the 2023 season kicks off with the Spring Groups event.
Taking place offline in Copenhagen, $177,498 of prize is on the line for the 12 competing partner teams (invited). Running between 19th January and 29th January, the following are your competing teams:
- Astralis
- BIG
- Complexity Gaming
- Evil Geniuses
- FaZe Clan
- G2 Esports
- Heroic
- Natus Vincere
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- OG
- Team Liquid
- Team Vitality
The Spring Groups event is only the first step for these competing teams. Apart from a tonne of coveted BLAST Premier points being on the line, teams will be seeded as follows:
- 1-6th – Seeded to Spring Final
- 7-12th – Seeded to Spring Showdown
Read on as we learn more about the format.
Format
With regards to format, there are two stages of competition.
Kicking off, we have the Group Stage, as you’d expect. Here, the competition have been split into three double-elimination (GSL) format groups as follows:
- A – Heroic, Evil Geniuses, Vitality, Astralis
- B – FaZe Clan, Complexity, Team Liquid, OG
- C – G2 Esports, BIG, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pyjamas
Within each group, following the double elimination format, where each match will be BO3, seeds from each group will be as follows:
- Winner – advance to the Spring Final
- Remaining teams – advance to the seeded Play-In Stage
Following this group stage, we have the Play-In Stage. Accordingly, teams will be randomly seeded once again with three single-elimination gauntlets, with BO3 matches. From these brackets, the winner of each one will advance to the Spring Final.
Meanwhile, the remaining teams advance will seed into the EU or AM Spring Showdowns.
Schedule for the BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2023
When it comes to the schedule, feel free to take a look at the times and dates for the opening matches for the Group Stage in CET region:
January 19th – Group A
- Heroic vs Evil Geniuses (15:00)
- Vitality vs Astralis (18:30)
January 20th – Group B
- FaZe vs Complexity (12:00)
- Team Liquid vs OG (15:00)
January 20th – Group C
- G2 Esports vs BIG (18:30)
January 21st – Group C
- Natus Vincere vs NiP (12:00)
We highly recommend visiting the BLAST Premier Twitter page here to stay up to date for the schedule in your timezone.
Watch the BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2023 on esportsguide
You can also watch the event live stream via our very own website. Providing an extensive list of the biggest esports together with streams for each esports match live today or upcoming matches.
Predictions
Overall, the best way to predict is to recount when these teams competed last – the BLAST Premier World Final 2022. Here’s how the competition stacked up back then:
- #1 – G2 Esports
- #2 – Team Liquid
- #3-4 – FaZe Clan, OG
However, since December, a few roster changes have taken place – let’s see if that’s shaken up things at all.
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