With the completion of all BLAST Premier qualifiers, we now have the final list of the 16 teams through to BLAST Premier Spring Showdown, 2021.
The 6 teams from qualifying tournaments are;
NASR, from Calyx Dune Cup
Spirit, from Winstrike CIS Cup
Extra Salt, from VENN Invitation
Endpoint, from Fantasyexpo Cup
Dignitas, from Nordic Masters
SAW, from LVP Unity Cup
They now join the 10 other teams, who placed from either direct invites, or the Spring Groups BLAST tournament that occured in February. Those are, starting with Spring Groups placements, Astralis, Liquid, Vitality, G2, OG & MIBR. With Gambit, Heroic & FURIA being graced with direct invites by BLAST.
The qualifiers each have their own tales to tell, such as how Dignitas overcame the likes of much higher-ranked teams such as HAVU & ENCE to take the Nordic Masters, to the surprise instant exit of mousesports from Fantasyexpo, where Endpoint saw off all to rise to the top, including the likes of Sprout & FunPlus Phoenix, who were another surprise early exit of that tournament. Meanwhile, at the LVP Unity Cup event, SAW saw off Movistar Riders, in what was also considered an unexpected turn of events, with Movistar still packing the brute force of player smooya. At the CIS qualifier, hosted by Winstrike, Spirit saw off EXTREMUM and of course, Winstrike themselves to top that event, after some initial fan concern that there was perhaps a conflict of interest in allowing Winstrike to host an event they themselves were competing in.
However, going back to the surprise exits across all six of the qualfiers is down to the chosen realm for the battles, where best of 1s started off each event, where just a single bad performance can see you booted into the lower bracket, where you have to suddenly recover, sometimes in the space of just hours, to ensure your second best of one doesn't see you out of the tournament.
The BLAST Premier Spring Showdown will start on April 13th, and end on 18th April. The top 2 teams from which will go into the Premier Spring Finals, which will start June 15th, until June 20th. Joining the might of Natus Vincere, BIG, Complexity, NIP, Evil Geniuses & FaZe for a smacking showdown that sees one team take the $225,000 top prize.
