- The events will follow a similar format to last year
- Most of the early events are to be held online, but plans for the Spring Final, Fall Final, and the World Final are to be held live.
- “We’re delighted to be back for a third year with some new adjustments to keep raising the bar higher,” says Andrew Haworth, Commissioner for BLAST Premier.
The global esports organizer BLAST has announced its vision and plans for 2022. This includes a BLAST Premier global prize pool totaling $2.47 million.
BLAST’s Format for the Upcoming Season
Seven CS:GO events await fans in 2022 in the third edition of the series. The first thing many should consider is that the format and structure of the series will be almost the same as last year, except for changes affecting the Group and Showdown stages of its event.
The Spring and Fall showdowns will be split into two regions – Europe and North America. Any other place outside these two will be grouped into the NA region. This is done in order to give more teams a chance to compete in BLAST Premier events. These two showdowns, as well as the Spring groups, are planned to be played online. However, the organizers want to have the Fall groups played LAN in a studio. If all goes according to plan, the Spring Final, Fall Final, and the World Final should be played live in an arena setting.
The “Race to the World Final Leaderboard” will make a comeback this season as well. At least two teams will be able to qualify for the Finals by winning matches and climbing the leaderboard. The six remaining spots will be filled with teams who won the Spring and Fall Final, ESL Season 15 and 16, IEM Cologne, and the CS:GO Major.
What Else Can Fans Expect?
BLAST Premier said that all the tournaments will produce more than 318 hours of competitive CS:GO. It is important to note that this series marks the first major CS:GO event with a match limit for participating teams. This means each team will be allowed to play only one best-of-three match in a day.
Currently, BLAST Premier includes 11 teams, which include Ninjas in Pyjamas, G2 Esports, OG Esports, Team Vitality, Astralis, Natus Vincere, Evil Geniuses, FaZe Clan, Complexity Gaming, MiBR, and Team Liquid.
Commissioner for BLAST Premier Andrew Haworth said that he is delighted to bring back “an exceptional standard of Counter-Strike and industry-leading production” for the third year. “With our expanded qualifier series and split regional Spring and Fall Showdowns we’ll be able to offer more teams than ever before an opportunity to compete in BLAST Premier events and the chance to feature in one of our three arena events – the BLAST Premier Fall and Spring Finals and World Final.
Fans will be treated with hundreds of hours of competitive CS:GO content in the upcoming season. The first stages of the series start on January 28.
