All teams qualified for BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024
With BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2024 now over, we know the final two teams that will complete the lineup for BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024.
Thanks to their Showdown performances both Spirit and SAW have joined the ranks of those who have qualified for Spring Final from BLAST Premier Spring Groups, so let's take a quick look at how they did it before we recap those who booked their place back in January.
The victors of Showdown
SAW pull off big upsets
The first of the two teams to qualify from Spring Showdown was Portuguese team SAW. Fresh off of securing their first-ever Major qualification at the PGL Copenhagen Major RMR, SAW came into the Showdown in fine form.
They opened their account in the Showdown with a huge upset victory over Team Liquid. A three-map affair, it wasn't the only big scalp they would claim on their way to booking their ticket to London.
Photo: Michal KonkolThe second of those scalps, Cloud9, was a more simple 2-0 victory. RMR breakout star arrozdoce starred in that match, reducing HObbit's strong performance to nothing.
Finally, SAW faced OG. OG were weakened without their star HeavyGod, but they still gave SAW a fight for that Spring Final place. The Iberians would need every member of their team to perform at their best to come out on top.
Spirit meet expectations
The second team, Spirit, were noted by launders as one of the favourites heading into the event.
They opened their account with a 2-0 win over Elevate, as was expected. However, credit should go to their North American opponents for not allowing it to be as one-sided as it looked on paper.
Next up, the IEM Katowice 2024 winners played German team, BIG. donk starred in that game, ending the 2-0 victory with a strong 46-27 individual statline.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenFinally, Spirit faced the young Swedish team, Metizport.
Metizport has recently received a lot of praise for having nilo on their team, but after their performances in the Showdown, we think their entire roster will now be on people's radars.
A close game, Metizport had Spirit sweating after winning the first map, but then donk and sh1ro came alive to secure the series with a 13-4 win on Mirage and a 13-8 win on Nuke.
The qualified Spring Groups teams
BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2024 saw the debut of a new format for Spring Groups that accounted for the addition of four new partner teams into the circuit.
With the teams now split into four groups of four, the winner of each group would automatically qualify for Spring Final while the second-placed teams would battle it out in a single-elimination playoff game for two more spots.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenThe Group winners
Only one of our new partner teams walked away from Spring Groups having topped their group. That team, Virtus.pro, triumphed over Russian rivals Cloud9 as well as German team BIG twice in order to earn a spot at Spring Final.
The other teams to top their groups were BLAST Premier World Final 2023 finalists Vitality and FaZe, as well as World semi-finalists, NAVI.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenPlayoff victors
The four teams that headed down into the playoff bracket were Liquid, G2, Astralis, and BIG.
The first playoff saw G2 face off against Liquid, a match in which NiKo and co. would win. A close 2-0, G2's time and experience playing together proved advantageous as they sent cadiaN's new Liquid team packing to the Showdown.
The second game, BIG vs. Astralis, resulted in a 2-1 victory for the Danes. Still playing with blameF at that point, it was a promising result for the team as they were still in the early days of integrating stavn and jabbi.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenComplete team list:
BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024
BLAST Premier Spring Final will bring tier-one Counter-Strike back to the U.K. in June. Scheduled to take place between June 12th and June 16th, the playoffs will take place inside London's OVO Arena, Wembley.
The eight qualified teams will battle it out for the lion's share of $425,000.