Ahead of its fifth season, BLAST Premier has revealed the format and dates for the 2024 season with London and Copenhagen set to host the Spring and Fall Finals respectively.
Seven tournaments will play out across the year starting in January from the BLAST studios in Denmark with the Spring Groups and will come to a conclusion in November with the World Final featuring eight of the best teams competing for a $1million prize pool.
Both Spring and Fall Groups will feature the twelve BLAST Premier Member Teams battling it out in best of three group stage matches.
Group winners advance directly to the respective Spring and Fall Final arena events in London and Copenhagen.
The remaining three teams in each group get placed into a gauntlet, the three winners of the gauntlet will also book their place in the Spring and Fall Final, whilst the losing six teams get placed into the Showdown events.
For 2024 the Showdown events will shift back from two split regional events into a singular 16 team tournament.
Teams will now play a 16 team, single elimination bracket with the winners of two semi finals obtaining the last two remaining places at the respective Spring and Fall Final arena events and $20,000 in prize pool winnings.
Teams from across the world will get a shot at playing on a global platform with the BLAST Premier Qualifiers.
Seven regional qualifiers will contribute teams to each Spring and Fall Showdowns. These qualifiers will give teams from across the Counter-Strike scene a chance to play at the Spring and Fall Showdowns.
Showdowns will be played online and gives teams a chance to qualify for Spring or Fall Final arena events - giving qualifier teams a chance to play on the BLAST Premier stage against the world’s best team.
Andrew Haworth, Programme Director for BLAST Premier, said:
“We can’t wait for what the 2024 season has in store for the Counter-Strike community. Building on the innovations and storylines developed across the 2023 season, we’re excited to bring BLAST Premier to passionate fans in exciting locations including the OVO Wembley Arena in London and the Forum Copenhagen.”
Spring and Fall Groups will be hosted in a LAN setting without a crowd in BLAST’s Danish studios, while the Showdowns will remain online with the Spring, Fall and World Finals all set to be played in arenas with live audiences.
Closing the 2024 season is the World Final. Qualification for the $1,000,000 event will be influenced by leading competitions throughout 2024.
Three teams qualify via the “Race to the World Final Leaderboard”, with the remaining five spots being filled by winners of the following 2024 tournaments: BLAST Premier Spring and Fall Final, Copenhagen Major, and the IEM Katowice and Cologne.
Following previous years, if a team were to win multiple of the following contributing events, a spot will be added to the Race To World Final each time.
The BLAST Premier 2024 season will once again boast a combined prize pool of $2,475,000 to be distributed across the seven events.
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