Qualifier bloodbath: BLAST Premier Fall Showdown 2023 preview

BLAST Premier Fall Showdown 2023 is finally here and soon we will know the final two teams that will complete our lineup for BLAST Premier Fall Final 2023 in Copenhagen come November.

With sixteen teams to compete across two events, eight of the best teams in Europe and eight of the best teams from the Americas will battle it out in single-elimination events for their chance to compete in the Royal Arena.

A four-day affair, let's take a look at the teams competing in both events.

The European front

Thanks to some shock results at BLAST Premier Fall Groups, one of the best teams in the world will be in attendance for our European showdown. Winners of both IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne this year, G2 will need to run the gauntlet in order to qualify for Fall Final.

Photo: Michal Konkol

Joining them from the top ten of our World Leaderboard are IEM Dallas winners ENCE, who just confirmed their place at BLAST Premier World Final, and Cloud9, who qualified for Showdown via their win at the RES Eastern European Masters.

Also in attendance will be three of the best national squads in the world, Polish team 9INE, Spanish team Movistar Riders, and the Germans of BIG.

Completing the team list is OG, as well as Swedish underdogs Alliance, who replaced Victory Zigzag in the Showdown.

European Showdown teams

• G2
• OG
• BIG
• Cloud9
• ENCE
• Alliance
• 9INE
• Movistar Riders

Across the Atlantic

In our Americas Showdown, Brazilian giants will face off against the titans of North America.

Team Liquid are the highest-ranked team on our World Leaderboard. They will be playing the event with daps following the benching of Rainwaker. A Leadership change that will free up YEKINDAR to become a star once more. It also sees the team return to a North American core and give the NA fans a reason to get back in support of their most successful organisation.

Liquid will have to be exceptional to win back the affection of their fans, though, Complexity have been doing their utmost to become their region's favourite sons in recent months, and a positive result in the Showdown could further that. Or maybe EG, the lowest-ranked of the three according to HLTV, can swoop in to steal the spotlight.

Also from NA will be Party Astronauts and Forsaken. Forsaken qualified for the event thanks to their win at the Ace Masters, while Party Astronauts were drafted in following VISA issues for TheMongolz.

However, don't forget about the threat posed by the teams from South America.

FURIA will be in attendance; FalleN and his team of samba stars will be the favourites from Brazil to disrupt the NA teams. That being said, FalleN's former team, Imperial, will also be battling it out and will be very keen to repeat their victory at Spring Showdown.

Rounding out the teams is Legacy, the coldzera-led team that was formerly known as 00NATION.

Photo: Michal Konkol

Americas Showdown team list:

• Team Liquid
• Complexity
• Evil Geniuses
• Forsaken
• Party Astronauts
• FURIA
• Imperial
• Legacy

Where to watch Fall Showdown

BLAST Premier Fall Showdown is set to kick off on October 4th and will conclude on October 8th.

A single elimination bracket to decide the final two teams that will be in attendance at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen for BLAST Premier Fall Final in November.

Make sure you don't miss out on any of the action by catching it all right here on BLAST.tv.