Spring Showdown 2024 first matches revealed: Heroic take on NIP

BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2024 is just over a week away, and the lineup for the tournament is absolutely stacked.

The first BLAST Premier Showdown to be played under the new format, 16 teams will battle it out to decide the final two spots at BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024 in London.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

The event will see s1mple play his first event in CS2 and the BLAST Premier debut of Counter-Strike's new favourite child donk, but what else can you get yourself excited for in the next week?

The first matches

Day one: Don't underrate Rare Atom

Kicking us off at Spring Showdown 2024 is Rare Atom vs Cloud9. It's a matchup that might seem one-sided at first, but don't underestimate Rare Atom in this one.

Rare Atom is an interesting team comprising three Asian talents and two European players.

One of those European players, Swedish AWPer phzy, was integral to Rare Atom's qualification for the event, and he could match up well against Cloud9's AWPer-less system.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

Next up, we have the biggest match in the opening round: Heroic vs NIP.

Heroic have been in good form lately, but they will surely face a huge test when they come up against a NIP side that has been injected with academy prospects who will be hungry to prove they are worth a spot on the main team.

Rounding out day one is Falcons vs Metizport. All eyes will be on s1mple as he finally makes his return to competitive play, especially because he will doing so as a rifler.

However, don't be surprised if Metizport star nilo steals the spotlight, the young Swede has been tipped for big things in 2024.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

Day two: Is Liquid in form?

Day two begins with Team Liquid vs SAW. SAW looked great at the RMR for PGL Copenhagen and will be keen to carry that form into the Showdown.

They couldn't ask for a harder opponent in their opening game, though, and cadiaN and his new team will be looking to book themselves another LAN, having just secured a spot at IEM Dallas.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

Then, Complexity will take on OG.

Complexity started brightly in CS2 but have since dropped off a little, can they bounce back by securing themselves a place at Spring Final?

The closer for day two is Monte vs Imperial. Imperial won Spring Showdown 2023 and went on a great run at Spring Final 2023. Can they repeat their heroics this year?

If they hope to, they'll have to get past a formidable opponent in Monte. However, that will be a Monte team playing their first event without sdy.

A huge loss for them, Showdown will give us a good look on how they will fare without their talisman.

Photo: Michal Konkol

Day three: Donk in action

Day three will see the final two rounds of 16 games played, with the first being Team Spirit vs Elevate.

Elevate had a great underdog run to qualify for Spring Showdown, so we're excited to see how they'll do here.

Photo: Jak Howard

That being said, they will face donk, a fate we wouldn't wish on our worst enemy.

The final round of 16 game will see GamerLegion take on BIG.

The two teams were left disappointed in the Major cycle, so they will be very up for tasting glory at Spring Showdown.

The most intriguing part of this match is the return of syrsoN to BIG. He was one of the best AWPers in the world during his first stint with the organisation.

Can he recapture that form now he is back home?

All RO16 matches

Please note: all of the above times are provisional. BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2024 will be played on a rolling schedule.

This means that the second match in a day will be played 15 minutes after the completion of the first match in a day.

The third match of the day will also be on a rolling schedule, however, it can not be played more than 30 minutes before the scheduled start time. As a result, the earliest a match scheduled for 20:30 CET will be played is 20:00.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

Playoffs

As soon as the first round of matches concluded on day three, we are going straight into the quarter-final matches.

There will be one quarter-final played on day three between the winners of Cloud9 vs Rare Atom and Liquid vs SAW.

Day four will then see the remaining three quarter-finals played, and day five will feature the two semi-finals that will decide the two teams headed to Spring Final in June.