Five teams to watch at BLAST Bounty Season 2
It’s almost time for BLAST Bounty Season 2 2026, and that means a number of teams will be making their debut after what has been a thrilling rostermania.
Plenty of those teams are tier one staples, with many of those completely changing their lineups as they seek to catch the elite teams in the world, so let’s take a look at the teams we should all have our eyes on when the event gets underway.
FaZe
FaZe have one of the most interesting opening matches of the event - they face EYEBALLERS in a rematch of their opening game at BLAST Bounty Season 1 earlier this year.
They lost that time, but given their performances at XSE Pro League and their recent reinforcements, we have a feeling the Swedes might not get the same sense of enjoyment this time around.
FaZe looked great over in China, with new AWPer JBOEN looking like an absolute revelation. We’re still yet to see what consistent form will look like for him, but he passes the eye test in a very big way.
Now that Twistzz is set in stone as IGL and the roster seems settled, FaZe also have something they haven’t had in a long time: stability.
Stability is key for any CS team, so whilst it’s hard to place any reasonable expectation on FaZe for Bounty given their short time together, there are plenty of reasons to be excited about them again.
100 Thieves
The return of 100 Thieves has been incredibly exciting, but perhaps it hasn’t yet gone as the organisation hoped it would.
Ranked high enough to get an invite for the event, they would’ve wanted to be a little higher right now regardless, and the team has turned towards the “English gla1ve” Gizmy to help them get there.
Gizmy did a fantastic job with Monte, and the IEM Cologne Major felt like a real breakout performance for him as an IGL, so it’s going to be really interesting to see how he does now that there are actual expectations on him to succeed and climb up the rankings once more.
Add in the fact that device has been an absolute demon recently, and 100 Thieves suddenly look like one of the most interesting rosters in the world once more.
So maybe it’s unfortunate they have to face Falcons in their opening game.
Liquid
Liquid have been in need of a reset for a while, and it seems that has finally happened during the off-season.
ultimate and siuhy have bid their farewells, and have been replaced by JT and Jorko, an experienced IGL and a young AWPer with bags of potential for that IGL to unlock.
Being realistic, we’re not expecting much from Liquid at Bounty. They’ve only just made the changes, and they face Vitality in the opening round, and there aren’t any teams we’d say we’d actually expect to win that match.
That said, there are still things we want to see from Liquid. Mainly, we want to see them look like they’re enjoying playing Counter-Strike again.
We get it, bad results get you down, but this is a fresh start for Liquid, and they need to treat it like the mental reset it is if they’re to finally succeed in CS again.
MOUZ
If it wasn’t for Vitality, MOUZ would have been the best team of 2025. They had consistency no one else had throughout the year, and they showed that they really can be a championship-calibre roster.
But then it all came crashing down.
The months since have revived some hope for them; xertioN has proved himself to be a reasonably well-fragging IGL, but the team still needed reinforcement, and that reinforcement has been found in former MOUZ NXT man PR.
After a difficult 2026 for the man himself, PR and MOUZ have a chance to prove all their doubters wrong now that they’re reunited, and given his potential, he’s an incredibly exciting signing for MOUZ to make.
BLAST Bounty events have always provided us with plenty of surprises, and we think MOUZ could be the biggest surprise of them all when the action gets underway.
Aurora
Finally, we come to Aurora, the latest team to ditch their fully national roster in favour of international imports and a greater chance at success.
Aurora waved goodbye to Fabre, MAJ3R, and soulfly over the player break, and welcomed ash, kyxsan, and Jimpphat in their place. All three are incredibly exciting signings who would’ve had plenty of offers elsewhere, so it says a lot about the potential of this project that they made the decision to sign.
There are question marks, though.
Going international is a big step for anyone, and especially for Aurora. They need to hit the ground running, or their fans will be on their backs, and that is a mental weight that no team needs to be under.
Still, the roles check out, so if ash and kyxsan have prepared effectively, Aurora could be right up there with MOUZ as the big surprise package of BLAST Bounty.
