Major Regional Qualifiers for the BLAST.tv Austin Major

The BLAST.tv Austin Major is set to become a groundbreaking event - with tickets already selling out in record time and a new exciting format that is set to bring even more Counter Strike to fans across the world.

The BLAST.tv Austin Major will be the first to feature the Major Regional Qualifiers (MRQs). The MRQs are a brand new qualifying system to the major - featuring a series of online qualifiers across 3 regions: Europe, Americas and Asia. Americas is split into separate North American & South American qualifiers and Asia is split into Oceania, China & Rest of Asia regions: Mongolian & Western Asia, China and Oceania and South East Asia.

Major Invitation Process:

Invites to the BLAST.tv Austin Major and MRQs will be sent on April 7th using the VRS taken on the same day.

16 teams are invited directly to the latter stages of the Major - Stage 2 and 3. Listed below are the invites to these stages from each region:

Europe:

• 10 teams from the top of the European Regional Rankings are invited directly to the following stages:
  • 1st - 6th to Stage 3
  • 7th - 10th to Stage 2

America’s:

• 5 teams from the top of the Americas Regional Rankings are invited directly to the following stages:
  • 1st to Stage 3
  • 2nd - 5th to Stage 2

Asia:

• 1 team from the top of the Asian Regional Rankings are invited directly to the following stage:
  • 1st to Stage 3

16 teams will enter Stage 1 from Major Regional Qualifiers:

• 6 teams from Europe
• 6 teams from Americas
• 4 teams from Asia

In total, the MRQs will feature 75 matches and over 182 hours of match play.

European MRQ Details:

European teams will play the regional qualifier between April 14th - 17th. 16 teams starting from 11th in the European Regional Rankings will be invited to the qualifier. Teams will play a tournament with the following format:

• Operated by Relog
• Invite Date 7th April
• Swiss Tournament with initial matches as Bo1
• Advancement & elimination matches will be Bo3s.
• 6 teams will advance to Stage 1 of the Major.

NA & SA MRQ Details:

The Americas region will be split into separate NA & SA MRQ’s, with both qualifiers played between April 15th - 17th. 3 teams from NA will qualify for Stage 1 of the Major and 3 teams from SA with qualify for Stage 1 of the Major.

Both NA & SA qualifiers will feature an 8 team tournament with the following format:

• Operated by Liga Ace
• Invite Date 7th April
• Two GSL Groups of 4, into a 4 team Single Elimination Playoff
• Each group winner and the Playoff winner qualify for Stage 1 of the Major
• All matches will be played as Bo3s.

Teams are invited based on their positions in the America’s Regional Rankings. Starting from 6th in the Americas rankings the top 8 NA teams will play in the NA qualifier and the top 8 SA teams will play in the SA qualifier. A roster is identified as NA or SA based on citizenships of their players.

Asian MRQ Details:

The Asian region is split into 3 separate qualifiers;

• Mongolian & Western Asia Qualifier
  • Operated by ESN
  • Invite Date 7th April
• Chinese Qualifier
  • Operated by GGTV
  • Invite Date 7th April
• Oceania & SEA Qualifier
  • Operated by ESN
  • Invite Date 7th April

Each region will play out a 4 team qualifier between April 15th - 17th. All regions will feature a tournament with the following format:

• 4 team Double Elimination
• All matches will be played as Bo3s.

Teams are invited based on their positions in the Asia Regional Rankings. Starting from 2nd in the Asia rankings the top 4 China teams will play in the China qualifier, the top 4 Oceania teams will play in the Oceania qualifier and the top 4 Rest of Asia teams will play in the Mongolia & Western Asia Qualifier. A roster is identified as either China, Oceania or Mongolia & Western Asia based on citizenships of their players.

The Regional Closed Qualifier with the highest Valve rated team invited to the Asian Closed Qualifiers (No.2 in the Asia Regional Rankings) will have two spots from the Closed Qualifier into Stage 1, the other two qualifiers will have 1 spot into Stage 1.

For help, questions or queries please reach out to esports@blast.tv