BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024 is now behind us and G2 were crowned as worthy winners.
But, the Counter-Strike calendar always pushes on, and now it is time to set our eyes towards the end of the month and BLAST Premier World Final 2024.
The event, which is set to take place in Singapore and will have a $1,000,000 prize pool, is one of the biggest on the calendar and will feature eight of the best teams in the world - but how did those teams get there?
Way back in February, the first team to qualify was Spirit.
After missing donk and magixx at BLAST Premier Spring Groups, Spirit were the most exciting prospect when the event began in Poland, and they didn't disappoint in the slightest.
An event that they won at a canter, they were dominant throughout, and their prodigious talent pulled off a record-breaking 1.70 rated event as they raced to their first trophy win of the year and their spot at World Final.
The second team to qualify, just one month later and unexpectedly at the time, was NAVI.
Although everything since then has proven that they were always guaranteed to be competing in Singapore, given the strength of FaZe and Spirit at the time, NAVI winning the first ever CS2 Major was almost unthinkable at the time.
Regardless, not only did they pull it off, since then they have gone from strength to strength and added two more trophies to their collection, the Esports World Cup and ESL Pro League Season 20.
It was the Major that earned them their spot in Singapore, but the other two trophies and they other finals they have reached will surely make them the favourites when the event rolls around.
Given that the two BLAST Premier Finals were won by teams who had already qualified for World Final, the final spot given to an event winner for World Final was granted to Vitality after they won IEM Cologne 2024.
A landmark moment for the organisation that was crowned as the best in 2023, they may have been disappointed at times in 2024, but that IEM Cologne win is one that will be remembered for a long time thanks to the banger final and their Golden Hornets being almost as loud as they were at the BLAST.tv Paris Major.
Another incredibly strong team, Vitality are a team that can never be counted out, and they might just be the only team that can take down NAVI... well, outside of a BO5 at least.
Moving onto the teams who have qualified via the BLAST World Leaderboard, first up, we have FaZe.
FaZe may have stagnated slightly in the second half of the year, but their showings in the early months make them more than deserving of their place in the culmination of the BLAST Premier calendar.
Three consecutive grand final appearances at the beginning of the year had many placing them as they greatest team in the world, and World Final will be an excellent opportunity for karrigan and his boys to remind everyone why.
Next, we have G2, the winners of BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024. Not that they needed the event win to secure their place though.
With NiKo and m0NESY in their ranks, is it much of a surprise that G2 have been one of the best teams in 2024? Also victorious at IEM Dallas 2024 while playing with Stewie2k as a stand-in, there's been no doubts all year as to whether G2 have what it takes to overpower everyone and lift trophies.
The only question that remains is how many they can lift before the year is out.
Another one of the strongest teams in the world this year has been MOUZ, in fact, they've spent just one week outside of the top five all year.
WInners of both ESL Pro League Season 19 and BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024, MOUZ's young squad has been a consistent threat all year, building on the success they had in the second half of 2023 after integrating siuhy and Jimpphat.
They may have struggled in arenas so far as a lineup, but they're a coming of age story just waiting to happen, and BLAST Premier World Final could just be their time.
The penultimate team to qualify was Astralis, another team who qualified due to their strong placing on the BLAST World Leaderboard.
It's been a rollercoaster year for Astralis, but despite the team now being on their third different IGL this year, a run of deep placings after the second of those, device, took the helm saw them secure their strong spot on the Leaderboard.
Now with cadiaN at the helm, can World Final be the time that Astralis finally take those last few steps and lift gold in 2024?
The final team to qualify for World Final is another team that has gone through a lot of changes this year, Liquid.
Since those changes, Liquid have announced themselves as one of the most dangerous teams in the world thanks to the breakout of their new AWP star, ultimate.
Liquid will have been disappointed with their playoff showing at Fall Final, but that experience will have been necessary for their growth as a team. Now they have that experience, will they be able to put it to use in Singapore?
BLAST Premier World Final 2024 is set to kick off in Singapore on October 30th. Running until November 3rd, the eight teams involved will battle it out for a massive $1,000,000 prize pool.
When the action begins, make sure you're right here on BLAST.tv so you don't miss a single frag.
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