The BLAST Premier Spring Showdown is set to kick off today in both Europe and North America.
Eighteen CS:GO teams will be playing in this event from home due to the coronavirus pandemic. The top three squads from each region will proceed to the BLAST Premier Spring finals. Some of the best CS:GO teams in the world, like Fnatic, Astralis, mousesports, Evil Geniuses, and 100 Thieves, will try to make it to the finals.
Here’s everything you need to know about BLAST Premier Spring Showdown Europe and North America.
Stream
You can watch all of the action on BLAST Premier’s official Twitch channel. There won’t be any simultaneous matches, so this will be the only official stream for the tournament.
Format
BLAST will use a round-robin best-of-one group stage format for both regions. The European teams have been split into two groups of five, however, while the North Americans were separated into two groups of four.
In Europe, the top four teams from each group will advance to the playoffs, which will feature two single-elimination gauntlets with best-of-three matches only. In North America, the top three teams from each group will qualify for the playoffs, which follows the same format as the European competition.
The top three teams from each region will earn a spot in BLAST Premier Spring finals.
Teams
Europe – Group A
Astralis
- device
- dupreeh
- Magisk
- JUGi
- Snappi
- Coach: Zonic
Vitality
- ZywOo
- shox
- RpK
- apEX
- misutaaa
- Coach: XTQZZZ
ENCE
- allu
- sergej
- Aerial
- suNny
- Jamppi
- Coach: Twista
Ninjas in Pyjamas
- REZ
- Plopski
- nawwk
- hampus
- twist
- Coach: THREAT
sAw
- arki
- MUTiRiS
- JUST
- rmn
- stadodo
- Coach: Alm
Europe – Group B
Fnatic
- KRIMZ
- JW
- Brollan
- flusha
- Golden
- Coach: Samuelsson
mousesports
- chrisJ
- ropz
- karrigan
- woxic
- frozen
- Coach: Rejin
Dignitas
- GeT_RiGhT
- f0rest
- Xizt
- friberg
- hallzerk
- Coach: Fifflaren
MAD Lions
- acoR
- sjuush
- Bubzki
- roeJ
- AcilioN
- Coach: peacemaker
Virtus Pro
- JAME
- qikert
- SANJI
- YEKINDAR
- AdreN
- Coach: dastan
North America – Group A
MIBR
- FalleN
- fer
- TACO
- kNgV-
- trk
FURIA
- arT
- KSCERATO
- yuurih
- HEN1
- VINI
- Coach: guerri
Gen.G
- autimatic
- daps
- BnTeT
- s0m
- koosta
- Coach: Elmapuddy
Chaos
- steel
- vanity
- Xeppaa
- leaf
- Jonji
- Coach: mCe
North America – Group B
Evil Geniuses
- tarik
- stanislaw
- Brehze
- Ethan
- CeRq
- Coach: zews
100 Thieves
- jks
- jkaem
- Gratisfaction
- liazz
- AZR
- Coach: ImAPet
Cloud9
- JT
- Sonic
- floppy
- motm
- oSee
- Coach: T.c
Triumph
- Shakezullah
- Spongey
- Grim
- curry
- Junior
Schedule
The group stage in both regions will be played from June 1 to 4. The European playoffs will start on June 5 and last until June 15, while North America ends earlier, on June 7.
The group stage will always start at 8:30am CT and there will be eight matches per day. The playoffs will start at 5:30am CT and will feature four matches per day. You can check the full schedule out on BLAST Premier’s website.
Key storylines
This will be Astralis’ first tournament without Xyp9x, who left due to medical reasons last week. He’ll be temporarily replaced by Snappi, until es3tag joins from Heroic in July. The Danes were already playing without their official in-game leader gla1ve, who stepped out due to medical reasons earlier in May.
NiP also made a roster change recently, swapping Lekr0 for hampus, who took over the in-game leadership for the Ninjas. The Swedes haven’t had a lot of time to practice with hampus because of DreamHack Masters Spring Europe, but some CS:GO fans are already questioning Lekr0’s benching.