Six of the best Counter-Strike teams in the world will battle against each other at BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles starting on Saturday, July 13.
This will be the second BLAST event of the year played in the United States. Team Liquid, NRG, and Cloud9 will surely be the crowd favorites, but can one of them win it this time? FaZe won BLAST Pro Series Miami in April 2019 against Liquid.
Here’s everything you need to know about BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles.
Stream
BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles will be broadcast on BLAST’s three Twitch channels since the matches in the group stage are played simultaneously. If your favorite team isn’t playing on the main broadcast, you can follow them on the second and third channels.
Format
Matches will be played for two days in Oakland, California. The event was initially scheduled to happen at Galen Center, a 10,000 capacity arena, but BLAST announced the change to a smaller venue this week.
Six teams will fight for their share of the $250,000 prize pool and for BLAST Pro Series points based on their placement at the event. The top four teams to collect the most points in 2019 will be automatically invited to the BLAST Pro Series Global Final at the end of the year.
The Los Angeles series will feature a different format for the first time ever at a BLAST event. The teams will play through a best-of-one, round-robin group stage and four top teams qualify for the best-of-three semifinals on the second day of the tournament. The grand final will also follow the best-of-three format.
Teams
- Team Liquid: Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken, Keith “NAF” Markovic, Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski, Jake “Stewie2K” Yip, and Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella
- FaZe Clan: Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, Håvard “rain” Nygaard, Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács, Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer, and Filip “NEO” Kubski
- NRG: Ethan Arnold, Tarik Celik, Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte, Cvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov, and Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz
- MIBR: Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Marcelo “coldzera” David, Fernando “fer” Alvarenga, Epitácio “TACO” de Melo, and Lucas “LUCAS1” Teles
- Renegades: Justin “jks” Savage, Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad, Aaron “AZR” Ward, Jay “liazz” Tregillgas, and Sean “Gratisfaction” Kaiwai
- Cloud9: Timothy “autimatic” Ta, Damian “daps” Steele, Oscar “mixwell” Cañellas, Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, and Keneth “koosta” Suen
Schedule
BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles will kick off at 1pm CT on Saturday.
Saturday, July 13
- 1pm CT: MIBR vs. Renegades
- 1pm CT: NRG vs. FaZe
- 2:30pm CT: Liquid vs. Cloud9
- 2:30pm CT: FaZe vs. Renegades
- 4pm CT: Liquid vs. NRG
- 4pm CT: MIBR vs. Cloud9
- 5:30pm CT: NRG vs. Renegades
- 5:30pm CT: FaZe vs. Cloud9
- 7pm CT: Liquid vs. MIBR
- 7pm CT: Renegades vs. Cloud9
- 8:30pm CT: Liquid vs. FaZe
- 8:30pm CT: NRG vs. MIBR
- 10pm CT: FaZe vs. MIBR
- 10pm CT: Liquid vs. Renegades
- 10pm CT: NRG vs. Cloud9
Sunday, July 14
- 1pm CT: First semifinal
- 4:45pm CT: Second semifinal
- 8:30pm CT: BLAST stand-off
- 9pm CT: Grand finals
Key storylines
Liquid just won their fourth major tournament in a row last weekend at ESL One Cologne, the most stacked championship of the year so far. The North Americans will probably be the No. 1 team for the crowd and are large favorites to win their fifth-straight tournament.
MIBR will arrive in Los Angeles caught in turmoil. Their star player and two-time best player in the world in 2016 and 2017, Marcelo “coldzera” David, wants to leave MIBR and pursue new challenges in his career. If coldzera doesn’t play the StarLadder Major in August, this will be his last event with MIBR.
Cloud9 will debut its new lineup in US soil. The fans will have a good idea of how the new roster will operate, although they are practicing together just for two weeks. It’s expected that Damian “daps” Steele implements a brand new tactical gameplan and Oscar “mixwell” Cañellas take over the star-role alongside Timothy “autimatic” Ta, who has been doing all the heavy lifting in the past months.
NRG will play their second event under Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz’ leadership. The team has yet to play a grand final in 2019, having reached top four already five times. Both FaZe and Renegades, meanwhile, have to recover from their weak performances at ESL One Cologne. They were knocked out in the early stages of the tournament in Cologne.
