BLAST Premier Fall Series will be the first tier-one CS:GO championship to combine European and North American teams at the same event in months, the tournament organizer announced today.
Twelve CS:GO teams will be competing in BLAST Premier Fall Series, which will run from Oct. 26 to Nov. 4. FURIA will replace 100 Thieves in the tournament since the North American organization is set to leave the CS:GO scene for the second time. BIG will replace Team Liquid because BLAST wanted to “limit the amount of cross-continental travel for players during COVID-19.”
Apart from BLAST Premier Fall Series, the tournament organizer plans to have all teams competing from Europe in two other events: BLAST Premier Fall Showdown, which will feature Team Liquid and will be played in late November, and the BLAST Premier Fall Finals, which is scheduled to start on Dec. 8.
“We’re over the moon that we’ll be able to bring the 12 BLAST Premier Fall Series competing teams to Europe and welcome the exciting additions of FURIA and BIG,” BLAST’s CEO Robbie Douek said. The last time that European and North American teams clashed was at IEM Katowice in February, right when the coronavirus pandemic started.
BLAST may not be the only tournament organizer to combine the strongest CS:GO regions at one event before the end of the year, however. HLTV reported earlier this month that North American teams were discussing a European trip.
Here’s the list of teams for BLAST Premier Fall Series.
- Astralis
- Vitality
- BIG
- FURIA
- Evil Geniuses
- Natus Vincere
- OG
- G2
- Complexity
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- MIBR
