During this week, the best competitive CS:GO BLAST Premier circuit returns to the screens. Lisbon will host the Spring Finals from Wednesday, the 15th to Sunday the 19th. Eight of the best international teams will look for a place in the World Final of the prestigious tournament held in December. FaZe, NaVi, and ENCE are considered the great favorites of this event, but there are other strong candidates. Let’s go through the format of the Spring Finals and take a closer look at the opening matches.
First of all, it is important to highlight the format of the BLAST Premier: Spring Finals. As mentioned above, the event itself begins on June 15 and will not last long: the Grand Final will be played on June 19. The Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal, is reserved for this.
The eight best CS:GO teams will compete for the prize in this tournament, including:
FaZe Clan
Natus Vincere (NaVi)
Team Vitality
OG Esports
G2 Esports
BIG
ENCE
PaiN Gaming
There are two stages to play for these eight teams involved: Group Stage and Playoffs. You can use the https://cover.gg/ website to check the match results and statistics during these phases. And below we will take a closer look at each stage format separately.
This round will last for 2 days - June 15 and 16, where the eight teams are divided into two groups of four with a prize for the first three:
The first team of each group goes directly to the Semifinals of the Playoffs.
The second teams move to the Quarterfinals of the Playoffs as High Seeds.
The third teams advance to the Quarterfinals of the Playoffs as Low Seeds.
All matches are at the Best of three maps that are played in a two double-elimination format.
In the final stage, an exciting group will be held with a single-elimination format to determine the winner of the tournament. All matches are at the Best of three maps, and there is no lower bracket. The Quarterfinals will be played on Friday, June 17, on Saturday it will be the turn of the Semifinals and the Grand Final on Sunday.
On Wednesday, June 15, there will be two opening matches in the first group. Below you can find a quick analysis of what we expect from the upcoming matches.
FaZe is undoubtedly the great favorite of the group and, possibly, of the tournament. In 2022, they won IEM Katowice, ESL Pro League 15 and Major Antwerp. As for IEM Dallas, we can say that their participation was not serious since they did not arrive prepared. As a result, they were eliminated from the playoffs after losing 1-2 to Cloud9.
But they are expected to arrive in Lisbon, Portugal, with a rhythm of competition. On the other hand, it should be noted that they already have secured a place in the BLAST Premier: World Final 2022 after victories of the ESL Pro League and the Major tournaments. Hence, the North American organization may not tighten the accelerator to the maximum. However, they should not have any problems in their first match against PaIN Gaming. Additionally, the Brazilian team is probably the weakest team of this event, and being in Lisbon is already an award.
G2 Esports and Vitality should qualify for the playoffs without problems. But it is really difficult to find out who will have an advantage at the opening. The Spanish organization will arrive in Lisbon after the small failure at IEM Dallas when they lost to FURIA in the quarterfinals.
Team Vitality has the same dynamic. The French-Danish roster has slightly improved their gaming in recent events, but they are not mean, for the moment, getting into final rounds of important events. The late spring can be a great boost of confidence for both teams.
As in the previous group, Group B has three favorites, but the fourth involved is not as weak as paiN Gaming. OG may surprise after new adding to the team. All of them will also play on Wednesday, June 15. Our predictions for the upcoming matches are right below.
As we have said earlier, OG may surprise after his recent signings of Adam "neofrag" Zouhar and Maciej "f1ku" Miklas, but the Danish organization is still one level below Natus Vincere. In addition, they will have to play with Abdulkhalik "degster" Gasanov after Mateusz "mantuu" Wilczewski’s absence due to illness.
However, NAVI will compete without Boombl4 for the first time after almost three years and with stand-in Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhev. Therefore, the performance of the Ukrainian organization is still unknown, but having such players as s1mple, b1t, electroNic and Perfecto will always be a great advantage in a tournament.
ENCE has not yet failed this year and comes from a fantastic second place at IEM Dallas despite playing with a stand-in Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski due to the absence of Lotan "Spinx" Giladi. The Finnish organization has the current top 2 of the HLTV ranking and is capable of beating any team to proclaim itself a champion of Portugal.
The BIG are improving their game outstandingly and have already reaped two consecutive semifinals at IEM Dallas and the Pinnacle Cup. However, the Spring Finals is a good opportunity to confirm that their achievements are not a small streak and that they have plenty of regularity to surprise their rivals in each big CS:GO tournament.
The winner of Spring Finals will get $200,000 and 4,000 BLAST Premier points. What is more, the first place team will secure a place for itself in the BLAST Premier: World Final held in December.
So far, only FaZe has acquired the stay after winning the ESL Pro League and the first Major of the year. The remaining seven teams will be determined based on the global ranking of such events:
the champion of BLAST Premier: Spring Finals;
the winner of BLAST Premier: Fall Finals;
the winner of IEM Rio Major;
the first-placed team of ESL Pro League 16;
the top three-placed teams according to the 2022 classification.
As always, CS:GO fans can watch the Spring Finals held this week for free on the usual Twitch and YouTube channels. However, the well-known DAZN streaming service has announced a broadcast agreement with the CS:GO circuit organized by BLAST Premier. Therefore, the BLAST Premier events in 2022 can be viewed on the famous sports streaming platform in nearly 120 territories and 30 different languages. DAZN is a global broadcast that benefits the competitive shooter scene and its future development.
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