BLAST Premier Expands to 16 Teams with Notable New Additions for 2024 Season

In a significant expansion for the 2024 season, BLAST Premier has announced the addition of four new Affiliate Member Teams to its competitive circuit.

Falcons, GamerLegion, Team Spirit, and Virtus.pro are set to join the league, bolstering the lineup for the upcoming Spring Groups starting later this month at the BLAST Copenhagen studios.

This expansion follows the high interest generated in the Counter-Strike ecosystem after Evil Geniuses sold their Member Team slot at the close of 2023, with Cloud9 later announced as the newest BLAST Premier Member Team. The introduction of the Affiliate Membership offering by BLAST Premier represents a strategic move to provide fans with more matches and broadcast hours than in previous seasons.

2024 BLAST Premier Format Changes:

• The Spring & Fall Groups will be expanded to include 16 teams, with six teams advancing to the Spring and Fall Finals and 10 teams heading to the Spring and Fall Showdowns.
• An addition of 2 x Bo3 matches in each Group stage, increasing the prize pool to $190,000 for each Spring and Fall Group.
• No changes to the dates for the Spring or Fall Groups.
• The Spring, Fall, and World Finals formats remain unchanged.
• The new combined BLAST Premier Showdown, as announced in November 2023, will feature 10 teams from the Spring and Fall Groups, along with six Regional Qualifiers, creating a 16-team Showdown.

Andrew Haworth, Programme Director for BLAST Premier, expressed enthusiasm for the expansion, highlighting the strong desire from teams across the Counter-Strike ecosystem to be part of BLAST. He emphasized the addition of four new teams, each eager to showcase their skills on some of esports’ biggest stages worldwide.

Representatives from the newly added teams shared their excitement:

Grant Rousseau from Falcons expressed eagerness to compete in top-tier tournaments and contribute to the growth of BLAST’s CS ecosystem.
Nicolas Reber, CEO of GamerLegion, remarked on their achievement at the BLAST Major in Paris 2023, viewing it as a driving force for upcoming high-stakes matches.
Ruslana Berest, COO of Team Spirit, looked forward to competing against top teams in the BLAST circuit.
Nikolai Petrossian, CEO of Virtus.pro, saw the move as an opportunity to reinforce Virtus.pro’s status in the global CS2 scene.
The BLAST Premier Spring Groups are set to commence later this January in Copenhagen, with six teams qualifying for the Spring Final event at London’s OVO Arena Wembley in June.

The 2024 season will now feature a robust lineup of both Member and Affiliate Teams, including well-established esports organizations like Astralis, BIG, Cloud9, FaZe Clan, G2 Esports, NAVI, and Team Liquid, alongside the new Affiliate Members.

As BLAST Premier gears up for an action-packed 2024 season, the expansion to 16 teams marks a new chapter in the league’s history, promising a higher level of competition and entertainment for fans worldwide.

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