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The 2022 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive season kicks off on Friday, January 28, with the BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2022. It will mark the first big CS:GO esports tournament of the year and the beginning of the game’s biggest circuit.
BLAST Premier Is Just Around the Corner
BLAST did not need long to emerge as one of the largest and most prominent CS:GO esports tournament organizers, known for its BLAST Premier circuit. Last year, the BLAST Premier hosted seven events and culminated the season with a $1,000,000 BLAST World Final.
Now, BLAST is back with another season of its circuit, which will kick off on Friday, January 28, with the BLAST Premier: Spring Groups. The tournament will run between January 28 – February 6 and feature a $177,500 prize pool.
BLAST Premier Format
The teams will be split into three double-elimination (GSL) groups, where all matches will be played as best-of-one (Bo1). After that, all teams will advance into the Play-Ins and get seeded based on their performance.
The Play-In stage will feature three single-elimination gauntlets, with all games Bo3.
The winners of each gauntlet will advance to the BLAST Spring Finals. The fourth team from each gauntlet will advance into the Spring Showdown, slated for April 20-24, 2022.
The second and third-placed teams from each gauntlet advance to the Last Chance Stage, which will feature three Bo3 games on February 6. The winners of each game will advance to the Spring Finals, while the losers proceed to the Spring Showdown.
Attending the tournament are 12 BLAST partnered teams, who will compete for the lion’s share of the prize pool, BLAST Premier points, and a ticket for the BLAST Spring Finals. The teams have been seeded in groups as follows.
- Group A: G2 Esports, Complexity, BIG, Ninjas in Pyjamas
- Group B: Natus Vincere, MiBR, Astralis, OG
- Group C: Team Vitality, Evil Geniuses, FaZe Clan, Team Liquid
BLAST Points distribution
- 1st-3rd – 1600 BLAST Points
- 4th-6th – 800 BLAST Points
- 7th-9th – 600 BLAST Points
- 10th-12th – 400 BLAST Points
G2, Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan Favourited To Succeed
G2 Esports are priced as the main favorites to win Group A (-120), followed by BIG Clan (+250), Ninjas in Pyjamas (+500), and Complexity (+900). The offered odds make a lot of sense, even though G2 made quite a few roster changes this offseason.
G2 Esports enter the 2022 season with a new AWPer in a young CS:GO prodigy Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, as well as a new in-game leader in Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen, who signed for G2 on Sunday, January 23. Besides the roster changes, G2 also signed a new coach in Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam from Team Vitality.
In Group B, the current no.1 team in the world, Natus Vincere, ere expected to dominate and win comfortably. Priced at -455, NaVi lead the markets, well ahead of Astralis (+500), OG (+700), and MiBR (+10000).
Over in Group C, the esports betting sides have priced FaZe Clan as the team to beat. They enter the tournament as -120 favorites, followed by Vitality (+110), Team Liquid (+1800), and Evil Geniuses (+2000).
Of the four, FaZe are the only team that made only one roster change this offseason, adding Robin “ropz” Kool as a replacement for Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer. Meanwhile, Liquid added three new players this offseason, including Joshua “oSee” Ohm, Richard “shox” Papillon, and re-signed Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella, who spent the last year competing in Valorant.
Evil Geniuses made some heavy roster adjustments. The team acquired former Cloud9 trio in Jacky “Stewie2K” Yip, Timothy “autimatic” Ta, and William “RUSH” Wierzba.
With so many new rosters making their debut, it will be interesting how the new-look teams perform, making the BLAST Premier Spring Groups a tournament no CS:GO esports fan should miss!