On June 12 in London, England, another major CS2 event, the BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024, will commence. Eight teams, including FaZe Clan, Team Vitality, and Team Spirit, will compete for a prize pool of $425,000. Win three Bo3 matches and one Bo5 match, and $200,000 will be yours.
For most teams, as well as for Bo3.gg users, the tournament will be a test of endurance. Major championships now take place almost every two weeks, accompanied by Pick’Em challenges from our portal. Some top clubs simply don't have time for training. Meanwhile, Bo3.gg users sometimes struggle to make their predictions and participate in the skin giveaways. You can join the challenge via the link.
Dark Horse
Astralis
Recently, Astralis has been in good form and has become a regular playoff participant in major events. It can be said that dev1ce has fully adapted to the role of IGL. For four consecutive tournaments, the team has reached the semifinals, but has yet to break through this barrier. Perhaps the BLAST Spring Finals will be the championship where Astralis can reach the final?
The team is training hard and playing many official matches. If the roster has managed to correct the mistakes from previous events and we see the best version of Astralis, their opponents will have a tough time. The "dark horse" status fits the team ahead of the BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024.
Unpredictable Teams
Natus Vincere
Natus Vincere will also participate in the tournament. Their life after winning the Major has not been easy. Recent results increasingly suggest that their triumph at the Valve tournament was only a temporary success, unlikely to be repeated soon. This victory allowed the current NAVI roster to avoid changes, so hoping for their failure to bring back s1mple is still pointless. NAVI might either exit the group stage or make it to the event finals. Predicting the result is difficult as the team's performance largely depends on the individual form of its players.
G2 Esports
G2, the winners of the previous S-tier championship, should not be forgotten either. However, this time, expectations for a win are low as the team's sniper, Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov, encountered problems obtaining a visa. Ilya was still able to get it at the last moment, but it is still unknown when he will join the team. Currently, G2 will have to be set aside: finding a replacement for HooXi is relatively simple, but compensating for the absence of m0NESY, a contender for the best player of 2024, is nearly impossible. However, anything can happen. This is the beauty of Counter-Strike.
Favorites
FaZe Clan
FaZe Clan has established itself as one of the strongest teams in the world since the first CS2 tournaments. Although in 2024, the roster led by Finn "karrigan" Andersen has won only one championship, the club consistently ranks among the top five at each event. It can be assumed that FaZe is eagerly awaiting the end of this championship, as the Danish captain recently admitted that the team is very tired. However, despite the fatigue, the team is still capable of defeating strong opponents.
FaZe needs time to adapt to the new conditions after the map pool update, where they have two weak spots: Anubis and Dust2. On these maps, FaZe has a 0% win rate, putting them at a disadvantage during the map selection stage. The team is still capable of confidently beating mid-tier opponents, but fighting against top-5 clubs is much harder for them. FaZe will almost certainly reach the playoffs (they need to beat SAW), but they should not expect an easy championship. There is a more serious opponent at the event who has had time to rest and intends to finally win, breaking the streak of second places.
Team Vitality
In 2024, Vitality has faced many challenges. The year began with the usual failure at IEM Katowice, where they placed 13-16th. The team also failed to perform at the Major, with Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut, as often happens in key matches, not playing at his level, showing a performance questionable for a best-player contender. In the last two tournaments, Vitality lost the grand finals, winning only one of the six maps played.
Gradually, Vitality started to emerge from the crisis they fell into after the Katowice tournament. Despite failures in decisive matches, the team at least reaches the finals, indicating they have potential. Recent results suggest that Vitality has a good chance of success at this event. The team just needs ZywOo not to drop out of the game at crucial moments again.
Team Spirit
One of the main questions for Team Spirit before the upcoming championship concerns the form of Danil "donk" Kryshkovets. With each tournament, his statistics decline: after impressive results at the beginning of the year, his numbers have become more modest. At the last IEM Dallas 2024, he played with a rating of 6.4 — still a good result but not as impressive as before.
Performance in Katowice played a cruel joke on donk in the long term. Fans now expect new records from him, and ordinary numbers are perceived as a failure. Although it doesn't seem to affect the player himself much, his image in the community has suffered: in half a year, for many fans, he went from "the best in the world" to "a one-hit wonder."
Besides donk, the team has sniper Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov and support player Myroslav "zont1x" Plakhotja, who also stand out against their opponents and can single-handedly win several rounds. However, the tournament schedule for Spirit is extremely unfortunate: in the opening match, they will face G2, followed by Vitality or Virtus.pro. Despite all the difficulties, Spirit is still considered one of the main favorites of the tournament.
The BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024 will take place from June 12 to 16 in London. Teams will compete for a prize pool of $425,000 and a slot at the BLAST Premier: World Final 2024. You can follow the news, schedule, and results of the event via the link.
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