The organizers of BLAST Premier have announced the participants for the closed qualifier of the new Bounty tournament. At stake are eight slots for the final LAN event, which will take place in Copenhagen. This event will not only be a crucial stage for the contenders but also showcase for the first time the new Valve Ranking System (VRS).
How It All Began
On December 16, BLAST Premier officially sent invitations to teams based on VRS as of December 2. This ranking system replaces old mechanisms and takes into account the stability of teams throughout the year.
Wildcard invitations draw special attention. According to the new Valve rules, a team must meet specific criteria: either have three players who were part of the top-8 teams in VRS over the last 12 months or win any Tier-1 tournament during this same period. Currently, only Team Falcons meets these requirements. Other Wildcard invitations will be announced by the end of the year.
Who Will Compete for the Trophy?
The list of tournament participants is impressive. Among the 31 teams are esports stars including G2, NAVI, Vitality, Heroic, FaZe, and many others. However, the invitation system has its nuances. For example, FURIA, which had two teams in the top-28 VRS, received invitations for both lineups, but FURIA Fe declined due to the one organization per tournament rule.
The participant list also includes Team Spirit, The MongolZ, MOUZ, Team Liquid, Eternal Fire, SAW, 3DMAX, paiN, Complexity, Astralis, FlyQuest, BIG, Virtus.pro, Sangal, GamerLegion, MIBR, Nemiga, B8, ENCE, Imperial Fe, Wildcard, Fluxo, 9 Pandas, M80. Wildcard - Team Falcons, the second team to receive a Wildcard invitation, will be revealed later.
Imperial Fe is among the invited and will become the second female team in history to compete in an S-tier tournament. The first was Bad Monkey, who played at Fragbite Masters Season 3 10 years ago, where zAAz, now playing for Imperial Fe, also participated.
Why Is This Important?
The BLAST Premier Bounty tournament format highlights the importance of teams' stability and achievements over the past year, as the VRS system became the basis for the distribution of invites. At the LAN final in Copenhagen, the strongest of the strongest will meet, making the qualification stage thrilling. For many teams, this is not only a chance to fight for the title but also an opportunity to secure their place in the elite of world esports.
Comments