# Blast Premier

Blast Premier (stylized as BLAST Premier) is a Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) (previously Counter-Strike: Global Offensive) professional esports league launched in 2020. It is primarily based in two regions: North America and Europe.
The Danish esports organisation, RFRSH Entertainment, announced the series as a successor to the BLAST Pro Series in 2019. The 2020 Blast Premier Series experienced disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the transition of all events except the Spring regular season online and reduced prize pools for many of the events. This disruption continued into the 2021 season, with both the Spring Groups and Spring Showdown occurring online.

## Format

The Blast Premier series is divided into two seasons per year: Spring and Fall. Each season lasts around four months with 16 regular season partnered teams participating in the Group stage, ending with a season finals for the 6 top teams from the group stage. The season finals are also open to two teams from each season's Showdown events, which are open to a much broader array of organizations, including those that did not advance in the regular season. Non-partnered teams usually qualify for the Showdown events via invites or via regional tournaments (One such example being the ACE North American Masters for teams from North America). The winner of each season's finals goes on to participate the Global Finals at the end of the year, as well as winners of other prestigious non-BLAST Premier events and those that rank highest in the BLAST Premier Global Leaderboard, a standings of the top events of the year from multiple leagues and tournaments.
In August 2023, Counter-Strike developer Valve announced that the partnership system that Blast Premier used would be abolished in 2025, forcing all tournament organizers to pivot to an open circuit or an invitational system using Valve's rankings. In order to prepare for the change to an open circuit, Blast announced that the 2024 Blast Premier season would feature 16 partnered teams: the previous 12 partnered teams that, with the exceptions of 100 Thieves, MIBR and Evil Geniuses (who had their spots sold to BIG Clan, Heroic and Cloud9 in 2021, 2022 and 2023 respectively), had been partnered since Blast Premier's inception, and four one-year affiliate teams, those being GamerLegion, Team Falcons, Team Spirit and Virtus.pro.
BLAST announced their plans for 2025 and beyond during the 2024 Spring Final in London. To align with Valve's new rules forcing their partnership system to cease, BLAST will use three formats - Bounty (a 32-team invitational tournament where teams receive bounties for winning matches against their opponents), Open (a 16-team tournament mimicking the Intel Extreme Masters), and Rivals (where the top 4 teams in the Valve rankings, plus the next-best teams in Europe, the Americas and Asia) will play each other in the old Final format). With this, 2024's World Final was the last BLAST Premier World Final.

## Partnered teams

| Team | Year joined | Year ended |
| 100 Thieves | 2020 | 2021 |
| MIBR | 2020 | 2022 |
| Evil Geniuses | 2020 | 2023 |
| Astralis | 2020 | 2025 |
| Complexity Gaming | 2020 | 2025 |
| FaZe Clan | 2020 | 2025 |
| G2 Esports | 2020 | 2025 |
| Team Liquid | 2020 | 2025 |
| Natus Vincere | 2020 | 2025 |
| Ninjas in Pyjamas | 2020 | 2025 |
| OG Esports | 2020 | 2025 |
| Team Vitality | 2020 | 2025 |
| BIG Clan | 2021 | 2025 |
| Heroic | 2022 | 2025 |
| Cloud9 | 2023 | 2025 |
| Team Falcons | 2024 | 2025 |
| GamerLegion | 2024 | 2025 |
| Team Spirit | 2024 | 2025 |
| Virtus.pro | 2024 | 2025 |
* ↑ Joined as affiliate partner.

## Editions
### Partner league

| Edition | Date | Venue, Host city | Champions | Runners-up | Prize pool | MVP |
| Spring 2020: Regular Season | January 31–February 16, 2020 | 3 Mills Studio, London | FaZe Clan Natus Vincere G2 Esports | OG Esports Complexity Gaming Team Liquid | US$300,000 | Not awarded |
| Spring 2020 Europe Showdown | June 1–15, 2020 | Europe / Online | Vitality ENCE | Ninjas in Pyjamas | US$182,500 | Not awarded |
| Spring 2020 Americas Showdown | June 1–7, 2020 | North America / Online | MiBR Furia Esports | Evil Geniuses | US$142,500 | Not awarded |
| Spring 2020 Europe Finals | June 15–21, 2020 | Europe / Online | Complexity Gaming | Team Vitality | US$500,000 | Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut |
| Spring 2020 Americas Finals | June 16–21, 2020 | North America / Online | Evil Geniuses | MiBR | US$250,000 | Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov |
| Fall Series 2020 | October 15–31, 2020 | Europe / Online | OG Esports Team Vitality G2 Esports | Natus Vincere BIG Clan Astralis | US$300,000 | Not awarded |
| Fall Showdown 2020 | November 24–29, 2020 | Europe / Online | Furia Esports mousesports | Cloud9 Team Liquid | US$150,000 | Not awarded |
| Fall 2020 Finals | December 8–13, 2020 | Europe / Online | Team Vitality | Astralis | US$425,000 | Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut |
| Global Final 2020 | January 19–24, 2021 | Europe / Online | Natus Vincere | Astralis | US$1,000,000 | Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev |
| Spring Groups 2021 | February 4–14, 2021 | Europe / Online | BIG Clan Complexity Gaming Natus Vincere | Ninjas in Pyjamas Evil Geniuses FaZe Clan | US$150,000 | Not awarded |
| Spring Showdown 2021 | April 13–18, 2021 | Europe / Online | G2 Esports Gambit Esports | Team Spirit Heroic | US$162,500 | Not awarded |
| Spring Finals 2021 | June 15–20, 2021 | Europe / Online | Gambit Esports | Natus Vincere | US$425,000 | Abay "Hobbit" Khassenov |
| Fall Groups 2021 | September 16–26, 2021 | Europe / Online | Natus Vincere Ninjas in Pyjamas Team Vitality | FaZe Clan BIG Clan Astralis | US$150,000 | Not awarded |
| Fall Showdown 2021 | October 12–17, 2021 | Europe / Online | Heroic Team Liquid | OG Esports MAD Lions | US$162,500 | Not awarded |
| Fall Finals 2021 | November 24–28, 2021 | Royal Arena, Copenhagen | Natus Vincere | Team Vitality | US$425,000 | Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev |
| World Final 2021 | December 14–19, 2021 | BLAST Studio, Copenhagen | Natus Vincere | Gambit Esports | US$1,000,000 | Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev |
| Spring Groups 2022 | January 28–February 6, 2022 | Europe / Online | Team Vitality OG Esports Faze Clan | G2 Esports Natus Vincere BIG Clan | US$117,500 | Not awarded |
| Spring Showdown Europe 2022 | April 27–May 1, 2022 | Europe / Online | ENCE | Astralis | US$67,500 | Not awarded |
| Spring Showdown North America 2022 | April 27–May 1, 2022 | North America / Online | PaiN Gaming | Furia Esports | US$67,500 | Not awarded |
| Spring Finals 2022 | June 15–19, 2022 | Altice Arena, Lisbon | Natus Vincere | Team Vitality | US$425,000 | Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev |
| Fall Groups 2022 | August 19–28, 2022 | BLAST Studio, Copenhagen | OG Esports Natus Vincere Team Liquid | FaZe Clan Ninjas in Pyjamas G2 Esports | US$117,500 | Not awarded |
| Fall Showdown Europe 2022 | October 19–23, 2022 | Europe / Online | Heroic | Astralis | US$67,500 | Not awarded |
| Fall Showdown North America 2022 | October 19–23, 2022 | North America / Online | Fluxo | MiBR | US$67,500 | Not awarded |
| Fall Finals 2022 | November 23–27, 2022 | Royal Arena, Copenhagen | Heroic | FaZe Clan | US$425,000 | Helvijs "broky" Saukants |
| World Final 2022 | December 14–18, 2022 | Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi | G2 Esports | Team Liquid | US$1,000,000 | Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov |
| Spring Groups 2023 | January 19–29, 2023 | BLAST Studio, Copenhagen | Team Vitality Faze Clan G2 Esports | Natus Vincere Heroic Astralis | US$117,500 | Not awarded |
| Spring Showdown Europe 2023 | March 29–April 2, 2023 | Europe/Online | Cloud9 | BIG Clan | US$67,500 | Not awarded |
| Spring Showdown North America 2023 | March 29–April 2, 2023 | North America/Online | Imperial Esports | PaiN Gaming | US$67,500 | Not awarded |
| Spring Final 2023 | June 7–11, 2023 | Entertainment and Sports Arena, Washington D.C. | Heroic | Team Vitality | US$425,000 | Casper "cadiaN" Møller |
| Fall Groups 2023 | July 13–23, 2023 | Copenhagen | FaZe Clan Heroic Ninjas in Pyjamas | Natus Vincere Team Vitality Astralis | US$177,500 | Not awarded |
| Fall Showdown 2023 Europe | October 4–8, 2023 | Europe/Online | Cloud9 | BIG Clan | US$67,500 | Not awarded |
| Fall Showdown 2023 Americas | October 4–8, 2023 | North America/Online | Complexity Gaming | Team Liquid | US$67,500 | Not awarded |
| Fall Final 2023 | November 22–26, 2023 | Royal Arena, Copenhagen | Team Vitality | FaZe Clan | US$425,000 | Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut |
| World Final 2023 | December 13–17, 2023 | Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi | Team Vitality | FaZe Clan | US$1,000,000 | Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut |
| Spring Groups 2024 | January 22–28, 2024 | Copenhagen | Virtus.pro FaZe Clan Natus Vincere Team Vitality | Astralis G2 Esports | US$190,000 | Not awarded |
| Spring Showdown 2024 | March 6–10, 2024 | Online | SAW Team Spirit | OG Esports Metizport | US$135,000 | Not awarded |
| Spring Final 2024 | June 12–16, 2024 | Wembley Arena, London | Team Spirit | Natus Vincere | US$425,000 | Danil "donk" Kryshkovets |
| Fall Groups 2024 | July 29–August 4, 2024 | Copenhagen | Team Liquid G2 Esports Team Vitality Team Spirit | Astralis Natus Vincere | US$190,000 | Not awarded |
| Fall Showdown 2024 | August 21–25, 2024 | Online | FaZe Clan Team Falcons | OG Esports Virtus.pro | US$135,000 | Not awarded |
| Fall Final 2024 | September 25–29, 2024 | Forum Copenhagen | G2 Esports | Natus Vincere | US$425,000 | Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov |
| World Final 2024 | October 30–November 3, 2024 | Singapore | G2 Esports | Team Spirit | US$1,000,000 | Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov |

### Open circuit

In August 2023, Counter-Strike 2 developers Valve banned tournament organizers from having "unique business relationships" with teams. As a result, Blast revamped their tournament format starting in 2025.
The new "Bounty" tournament assigns the 16 highest-rated teams of 32 bounties in addition to the regular prize money earned, where victorious teams claim half their opponent's bounty, with the other half added to their own bounty. The tournament will feature bests-of-three in a single-elimination format. The new "Open" tournament features 12 teams invited from the Valve Regional Standings, in addition to four teams qualified through new regional "Rising" tournaments, which feature invited teams as well as teams from open qualfiers. Open tournaments feature two groups of eight playing a double-elimination best-of-three bracket. "Rivals" tournaments involve eight directly invited teams competing in four-team double-elimination brackets, before a best-of-five grand final.
| Edition | Date | Venue, Host city | Champions | Runners-up | Prize pool | MVP |
| Bounty 2025 Season 1 | January 13–26, 2025 | Online Copenhagen (Finals) | Team Spirit | Eternal Fire | US$500,000 | Danil "donk" Kryshkovets |
| Open Lisbon 2025 | March 17–30, 2025 | Copenhagen (Groups) Lisbon (Finals) | TBD | TBD | US$400,000 | TBD |
| Rivals 2025 Season 1 | April 28–May 4, 2025 | Auditorio Pabellon, Monterrey | TBD | TBD | US$350,000 | TBD |
| Bounty 2025 Season 2 | August 4–17, 2025 | Online Copenhagen (Finals) | TBD | TBD | US$500,000 | TBD |
| Open London 2025 | August 25–September 7, 2025 | Copenhagen (Groups) London (Finals) | TBD | TBD | US$400,000 | TBD |
| Rivals 2025 Season 2 | November 10–16, 2025 | TBD | TBD | TBD | US$350,000 | TBD |

## World Team Of The Year

| Year | Role | ID | Name | Team |
| 2021 | IGL | apEX | Dan Madesclaire | Team Vitality |
| 2021 | AWP | s1mple | Oleksandr Kostyliev | Natus Vincere |
| 2021 | Entry | NiKo | Nikola Kovač | G2 Esports |
| 2021 | Support | Perfecto | Ilya Zalutskiy | Natus Vincere |
| 2021 | Lurker | Hobbit | Abai Hasenov | Gambit Esports |
| 2021 | Coach | B1ad3 | Andrii Horodenskyi | Natus Vincere |
| Year | Role | ID | Name | Team |
| 2022 | IGL | karrigan | Finn Andersen | FaZe Clan |
| 2022 | AWP | s1mple | Oleksandr Kostyliev | Natus Vincere |
| 2022 | Entry | YEKINDAR | Mareks Gaļinskis | Team Liquid |
| 2022 | Support | Perfecto | Ilya Zalutskiy | Natus Vincere |
| 2022 | Lurker | ropz | Robin Kool | Faze Clan |
| 2022 | Coach | B1ad3 | Andrii Horodenskyi | Natus Vincere |