The annual tournament season of the Blast Premier organization begins this Friday. The CIS region will only be represented by the global arena titan — Natus Vincere. BLAST Premier: Spring Groups is a competition for the organizers' partner teams, where 12 teams are divided into three groups. There is a double-elimination system in each group, teams that meet in the finals of their subgroups automatically qualify for BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2022. The tournament will be held online from January 28 to February 6. Let's analyze each group in detail.
Group A
Participants: G2 Esports, Complexity, Ninjas in Pyjamas, BIG.
Main intrigue: How will the new G2 roster perform? The debut of m0NESY on the tier-1 stage.
Every roster in this group has changed its roster in the offseason. FaveN joined BIG, NIP fights with the mental health of dev1ce. The team's star has been placed on unscheduled leave for health reasons due to issues on a personal front, and the Dane will be replaced by a young sniper phzy from the Young Ninjas. We have seen the young player at the recent tournaments in the main roster. Complexity bursts onto the tier-1 stage in a new guise. Now Grim, JT, junior, FaNg, floppy fight for the American organization. The last of them distinguished himself in the first matches of the team at the Funspark, though the team lost in both matches, surprising the audience only by the Vertigo map taken from Gambit.
Group B
Participants: Natus Vincere, MIBR, Astralis, OG
Main intrigue: Who will lose to NaVi in the finals?
Friends, does anyone have doubts that Natus Vincere will get resistance from these opponents? MIBR is number 56 in the global ranking, the real representative of the tier-3 stage. This tournament will help demonstrate one's potential if there is one. OG left its leader and replaced it with good captain Nemanja "nexa" Isakovich who no longer wants to be IGL. How he will fit into the new team is an open question.
And the most curious... Astralis. Having performed so brilliantly at the BLAST Fall Finals, the Danes went out like a match. The best description of their game would be the thesis – gla1ve is the best roster player right now. The captain indeed shows excellent readiness, but Lucky and Xyp9x don't support him. The star rifler k0nfig is too unstable. Astralis in its new image has never met NaVi, it's time for them to do it, beating OG for starters. But they should not discount the Europeans. For Natus Vincere, this tournament is a warm-up before IEM Katowice, where the cyber athletes will try to extend their winning streak on the LAN.
Bet on CS:GO with 1xBetGroup C
Participants: Team Vitality, Evil Geniuses, FaZe Clan, Team Liquid.
Main intrigue: How will the new rosters perform? Who will be the winner?
This group is perhaps the most interesting. At first sight, you cannot predict who will be the strongest. All the teams have been seriously renewed. Let's analyze each of them. The French are no longer French, now it is a Danish-French roster. The legends of global e-sports joined Team Vitality: dupreeh, Magisk, and Zonic as a coach. The Danes have won four majors together and now should share their experience with an IGL apEX (first major), promising misutaaa and the strongest player of his time ZywOo. We wonder how the team will interact, given the poor English of Mathieu Herbaut. The team needs some time to adapt, so we shouldn't wait for incredible achievements from them. But it's worth expecting it from FaZe Clan. For the thousandth time, the organization has retired the honored fighter olofmeister, replacing him with a star Robin "ropz" Kool. The European will surprise you in the renewed lineup, as two young stars from the top 20 of the planet – Twistzz and broky – play for them, along with the veterans of the scene.
Evil Geniuses released the Cloud9 2.0 program, bringing autimatic and RUSH back from oblivion and adding hype with Stewie2k. Only CeRq and Brehze are left. The finalist of the last major, Damien "maLeK" Marcel, will lead the brigade. We don't know whether the players will manage to repeat those golden times, but it is worth watching. Who surprises us with its reshuffles as much as Vitality is Team Liquid. The American organization has retained only EliGE and NAF in addition to the coach. The newcomers of the team are the legend of the pro-scene shox, the young riffler oSee, and the returning nitr0. The newcomers, by the way, have already lost on FaceIt to Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev's stack. The squad is interesting, as there is no pronounced sniper, everything leads to the fact that the Frenchman will take the role of the first AWP. We are looking forward to the debuts of these teams. Guessing the winner here is akin to the lottery.
So, this was the announcement of the first tier-1 tournament of this year. We are looking forward to the beginning of the competition and wish Natus Vincere to represent the CIS with dignity.
