BLAST Pro Series, a tournament organised by RFRSH Entertainment, has announced that its next tournament will take place in North America.
? https://t.co/8G3ReDW9oW pic.twitter.com/dcXcqtK7qw
— BLAST Premier ? (@BLASTPremier) August 28, 2017
The North American tournament will not take place until 2018, but it will feature predominantly teams based in North and South America. It will continue with the innovative format, not often seen in Counter-Strike whereby six teams will compete and group stage and the final will all be played on the same day.
The first event of its kind will take place in Copenhagen in November, where 10,000 fans are expected to grace the Royal Arena and watch the likes of North, Astralis, Ninjas in Pyjamas, FaZe and G2 with one final team still set to be revealed. The total prize money on offer is $250,000 (£192,000) so it’s by no means a small tournament.
The formation of BLAST Pro Series is a combined effort from RFRSH Entertainment, PGL Esports and Anders Blume, a well known caster in the space. The release outlines that they will host representatives from 20 international cities who have an interest in hosting the BLAST Pro Series. Miami, New York and Austin are amongst the cities listed as the company look to expand to North America.
To have all of the action complete in a day, all three of the final and decisive group stage matches will be played at the same time, on screen in the arena. The main match will be shown on the “Red Zone Main Screen” so qualification can be witnessed live rather than on stream as is the norm.
The release also outlines plans to take the BLAST Pro Series to other relevant cities. The company suggests there may be three to four additional events in 2018 as they look to take the innovative new format global.
Esports Insider says: RFRSH and BLAST are clearly busy in the space. Taking an event to Copenhagen, where the likes of Astralis and North are to likely be home favourites makes total sense. It’ll be interesting to see where the next one pops up, with a number of high profile cities listed as potential next destinations.
