Esports tournament organiser BLAST has announced details about its upcoming events for the BLAST Premier 2023 season.
There will be a total of seven large-scale BLAST tournaments in 2023, with its overall prize pool totalling $2.4m (£2m). The first event will be the Spring Groups in January and the season will conclude with the World Final in December.
The 2023 calendar sees slight changes in the way the events themselves are organised. BLAST aims to also deliver more broadcast hours than last year, with a total of 345 hours announced. Moreover, the company also announced that BLAST Premier events will be the first and last large CS:GO events of 2023.
Perhaps the largest change to the BLAST Premier 2023 circuit is the inclusion of best-of-three matches in the Spring and Fall Groups. Teams that win their groups will also qualify directly to the respective finals, and the remaining teams will get placed in a new competition called the Gauntlet. Three Gauntlet winners will also go to the Spring and Fall Finals, and the losers will play in the Showdown events.
The Showdowns themselves will be played online. Spring and Fall Groups will be played in the BLAST studios in Copenhagen, and will not be open to the public. Spring, Fall, and the World Final will be played in front of live audiences, with dates and venues yet to be announced.
BLAST Premier 2023 will also feature BLAST Premier Qualifiers, a tournament series open to all interested teams from a large number of regions. The best teams from the Qualifiers will get a chance to play at Showdown events and perhaps advance to the Spring or Fall Finals if they win the showdown.
Spring Showdown qualifiers will include Eastern and Western Europe, the Nordics, North and South America, and Asia. The Fall Qualifiers will be open to those regions, in addition to China, Oceania, and MENA regions.
Charlotte Kenny, Managing Director of BLAST Premier, commented on the news: “We’re excited for what the BLAST Premier 2023 season has in store in its fourth year. 2023 will be the second year running where we have all of our finals in packed-out arenas in leading locations around the world.
“We’re excited to deliver another 12 months of next-level entertainment and follow up on the success of last year’s arena events in Lisbon, Copenhagen, and Abu Dhabi. “
In addition to these events, BLAST will also produce the first CS:GO Major of 2023 in Paris, France.
