Counter-Strike circuit BLAST Premier, run by esports tournament organiser BLAST, has unveiled its schedule and format for 2024.
The BLAST Premier calendar will be divided into seven tournaments; three in each of its Spring and Fall seasons, followed by a World Final.
The Spring and Fall seasons will feature a Groups tournament held in BLAST’s Denmark studio, an online Showdown tournament, and a live arena finals. The Spring final will be held in London’s OVO Arena while the Fall final will head to the Forum in Copenhagen.
Prize pools vary from $135,000 (~£107,000) for the online Showdown events to $1m (~£791,000) for the World Final. The prize pool for the entire year totals around $2.48m (~£1.96m).
The Group tournaments will include best-of-three groups between the 12 BLAST Premier Member Teams, with the group winners qualifying directly to the respective season Final. The remaining group teams move on to a gauntlet where three additional sides gain Final qualification. The remaining teams head into the Showdown tournaments.
A formatting change coming into effect for 2024 will see the Showdown events move from two-split regional events into a single 16-team, single-elimination tournament. Additional teams can qualify for the Showdown events via seven regional qualifiers. The two Showdown semi-final winners earn the last Final qualification spots as well as a guaranteed $20,000(~£15,800) in prize money.
World Final qualification will be gained by two teams through the Race to the World Final Leaderboard, while the remaining spots will be awarded to the winners of the BLAST Premier Spring and Fall Finals, Copenhagen Major, and the IEM Katowice and Cologne.
The location for the BLAST Premier World Finals 2024 in November has yet to be revealed.
Andrew Haworth, Programme Director for BLAST Premier, commented on the schedule: “We can’t wait for what the 2024 season has in store for the Counter-Strike community. Building on the innovations and storylines developed across the 2023 season, we’re excited to bring BLAST Premier to passionate fans in exciting locations including the OVO Wembley Arena in London and the Forum Copenhagen.”
