Imperial Esports replaces PaiN Gaming at BLAST Open London

BLAST has named Imperial Esports as a replacement for PaiN Gaming for its BLAST Open London event beginning in late August.

The tournament organiser has stated that PaiN Gaming, which was announced as a replacement earlier this month, is not eligible to compete due to a breach in Valve‘s tournament rulebook.

BLAST has said that PaiN Gaming is no longer able to compete at the Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) event due to rule 3.2.5c, which states that teams that have previously declined an invitation to compete at an event can no longer participate.

PaiN Gaming declined its invitation to compete in the South American closed qualifiers, meaning it can’t be involved in the BLAST Open London Closed Qualifiers. Following the qualifiers, the competition will host a LAN event taking place at OVO Arena Wembley from September 5th to 7th, 2025.

The Brazilian side was initially set to compete as a replacement for Aurora Gaming, which opted out of the event on August 1st, citing a busy tournament schedule.

With PaiN Gaming no longer competing, Legacy has now received the direct invitation to play in the closed qualifiers, Meanwhile, Imperial Esports has earned the spot awarded to the winner of the BLAST Rising South America event after finishing in second place.

This isn’t the only replacement that has taken place before BLAST Open London gets underway. The MongolZ was unable to compete due to the inability to travel to the UK, resulting in Team Liquid taking its place after failing to earn a place through the online qualifiers.

Following the latest wave of replacements, the 16 teams competing in the BLAST Open London closed qualifiers, taking place from August 27th to September 1st, are as follows:

The top six teams from the closed qualifiers advance to the LAN finals where a $330,000 (~£244,529) prize pool is up for grabs.