Esports tournament organiser BLAST has announced live during ESI London 2023 that the upcoming BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024 will take place at the OVO Arena Wembley in London.
The tournament will take place from June 14th-16th 2024 and features a $425,000 (~£349,000) prize pool.
The event was exclusively announced on the main stage of Esports Insider’s esports industry conference, taking place right now at BOXPARK Wembley. BLAST Spring Finals 2024 will feature eight teams.
The first two days of the BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024 will be played behind closed doors in the arena. Meanwhile, the action from June 14th-16th will be played in front of fans.
The Spring Finals 2024 will arrive in London four years after the last BLAST-hosted event in the capital, and will be the largest Counter-Strike event in the country since 2018’s London Major. This year’s BLAST Premier Spring Finals took place in Washington, DC.
The BLAST Spring Final is one of the tournament organiser’s biggest events in its Counter-Strike competitive calendar. This season’s Fall Finals will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark with the 2023 World Finals concluding BLAST’s Counter-Strike season in December.
The event continues a trend of esports events coming to the UK capital. London has hosted several major esports events in recent years, including important playoff events in League of Legends, Rocket League, Call of Duty and Apex legends.
However, the Wembley Arena venue is a notable change from those other events, all of which have been held at the Copper Box Arena in Stratford, London.
Tickets for the event will go on presale on October 25th and on regular sale on October 27th.
BLAST has partnered with major events company Live Nation and destination agency London & Partners to bring the large-scale Counter-Strike event to the capital of the United Kingdom. Live Nation is an American entertainment conglomerate that owns Ticketmaster and Live Nation Concerts. Meanwhile, London & Partners aims to support the growth of the country’s capital as an esports and gaming destination.
Andrew Haworth, Programme Director for BLAST Premier, commented on the release: “London is renowned for hosting world-leading events in sport, music and entertainment with the city now setting its sights on being a leading destination for esports.
“We look forward to working with London & Partners and Live Nation to achieve this aim. Bringing the first BLAST Premier arena event of 2024 to London is an important and exciting first step in this journey.
