BLAST Premier 2023 is a worldwide Counter-Strike tournament series. This is where the best teams and biggest superstars fight it out for glory and a multi-million dollar prize pool.
BLAST Premier returns for 2023 with 345 hours worth of world-class Counter-Strike during its fourth year of events.
The tournament series Opens with Spring Groups in mid-January and closing with the World Final in December. Essentially, the BLAST Premier will be the start and end of the 2023 Counter-Strike season. A total of seven tournaments will be played throughout the year.
BLAST Premier Format
Both Spring and Fall Groups will exclusively feature best of three’s as the format for matches. This format allows for more hours of Counter-Strike than ever before. Group winners will advance directly to the respective Spring and Fall Final arena events. The remaining three teams in each group proceed into Gauntlet. Subsequently, the three winners of the Gauntlet book their place in the Spring and Fall Final. However, the losing six teams will play in the Showdown events.
The BLAST Premier Showdowns throughout 2023 will take place online. Moreover, the showdowns will retain the same two regional tournaments: Showdown Europe and Showdown Rest of World. North American servers will host the Showdown Rest of World. Conversely, non-North American teams will travel into the region for the Rest of World Showdown.
BLAST Premier Teams
Hundreds of teams will get a shot at playing on a global platform thanks to the BLAST Premier Qualifiers.
All teams from will have the chance to qualify for the Spring and Fall Showdowns through regional qualifiers. These qualifiers will give teams from across the Counter-Strike scene a chance to play at the Spring and Fall Showdowns. Winning the Showdown events will take teams to Spring or Fall Final arena events. Basically, this gives qualifier teams a chance to play on the BLAST Premier stage against tier-one opposition.
BLAST Premier 2023 Member Teams: Astralis, BIG, Complexity, EG, Faze, G2, Heroic, Liquid, NaVi, NIP, OG, Vitality
Charlotte Kenny, Managing Director of BLAST Premier, said: “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. “
“This year, the BLAST Premier Qualifiers return, giving grassroots teams the chance to play at the highest level against the world’s best – with 14 regional qualifiers set to take place across the year.”
Prize Pool
The BLAST Premier 2023 season will have a combined prize pool of $2,475,000 on the line across the seven events.
The Spring and Fall Groups will play in a LAN setting without a crowd in BLAST’s Copenhagen studios and the Showdowns will remain online. Spring, Fall, and World Final will all be arena events with live audiences. These locations will be confirmed in due course.
The finale to the 2023 season is the World Final, and qualification for the $1,000,000 event will be intertwined with leading events throughout the year. Two teams are guaranteed to qualify via the “Race to the World Final Leaderboard”, with the remaining six spots being filled by winners of the following 2023 tournaments: BLAST Premier Spring Final, BLAST.tv Paris Major, BLAST Premier Fall Final, Valve Fall Major, ESL Pro League Season 17 and ESL Pro League Season 18. As with 2022, if a team were to win multiple of the following events, a spot will be added to the Race To World Final each time.
