The BLAST Premier 2022 Season format has been announced. The Spring Groups start in January.
The third year of BLAST Premier has been announced with major changes to the Group Stage and Showdown Formats. With $2,475,000 on the line across 318 hours of Counter-Strike, the circuit will surely bring us amazing games and plays.
BLAST Premier 2022 Spring & Fall Groups
The biggest changes to the circuit compared to 2021 come in the two group stages. The full Best-Of-3 Double-Elimination groups are replaced by 3 Best-of-1 rapid-fire groups, followed up by a mixed group gauntlet. The initial groups will set up the seeding for the mixed team gauntlet.
The gauntlet will follow with Single Elimination Brackets that will see teams from different groups battling it out for the first time. After 12 Bo3s the top 6 will qualify for the Season Finals. While the other 6 will have to play in the showdown. The new format prevents teams from having to play 2 Best-Of-3 matches in a single day, something that was a common complaint in the previous formats.
Spring & Fall Showdown
The other major changes come in the season showdowns. The event will no longer be 16 team single-elimination brackets in Europe. Instead, the teams will be split into EU/CIS and the rest of the world. With 6 teams dropping down from the groups, 9 qualifiers will give us the regional champions alongside one top invited team. The two sets of 8 will fight it out for a final spot from each showdown. Splitting the showdown will hopefully help in the development of the NA scene by making 8 top teams practice in the region twice a year similar to how tier 1 LANs used to do pre-COVID. The teams will come through from a variety of qualifiers to allow teams from all regions to qualify for the event.
Spring & Fall Finals
The Season finals will have the same GSL format with 8 teams battling it out for the trophy. The 6 teams from the group stage will be joined by the 2 showdown champions to crown the best team of the season. The winner also guarantees qualification to the Global Finals at the end of the year.
World Finals
8 teams from across the CS: GO calendar, will fight it out at the World Finals to lift the golden trophy and go home with the lion's share of a million dollars. Winners of the following events will receive an invite to the event.
- 2 CSGO Major Champions
- 2 ESL Pro League Champions
- Blast Spring Finals Champions
- Blast Fall Finals Champions
- 2 Blast Global Leaderboard Invites
BLAST Premier 2021 Calendar:
- Spring Groups: Jan 28-Feb 6 (Online) - ($177,500 prize pool)
- The Spring Showdown: Apr 20-24 (Online) - ($135,000 prize pool)
- Spring Final: Jun 14-19 (Arena) - ($425,000 prize pool)
- Fall Groups: Aug 19-28 (Studio) - ($177,500 prize pool)
- The Fall Showdown: Oct 19-23 (Online) - ($135,000 prize pool)
- Fall Final: Nov 22-27 (Arena) - ($425,000 prize pool)
- World Final: Dec 14-18 (Arena) - ($1,000,000 prize pool)
Blast Premier 2022 kicks off on January 28 as the first tier-1 event in 2021. Stay tuned to esports.gg to keep up with all the results and matches.