The stage will have interesting matches, with dev1ce facing ZywOo.
BLAST revealed the Spring Groups teams on Jan. 9, and the first phase of the tournament will grant some interesting duels. The 12 teams are divided into three different groups, with each of those giving one spot for the BLAST Premier Spring Finals.
With the division made, right away the public will have Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz facing Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut. Another interesting matchup will be Natus Vincere (NAVI) dueling with Ninjas in Pyjamas (NIP), with Danyyl "headtr1ck" Valitov having the opportunity to show his former team that he has what it takes to be in the Tier 1 scene.
BLAST Spring Groups
These are the teams for the BLAST Premier Spring Groups:
Group A
- Heroic
- Team Vitality
- Astralis
- Evil Geniuses
Group B
- FaZe Clan
- Team Liquid
- OG
- Complexity
Group C
- G2
- NAVI
- NIP
- BIG
First matchups
Here are the first matchups of the tournament:
Group A
- Heroic x Evil Geniuses
- Vitality x Astralis
Group B
- FaZe x Complexity
- Liquid x OG
Group C
- G2 x BIG
- NAVI x NIP
The format is double elimination, so the winners of the first match will face each other in the upper bracket final of its group. Meanwhile, the losers will fight to keep themselves alive in the lower bracket semifinal. The squad that wins three times will guarantee the group spot in the BLAST Spring Finals. The second-best team will head to the Play-In stage.
Dev1ce versus ZywOo
In the first round of Group A, dev1ce will have his chance to show that he is ready to get back in the highest level of CS:GO. Astralis will face Vitality that has no one but ZywOo as its star player. The French AWPer had an amazing 2022, being considered as one of the top three players of the year.
Dev1ce, on the other hand, didn't play for almost the entire year. In December, he made his debut in his return to Astralis. Still, the Danish played two tournaments that are considered more Tier 2 in Europe. Now, a couple of months after being brought back to Astralis, he will have his first challenge.
Headtr1ck can show NAVI what they missed
As announced by NIP last Monday, headtr1ck is the new AWPer of the Swedish organization. The 18-year-old Ukrainian player was negotiated by NAVI since the main squad didn't have any need for an AWPer, considering that the position was occupied by Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev.
That being said, even though the reason that NAVI had to sell headtr1ck is understandable. The player may want to show his former team that he is one of the most promising names in the entire CS:GO pro scene. We just have to wait and see how this will play out.
BLAST Premier Spring Groups begins on the Jan. 19 and will go on until Jan. 29.
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