BLAST Premier Spring Series viewer's guide

With BLAST Premier Spring Series just around the corner, we have prepared a comprehensive viewer’s guide presenting the most important information of the $300,000 event.

BLAST Premier Spring Series will begin on Friday in London, United Kingdom, where the first of three groups will fight for qualification to the Spring Finals. FaZe and Ninjas in Pyjamas will kick off the tournament action, with the Swedish side set to debut their new lineup after adding Tim "⁠nawwk⁠" Jonasson to the roster in light of Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg’s departure. Succeeding the opening bout will be a Liquid side looking to begin their climb back to the No.1 ranked team in the world versus a developing MIBR roster.

FaZe and NiP will kick off the action in London

One week later, Group B will commence in perhaps the most stacked group of the event, which will pit the top two players in the world against each other with Natus Vincere taking on the EPICENTER 2019 champions Vitality in the first matchup. Meanwhile, Astralis will look to kick-start their year in winning fashion against a LAN-debuting Complexity.

Rounding out the event in Group C is 100 Thieves, who will take on a G2 side that ended last year on a high note with a trophy at the Champions Cup Finals, while Evil Geniuses will have their sight on an unpredictable OG.

The groups for the tournament can be found below:

Group A

FaZe

Liquid

Ninjas in Pyjamas

MIBR

Group B

Natus Vincere

Complexity

Vitality

Astralis

Group C

G2

OG

Evil Geniuses

100 Thieves

The group stage will be played out between January 31-February 16 with one group competing each week in a double-elimination, best-of-three format. The top two sides from each group will then progress to the $750,000 Spring Finals in Moscow, Russia, which will take place from June 19-21, with the remaining teams moving on to a Showdown stage. There, four qualifier teams will join the bottom-placed sides from the group stage for two final spots at the Spring Finals.

Below you can find the complete tournament schedule:

Group A

Friday, January 31
16:30 - FaZe vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas | BO3
20:30 - Liquid vs. MIBR | BO3

Saturday, February 1
16:30 - Group A lower bracket round 1 | BO3
20:30 - Group A upper bracket final | BO3

Sunday, February 2
16:30 - Group A consolidation final |BO3
19:30 - Group A final | BO3

Group B

Friday, February 7
16:30 - Natus Vincere vs. Vitality | BO3
20:30 - Astralis vs. Complexity | BO3

Saturday, February 8
16:30 - Group B lower bracket round 1 | BO3
20:30 - Group B upper bracket final | BO3

Sunday, February 9
16:30 - Group B consolidation final | BO3
20:30 - Group B final | BO3

Group C

Friday, February 14
16:30 - 100 Thieves vs. G2 | BO3
20:30 - Evil Geniuses vs. OG | BO3

Saturday, February 15
16:30 - Group C lower bracket round 1 | BO3
20:30 - Group C upper bracket final | BO3

Sunday, February 16
16:30 - Group C consolidation final | BO3
20:30 - Group C final | BO3

Bringing the action live is Auguste "⁠Semmler⁠" Massonnat on the desk as the host, with Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill and Duncan "⁠Thorin⁠" Shields alongside him to break down the matches. Casting the gameplay are two commentary duos in Jason "⁠moses⁠" O'Toole & Anders "⁠Anders⁠" Blume and Conner "⁠Scrawny⁠" Girvan & Mohan "⁠launders⁠" Govindasamy, with James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks rounding out the on-air talent as interviewer.

The on-air talent lineup looks as follows:

Auguste "⁠Semmler⁠" Massonnat — Desk host

Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill — Analyst
Duncan "⁠Thorin⁠" Shields — Analyst

Anders "⁠Anders⁠" Blume — Caster
Jason "⁠moses⁠" O'Toole — Caster
Conner "⁠Scrawny⁠" Girvan — Caster
Mohan "⁠launders⁠" Govindasamy — Caster

James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks — Interviewer