BLAST Premier Spring Showdown and Finals split into regions and moved online

The BLAST Premier Spring Showdown and Finals will be split into Americas and Europe groups and played online in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the organizers have announced.

The Showdown, where ten teams were supposed to play originally, was also expanded to 20 teams in total, with ten teams participating in each region, split into best-of-one round-robin groups of five.

MIBR, 100 Thieves, and Evil Geniuses will be joined by seven invited teams in the Americas portion, while Astralis, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and Vitality will take part in the European division alongside four qualified (one from CIS Cup, two from Elisa Invitational, and one from Iberia's qualifier) and three invited sides.

As a result of the changes, the qualifying process for the Finals and the $750,000 event itself will also look different. In Europe, group winners of the Showdown will advance directly to the finals, while the remaining eight teams will play best-of-three matches to determine two more finalists.

In the Americas, no one will advance directly, but the top-four teams from each group will go through to a best-of-three stage, in which the two best teams will then make it to the four-team regional finals.

The spot distribution for each stage once again looks as follows:

Showdown (May 31-June 7)

Finals (June 15-21)

Finally, three teams in total will advance to the Global Final from the Spring Finals; two from Europe and one from the Americas.