BLAST announce Showdown invites, Americas cut to eight teams

BLAST has revealed all invited teams to the European and Americas Spring Showdowns and announced that the Americas tournament's number of participants has been reduced to eight.

For the European tournament, BLAST decided to extend invitations to MAD Lions as well as MOUZ and fnatic, two organizations who, much to the criticism of the community, had been omitted from the organizer's list of partnered teams for the 2020 season as a whole. The trio's addition to the list sees the European Showdown's competition grow significantly more difficult, as it now features three of the top-five teams in the world.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the Americas Showdown has been reduced from ten to eight teams, with the five invites going out to Gen.G, Cloud9, FURIA, Chaos, and Triumph. As a result of the changes, the tournament will begin a day later compared to the original schedule; on June 1.

fnatic, mouz, and MAD Lions invited to the BLAST Premier Showdown

The format in both regions has been adjusted because of the transfer of Complexity's slot to the European Spring Finals. With three spots at the Finals now being available in each region instead of four in Europe and two in the Americas, third-place deciders will take place.

The tournaments will begin with a best-of-one, round-robin group stage splitting the participants in half. Only the last team will be eliminated, while the advancing teams will be seeded into the playoffs stages depending on their placing in the group stage.

The participants in both regions look as follows:

Europe

Astralis
Vitality
MOUZ
ENCE
RTP Arena Cup winner

Ninjas in Pyjamas
fnatic
MAD Lions
Dignitas
Unknown flag cis CIS Cup winner

Americas

Evil Geniuses
100 Thieves
Cloud9
Triumph

MIBR
Gen.G
FURIA
Chaos

The RTP Arena Cup, which serves as the Iberian qualifier, will enter the semi-finals stage on Saturday featuring Movistar Riders vs. Giants and SAW vs. Real Betis. Meanwhile, the CIS Cup will be played out from May 25-30 with teams such as Virtus.pro and FORZE in attendance.