BLAST announces "the most inclusive format in the scene" for 2021 Premier Championship

The tournament series will expand into Asia and Oceania next year.

BLAST has announced a series of changes to the way that the BLAST Premier Championship will operate in 2021. These include a new qualifying process for the Showdown tournaments that will include Asia and Oceania for the first time, and a revamped system to determine the teams attending World Final that ties in to other tournaments.

The announcement was made on Sunday before the start of the last day of the BLAST Premier Fall Finals. The 2020 Premier Championship will end only next month with the $1 million Global Finals, scheduled for January 18-24.

The BLAST Premier Championship 2021 will be split into two seasons (Spring and Fall), each consisting of three stages: Groups — previously known as Series — Showdown, and the Finals. It remains unclear just how much of the circuit will be held on LAN because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The BLAST Premier Groups will feature the 12 BLAST partner organisations, who will move on to the Finals or the Showdown depending on their performances. Both Showdowns will be open to all regions via qualifiers, but BLAST says that the Spring tournament "will focus on Americas and Europe", while the Fall competition "will focus on Europe, Asia and Oceania."

BLAST currently has just 11 partners after 100 Thieves decided to leave Counter-Strike ahead of this year's Fall season. HLTV.org knows that a new partner organisation is expected to be unveiled before the start of the 2021 Championship.

To ensure that no team will walk away empty-handed in 2021, BLAST has announced that non-partner teams will receive a participation fee upon completing their attendance.

But perhaps the biggest change is the overhaul of the qualifying method for the World Final. The BLAST circuit itself will directly qualify only two (the Spring and Fall champions) of the eight teams attending the $1 million event. The last six teams will come from ESL Pro League seasons 13 and 14, Flashpoint 3 and 4, the Fall Major and the Race to the World Final leaderboard (a ranking system that factors in performances from tournaments hosted by multiple organisers) as BLAST designed a system that connects results across the calendar year.

“BLAST Premier will be back for 2021 with fans set to enjoy more top tier CS:GO than ever before,” BLAST CEO Robbie Douek said in a statement. “We will unite all leading tournaments and performers from across the calendar year, with all roads leading towards December’s World Final, where $1 million in prize money will be up for grabs and a chance to be crowned the world’s best Counter-Strike team.

“Next year’s format will be the most inclusive in the Counter-Strike scene and offer teams from regions all over the world an opportunity to compete in our highly-anticipated events, thanks to our new qualifying series.”

Below you can find the complete schedule for BLAST Premier Championship 2021:

Spring Groups - $150,000 (February 4-14)
Spring Showdown - $162,500 (April 13-18)
Spring Final - $425,000 (June 15-20)
Fall Groups - $150,000 (August 26-September 5)
Fall Showdown - $162,500 (October 12-17)
Fall Final - $425,000 (November 23-28)
World Final - $1,000,000 (December 14-19)