BLAST Premier Spring Final opening match-ups announced

The $425,000 competition will kick off in two weeks' time and feature five teams currently in the top 10.

BLAST has confirmed the clashes for the first round of the BLAST Premier Spring Final, scheduled for June 15-20. Eight teams will compete in this double-elimination tournament for the first prize of $225,000 plus a spot at the World Final in December.

Without surprise, current world No.1 Gambit are the top seed in the tournament. The IEM Katowice 2021 champions, who won the EPIC League CIS last weekend following a 3-1 victory over Virtus.pro in the final, will go up against the struggling Evil Geniuses, who crashed out of cs_summit 8 in 7th-8th place and are yet to win a match since signing Michał "⁠MICHU⁠" Müller.

FaZe, who went out of Flashpoint 3 in 13th-16th place, will have to face second seed Natus Vincere. It will be the first match between the two teams since the BLAST Premier Spring Groups, when FaZe still had Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer in the starting lineup.

Flashpoint 3 runners-up Ninjas in Pyjamas will face Complexity, who finished tenth in the RMR tournament, while G2 will take on BIG in the only first-round clash between two top-10 sides.

Below you can find the opening match-ups and the complete tournament schedule:

Gambit vs. Evil Geniuses
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Complexity
G2 vs. BIG
Natus Vincere vs. FaZe

Schedule

Tuesday, June 15:

15:30 Gambit vs. Evil Geniuses
18:30 Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Complexity

Wednesday, June 16:

12:30 G2 vs. BIG
15:30 Natus Vincere vs. FaZe
18:30 Lower bracket round 1 #1

Thursday, June 17:

12:30 Lower bracket round 1 #2
15:30 Upper bracket semi-final #1
18:30 Upper bracket semi-final #2

Friday, June 18:

15:30 Lower bracket round 2 #1
18:30 Lower bracket round 2 #2

Saturday, June 19:

15:30 Upper bracket final
18:30 Lower bracket final

Sunday, June 20:

15:30 Consolidation final
19:30 Grand final

BIG, Natus Vincere and FaZe are the only teams attending the BLAST Premier Spring Final that will not be competing in the $250,000 IEM Summer, which is scheduled to start on Thursday. Both tournaments will feature Ancient, which took Train's place in the active duty map pool last month.

ESL Pro League 13 champions HEROIC are so far the only team confirmed for the BLAST Premier World Final, which will take place from December 14-19. The Danish team will be joined by the winners of four other tournaments, including PGL Major Stockholm, and three invited sides based on the BLAST World Fina leaderboard.