BLAST Bounty Season 1 invites announced

19-12-2024 16:31

Thirty-two teams will compete in the first big tournament of 2025.

Falcons have secured a wildcard invite

BLAST has announced the list of teams invited to compete in BLAST Bounty Season 1 using the Valve Ranking System (VRS).

In addition to the 28 VRS invites, there were four wildcard spots for BLAST fill - a mechanism designed to ensure that there is at least one team representing each region even if they aren't inside the top 28 in the ranking.

A team is eligible for a Wildcard invite if it meets one of the following criteria:

⁠It includes at least 3 players who individually were members of a top 8 Roster on the VRS at any time during the preceding 12 months or,

It has won any Tier 1 event in the 12 months preceding the announcement of the Wildcard Invite.

According to BLAST, Falcons are the only team that meets this criteria, though it's unclear at this point what roster was submitted by the Saudi organization as its team is down to just one player, Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif, with Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač expected to be unveiled soon.

Falcons were in the top eight in the VRS for a brief period in February following their semi-final run at IEM Katowice.

"We have invited the next available teams in the VRS in place of two of our planned Wildcard invites," BLAST said. "We have one additional Wildcard selection to invite which we’ll confirm before the end of the year."

Below you can find the team list for BLAST Bounty Season 1:

VRS invites

Wildcard invites

Falcons

TBD

FURIA had two teams eligible for an invite, but since organizations can only be represented by one roster, FURIA fe's invitation was declined.

Imperial fe will compete in BLAST Bounty

Scheduled for January 13-26, BLAST Bounty Season 1 will feature a single-elimination format, with teams being assigned a bounty value based on their seeding. This will see the highest-seeded teams "becoming the biggest targets and having more to lose when the matches get underway," according to BLAST.

The first two rounds of the tournament will be held online. The top eight teams will then travel to Copenhagen for the LAN portion of the event, which will feature a single-elimination format with best-of-five finals.

onest

2024-12-19 16:31

4 replies

koko did you pay attention in angielski classes???

2024-12-19 16:47

3 replies

yes

2024-12-19 17:06

1 reply

yesn't

2024-12-21 07:18

Thought it was 1nd.

2024-12-19 17:46

Falcons invited without a team... well done!

289

6 replies

Blast knows something

2024-12-19 17:03

just because we do not know their team yet it doesn't mean there isn't one

2024-12-19 17:43

falcons totally didnt pay for that spot

2024-12-19 17:49

they might have sumbitted the team already, just waiting for annoucment

2024-12-19 17:59

s1mple 1 vs 5 ez

2024-12-19 18:03

skill

2024-12-19 20:38

ABSOLUTE SHITSHOW

2024-12-19 16:32

IMPERIAL FE WTF

164

29 replies

we will see what will come of this in the future based on how they do

2024-12-19 16:33

Valve is 100% trolling. No one is happy about this. Not Imperial the org, not Imperial FE team, as they know they are going to be humiliated in front of a potencial massive audience. The point of current FeCS is to bring more women to CS through their exposure in the scene. Stuff like this will only destroy what little progress has been made. Valve needs to make separe rankings.

2024-12-19 16:49

26 replies

Tier 2 events can have a restriction on their invites, and are limited on prize money (which is what has caused the inflation of female teams on VRS). It should correct itself as part of the transition to the Valve circuit.

2024-12-19 16:55

wdym, they will probably still be able to beat falcons

2024-12-19 16:58

112

2 replies

And Astralis. Cadian already knows how it feels like

2024-12-19 23:28

i mean, yeah, winning 1v5 against magisk shouldn't be too hard

2024-12-26 23:02

pfft, Imperial FE vs Fluxo, FlyQuest, 9Pandas, M80 will be fun to watch. Besides, how can you get better if you're constantly playing against bots? I'm all for Imperial FE getting practice against T1 teams

2024-12-19 16:59

12 replies

Me too, only then they will become comparable and when that happens, the Impact circuit will most likely die out (big teams will complain female teams are getting more points for the Valve ranking)

2024-12-19 17:05

You are clueless about cs if you think imperial FE will be even remotely competetive against the teams you mentioned. They will get stomped, it's just a wasted slot. They can get all the practice they want against better teams by playing open qualifiers, and they get stomped there by faceit stacks filled with players who have no ambitions about going pro and just take part in the qualifiers for fun.

2024-12-19 17:17

By that logic, if they're a wasted slot so is falcons, fluxo, 9pandas, etc. all these teams who can't and don't win at Tier 1. At that point we might as well just eliminate everyone who isn't Top 8 from any competition at all since they likely won't make the final and it would be a waste to watch them play, that'll be good for the eSport as a whole! Who fucking cares let them play

2024-12-19 19:17

5 replies

atleast falcons fluxo 9pandas can win some matchups here. When imperial fe played against actual teams they got stomped down in t3 against 500, sampi and sprout. this system is just broken

2024-12-19 20:53

fluxo have art and kye, just a reminder

2024-12-20 00:02

art and kye can probably 2v5 imperial.fe i dont think you understand the skill difference here, in normal sports this would be like a couple of totenham players taking on 40year old factory workers from a local beer league.

2024-12-20 18:28

ik, that was what I was saying

2024-12-20 19:05

There is a massive difference between inviting teams like 9 pandas and inviting a team like imperial fe lol. What a weird comparison. Dude they are so far down in skill it’s not the same thing. Yea those male teams are not that good but they are only about 10 times better than imprerial fe. Let’s not compare them like it’s the same thing lol. There are teams who can’t win the tournament, and there are also teams who can’t win more than 3 rounds in any given match. I’ll take the teams who actually have upset potential over them

2024-12-20 03:17

They can prac without a tournament slot too :)

2024-12-19 17:58

lol their number one complaint is male teams won't prac against them wdym

2024-12-20 23:24

Then that's a sign of something :D but nice that they still get a chance. Let's see if they can pracc with them in the future.

2024-12-20 23:32

You as lvl 8 with couple of your mates would probably win 5/10 games vs imperial fe xd

2024-12-31 18:00

You're white-knighting too hard. There isn't a better exposure for female CS than for them doing something against real male teams. We all know what will happen, but respect for standing up to the challenge. And they might learn more in 2 matches here than the whole 4 last seasons of the female circuit. Plus not having to endure the dreadful plays from the real Imperial it's a positive atm.

2024-12-19 19:57

The real question is why the fuck Imperial's male roster in ranked lower.

2024-12-19 20:42

because imperial fe wins female tournaments and imperial does awful everywhere they go so valve is clearly incorrectly over valuating female tournaments compared to tier 1.

2024-12-20 02:13

It makes no sense, Fluxo have done nothing the entire year and they are somehow higher ranked than Imperial who qualified for the major and made the ESL Pro League playoffs

2024-12-20 02:57

it is true, yes, but i guess its always good 4 them to have an exposure against real t1/t1.5 teams. who knows maybe they'll surprise us?

2024-12-20 02:08

Of course they're happy, man, what the fuck are you talking about? Even though they are well below the men's tier 2 teams, they need to have this experience to be able to improve, and that's good too because being able to face these teams frequently and then facing other women's teams makes the women's scene improve too. stop and think about what you're talking about, man

2024-12-20 07:25

If the FA invite my Sunday league team to play 90m against Liverpool do you think we'll improve?

2024-12-20 15:55

Did you feel smart writing this?

2024-12-20 16:02

U tell me, smartass. You're the one saying theyll be happy to be humiliated in front of a massive crowd who loves to hate women =DDD

2024-12-20 19:55

they have higher rank the Imperial of whom wouldnt have been invited regardless because they have too low of a valve rank.

inviting teams without players lol

They gonna have Niko

2024-12-20 11:44

even worse

2024-12-21 04:24

falcons bribe blast for invite nice

PLEASE BLAST! YOU KNEW I WANT TO WATCH DONK VS IMPERIAL FE! The real blast (rating) show!

This will entirely destroy the top 20 male players ranking system

2024-12-19 18:37

Time to show what you got vs top teams ana

9 replies

shes actually so good, no matter how this experience goes I hope they aren't disappointed and put off future events.

2024-12-19 17:13

7 replies

i mean when they got to play vs tier 3 and 4 they go horribly owned so dont get your hopes up. I'm being dead series that if they get 6-13 it would still be good result cause according to their past they in reality should get 2-13 at best vs the teams in here and im not joking cause i respect them.

2024-12-19 18:59

Ye I know, not getting any hopes up but I think they can get some nice rounds and show something, they are the best fe team by alot but ofcourse still big gap between them and male teams.

2024-12-19 19:01

Unfortunately yea their best hopes is to show some competetive rounds here and there. Btw i wont necessarily say they are by far the best fe team, big equipa have good potential to win them, fluxo fe as well with furia and navi are all kind of close to their lvl. They are not untouchable like it used to be they actualy lose maps and sometimes matches vs those that i mentioned. For now though theya re still the best one of the fe teams.

2024-12-19 19:06

them losing maps and sometimes series to other teams is good for the fe scene, means there is more than 1 competitive team

2024-12-19 19:07

very true

2024-12-20 01:53

Unfortunately, they won't win a single map

2024-12-20 23:21

If round

2024-12-31 18:04

Time for top teams to show what they have vs Ana

2024-12-20 19:14

Good luck gals

Ana will show d0nkey levels

rip ninjas in pyjamas

lmao but very cool to see Imp Fe here

2024-12-19 16:39

+111 hope they can show some good cs and grow from this

2024-12-19 16:50

Regarding Wildcards, a team is eligible for a Wildcard if they have a roster that complies with the following: - ⁠It includes at least 3 players who individually were members of a top 8 Roster on the VRS at any time during the preceding 12 months or, - It has won any Tier 1 event in the 12 months preceding the announcement of the Wildcard Invite. that means Falcons need to sign at least 2 players who were top8 in the 2024

2024-12-19 16:35

BLAST for sure know Falcons new roster

2024-12-19 16:43

That is at any point in the last 12 months, though. That includes the whole of the SunPayus Falcons roster (who reached #8 on VRS), VP, Monte with sdy, C9 with electroNic, Astralis with br0, HooXi, nexa, and more. EDIT: With Magisk and NiKo (2 of 3) basically confirmed, it's really not a big piece of news that they meet this criteria. They could even just be re-instating SunPayus until they can get m0NESY and that would fit.

IMPERIAL FEMALE HAHAHAHAHA

Imperial fe vs falcons we will be there

yessir

2024-12-19 20:09

Ez for Imperial fe

EZ for imperial fe against SAW

2024-12-19 16:37

Imperial fe got invited over OG xd

OG don’t play against Females. This is SAW’s level after snap tap got banned.

2024-12-19 16:44

Imperial FE could actually be a decent watch, of course a huge underdog but would be so cool if they could pick up some wins.

2024-12-19 16:36

10 replies

if they could pick up some rounds*

2024-12-19 16:53

2024-12-19 16:56

Don't matter, as long as they do themselves proud why should it matter? Female teams rarely ever get to play male teams. So they will be desperate to pick up some wins, and I hope they do.

2024-12-19 16:57

They won't Hope this helps

they wont shag you mate, they aint winning shit, 2 rounds max against any of these teams and im being generous

Hi I saw you denfending our team in an HLTV thread, want to go out with me sometime?

2024-12-19 17:18

Come out the basement in Turku first and i'll see.

2024-12-19 17:34

if they could pick up some kills*

If they can pick up a singular kill*

they would be easily destroyed by MIBR Academy, imagine teams on this list

2024-12-20 01:59

ngl It's going to be interesting. Something new and original - not at all like repetitive Blast groups.

3DMAX <3

2024-12-19 16:38

Wasn't this supposed to be tier3 event?

Nvm, there is imperial fe What a circus

Imperial fe prove haters wrong pls

MUTiRiS is their biggest hater. Ana will show story how to play AWP.

lmao this new circuit is even worse than the old partners one

IMPERIAL FE POG

Imperial fe vs navi finals

2024-12-19 16:40

Vs Navi javelins in esea

Cant wait for this

why does complexity have european flag

Elige is Polish

2024-12-19 16:41

GIRLSSS!????? I wanna see mans😕

Falcons bs invites keep rollin

magisk sigma

Imperial fe xddd nice rating volvo betboom was robbed

Botboom would've lose anyway

GL Ladies

Cannot wait for Ohnepixel Knife giveaways

2024-12-19 16:48

Imperial fe gets invite over Imperial due to higher valve ranking. Man I'm pumped for that. They literally have no competition in impact.

They don't really fit anywhere, floating somewhere in the middle of both leagues... kind of a tough spot to be in, tbh.

2024-12-20 04:43

I love to see the best FE team competing vs elite male teams. This will be an answer to Ana

Exactly. It will be great if they can atleast pick up more than 3 rounds.

You're being too negative. They can 6-13 some of the weak teams maybe... maybe.

2024-12-20 04:44

Imperial fe 😂😂😂

Imperial FE are better than Imperial guys, the Brazillian CS retirement team, nothing against giving them a chance will be interesting

2024-12-19 16:51

this team has played against bottom of T3 teams and lost 13-2 13-0 what makes you think they are better than the male team of Imperial lmao they are a waste of space

2024-12-19 16:54

UAE teams don’t even have a tier. The best in your region lost to Drillas…

2024-12-19 17:01

Lol you have no counter so you resort to ad hominem

2024-12-21 08:42

Well done Mr Obvious, you want a medal?

2024-12-22 19:15

POG

Passionua?

"Imperial Fe" oh boi, this going to be fun

ana>>>>>>nawwk tuah botzerk

Interesting to see how ENCE affairs against top teams. I mean this current roster might surprise many, positively I hope. At least they don't have any kind of pressure.

2024-12-19 17:04

Niko and magisk could probably beat imperial fe

1 team already starting with a free win

2024-12-19 17:02

Let's hope a BR team face them 🙏🏻

2024-12-19 17:44

falcons lmao. Get this trash team out of here

I hope imperial fe crush these bots

2024-12-19 17:33

You don't even know their new lineup. But for NiKo alone, the invite is deserved.

I really hope Imperial fe does wel

2024-12-19 17:07

Imperial fe?)) weirdo but funny content maybe

2024-12-19 17:08

Ana and the girls will manhandle the opposition!

2024-12-19 17:12

single elimination ..

I believe you could relate it to the ex now Blast Showdown. That was also single elimination.

Western redardism.

2024-12-19 17:14

Falcons with Magisk and S1mple absolute Cinema 2v5 all teams

2024-12-19 17:19

s1mple not on falcons

2024-12-19 17:36

he is on their Blast lineup currently

2024-12-19 19:28

FURIA had two teams eligible for an invite, but since organizations can only be represented by one roster, FURIA fe's invitation was declined. SAD :(

2024-12-19 17:24

Imperial fe... i smell something burning alredy

2024-12-19 17:28

Imperial Fe? wtf is this WOKE tournament

2024-12-19 17:41

Nah... if anything it will whownthe immense gap between both leagues as usual.

2024-12-20 04:46

ANa 1.98 rating vs. m0NESY 0.36 rating incoming

2024-12-19 17:42

GLHF to Imperial Fe, I genuinely want to see them play, will be very entertaining to see how they do vs male teams, I hope ppl underestimate them and we see some upsets!

2024-12-19 17:45

cueck

Imperial fe will take like 5 rounds after all games

"FURIA had two teams eligible for an invite, but since organizations can only be represented by one roster, FURIA fe's invitation was declined." But under the picture below: "Imperial fe will compete in BLAST Bounty" According to BLAST statement it's the former rather than latter @MIRAA

lol does that mean imperial fe is so high and imperial is so low that they can only invite fe team? thats funny.

2024-12-19 18:24

yes imp fe - #25 in volvo ranking , imp - #34 in volvo ranking

2024-12-19 18:27

nvm I'm dumb and Imperial Fe and Furia Fe blended in my mind

2024-12-19 19:44

so valve is just going to allow points from gender restricted events? really?

2024-12-19 18:00

i can’t wait to see imperial fe, i’m being 100% honest too i wanna see how they match up

2024-12-19 18:05

of course falcons gets the wildcard invite, won't be the first time

2024-12-19 18:12

BANGER TOURNAMENT

Will be ez for COL

2024-12-19 18:36

Its gonna be so fucking funny watching Imperial FE get destroyed lmao

2024-12-19 18:39

Oof Imperial fe 0-26 matches

2024-12-19 18:42

im actually interested to see how Imperial fe performs here, will be my first time watching them goodluck

2024-12-19 18:45

Wait FE being invited is kind of a bad thing, they should be competing separately… better prize money though I guess

2024-12-19 18:48

IMPERIAL FE LMAOOOO

2024-12-19 19:02

Falcons my favourite infinite money glitch <3

2024-12-19 19:40

Imagine inviting fluxo before either bestia,9z, red canids. Also the imperial FE invite is wild, they are about to get stomped pretty hard lmao. Valve's ranking is kinda shit ngl.

W format

2024-12-19 19:53

Just invite NIP so imperial FE can get atleast 1 secure win

Where are Passion UA ? Meanwhile there is Fluxo and Imperial FE

2024-12-19 20:06

No NIP to dominate in January 2025, sad

2024-12-19 20:27

W tournament

imperial fe XDDDD

2024-12-19 20:52

imperial FE lol

2024-12-19 20:56

Literally the worst tournament format u could put Imperial Fe in, not even double elim, one Bo3 and they're out, they'll learn nothing

2024-12-19 22:00

true, but a one bo3 is better than no bo3. lets just be happy with what we have for now

2024-12-21 04:26

Ana will have her "thoughts" verified pretty quickly when they'll be paired with G2 on their starting match 😂😂😂

2024-12-19 22:57

Ana can choose who she wants to play against. Hope she falcons and ruin NiKo's debut

2024-12-19 23:15

Even if they will chose the Astralis, they get 6 rounds max on Bo3 format o7.

2024-12-19 23:55

Tbh if Ana and friends can get at least one win, then it would really start the story line maybe this year have a highlight in CS history where Fe scene proved their point, it makes it evevn more interesting after her tweets recenlty we are cooking another storyline here before evn 2025 and GTA 6 is released

2024-12-20 11:12

Bro Theres like 20 women above 2500 elo, i see your point but it's impossible People are really not paying attention to the goal of tournaments like esl impact. it's to get that 20 number to 2000. but not like this, this will only humiliate them. Valve has managed to create an amazing opportunity for incels to feel validated when they see imp fe get smashed.

2024-12-20 19:58

This looks like it's gonna be a great tournament!

2024-12-19 23:38

I don't think Falcons is the only wildcard invite, well in a sense Free stat pad for whoever verse them?

2024-12-20 00:19

Failcons wildcard invitation? Another spot wasted

2024-12-20 10:45

Bro ANa have exact same eyes as s1mple she looks like his Twin sister, makes sense she's the best player In the Fe scene

2024-12-20 11:10

So many virgins in here.

2024-12-20 12:11

Nice.

2024-12-20 13:39

Imperial FE HAAHAHAHHAHAHAH

2024-12-20 14:31

give Imperial Fe a chance, the last time something similar happened in T1 was roughly a decade ago; we’ll see if they’ll get obligated or not, but both outcomes will conclude in a fun match for viewers.

2024-12-20 18:22

Obligated hahah what? You mean obliterated?

2024-12-21 07:24

autocorrect

2024-12-21 10:14

Why does Col have EU flag with just one EU player? They're still majority US for the moment and should have the world flag due to not having a core from any one region.

2024-12-21 08:16

No Passion UA? Reported

2024-12-21 08:22

fluxo LMAO

2024-12-22 13:45

I don't get the point of laughing of a fe team participating to such an event, even if they lose all their match thats a massive progress in esports scene, they didn't get invited they played like everyone else. I get that it can be unfair because they are high in the valve ranking but they didn't played against huge teams as huge teams are actually male teams. If they don't play against big teams how can they become one ?

2024-12-22 16:12

THISSS! Such a step in the right direction:) so luch recognition they will get for this

2024-12-25 11:02

Dude, you're talking about team that can't compete with 2.5k faceit stacks, why would you let them play t1 pros?

2024-12-31 18:07

Bad logic. Why would you let teams like 9Pandas and Fluxo play t1 pros? They don't have a chance either

2024-12-31 18:24

Because they do actually stand a chance vs tier1 teams. Female teams wouldn't win against faceit randoms, there is no point, the gap is too big.

2024-12-31 19:00

RIP Imperial fe

2024-12-23 18:54

so happy I can finally support a fe team at a big event:) yes the might get destroyed-but I'm so happy to see them there!

2024-12-25 10:39

Didn't understand how the VRS invites works !! Isn't it supposed to be top 28 teams (or top 30 as there aren't enough wildcard teams). But i see very low ranked teams there as well. Pls explain someone !!

2024-12-27 09:07