Fight for BLAST.tv Austin Major invites tenses up with three weeks to go

17-3-2025 13:53

Invites to the BLAST.tv Austin Major and its qualifiers will be handed out to 60 teams on April 7. But what would they look like now and what can happen before then?

Just three weeks of action remain before BLAST hands out invites to the Austin Major and the Major Regional Qualifiers on the official Valve ranking cut-off of April 7.

After the conclusion of ESL Pro League Season 21, that leaves just one big event to be played, BLAST Open Lisbon, where several crucial placings will be all but locked in.

At the top, perhaps the most important is the fight between FaZe, Eternal Fire, Falcons, Natus Vincere and G2, who are sitting just 43 points apart in fourth to eighth place in Europe, resting on a knife's edge between an invite straight to Stage 3 (1st-6th in Europe) and Stage 2 (7th-10th in Europe).

Also in attendance are Astralis, who are about 150 points behind this group but could still enter the fight for a ticket straight to Stage 3 with a Cluj-Napoca-esque deep run. After failing the last four Major qualifiers, the Danes can rest relatively easy regardless, as they're sitting comfortably in ninth place and have just one direct competitor for the last two European invites to Stage 2 against them at the BLAST event.

That is Virtus.pro, who have one last chance to make a push for a top-10 placing and avoid the qualifiers. A deep run will likely be required with a 133-point gap to bridge between them and 3DMAX, who have just squeezed into the top 10 following a run to 9th-11th place at ESL Pro League and can do nothing but wait.

The fight for the single Americas Stage 3 spot looks all but over with Liquid leapfrogging to No. 1 with a playoffs finish at ESL Pro League. The only team left with something to say about that is FURIA, who will also be at BLAST, but it would take all but a miracle for the Brazilians to traverse the 211-point chasm between them and Liquid.

Lower down, M80 and Imperial face a difficult task. Now ranked sixth and eighth on the Americas standings, they need around 100 to 150 points to gain on fifth-placed Wildcard to secure a ticket straight to Austin's second stage.

What other tournaments will count?

Here's a list of all tournaments currently featured on HLTV (and those that will be added in the meantime) that are ranked and that will finish before the April 7 cut-off:

Global
BLAST Open Lisbon
YaLLa Compass Qatar closed qualifier

Europe
PGL Astana EU qualifiers
ESEA Advanced S52 EU
Galaxy Battle STARTER
Tipsport Cup Spring Finals
BetBoom LanDaLan 2 closed qualifier

Asia
DFRAG Invitational
PGL Astana Asia qualifiers
MESA Pro Series Spring
Skyesports Pro League
Dust2 India Masters S20
FRAG Season 14

Americas
ESEA Advanced S52 NA
PGL Astana SA closed qualifier
PGL Astana NA closed qualifier
FiReLEAGUE Buenos Aires SA closed qualifier
FiReLEAGUE Buenos Aires Brazil closed qualifier

What would the Major invites look like now?

Valve's April 7 ranking update will decide the 16 teams that will get to go straight to Stage 2 or 3 of the Major. Another 44 invites will go out to teams who will have to play for Stage 1 spots in the online Major Regional Qualifiers, split into seven sub-regions.

BLAST Austin Major MRQs to be played online in all regions

Below is what the invites would look like if they were handed out as of March 16 standings:

Stage 3

Stage 2

Europe MRQ (6 spots in Stage 1)*

* 25th-ranked NAVI Junior would supposedly be skipped because of rules preventing one organization from fielding multiple teams

North America MRQ (3 spots in Stage 1)

South America MRQ (3 spots in Stage 1)*

* FURIA fe would supposedly be skipped because of rules preventing one organization from fielding multiple teams

Oceania & SEA MRQ (2 spots in Stage 1*)

* Only One Word and Rooster are a fraction of a point apart,

China MRQ (1 spot in Stage 1*)

Mongolia & Western Asia MRQ (1 spot in Stage 1*)

ATOX**

Chinggis Warriors

The Huns

Eruption

* The Asian qualifier featuring the highest-ranked team will receive 2 spots in Stage 1.

** If ATOX get disqualified following their ESIC suspension, Gods Reign are the next in line at the moment

2025-03-17 13:54

Na'Vi won't get stage 3 in time

2025-03-17 13:57

3 replies

They have a decent shot: they would need to place higher than two of Falcons, G2, Faze and Eternal Fire in Lisbon. A semifinal run should be enough, let's see of they will be able to make it. Anyway, last year, when they won the Copenhagen Major, they didn't have enough points after making roster changes so they had to start from the Open Qualifier: hltv.org/events/7392/pgl-cs2-major-copen..

2025-03-17 14:05

2 replies

Not open qualifier, closed qualifier.

2025-03-17 14:24

1 reply

You're right, sorry for the mistake. Anyway, they joined earlier than the other "top teams" who had spots for the RMRs. Now the format changed, there are no more RMRs anymore (one can say that MRQ would be the equivalent).

2025-03-17 14:26

praying for a VP disasterclass in BLAST

2025-03-17 14:00

Ez for EF

EZ 4 Mr. Vibes

so vita, mouz and spirit are garanted stage 3 ?

2025-03-17 14:04

Yes and you can add Liquid and Mongolz to that list.

2025-03-17 14:06

Interesting

hoping RA overtake flyquest so china gets 2 spots

Red Canids and 9z with real chances of not making to the MRQ... that happens gotta be an instant disband

2025-03-17 14:08

tbf there are a lot of teams separared by a few points, anyone can make it, the following weeks will be intense

2025-03-17 14:41

how did falcons overtake navi and g2? they have improved of course but the rating itself seems bullshit. can someone explain?

2025-03-17 14:09

It might be because of the points they gained by attending Cluj Napoca.

2025-03-17 14:11

oh yeah true

2025-03-17 14:12

#15 plus the core making major playoffs

2025-03-17 18:25

Welcome to major housebets!

hopefully the OCE scene will be stronger by the next major

2025-03-17 14:27

Thx my friend

2025-03-17 14:42

3dmax shaking, I hope you have not to pass by mrq bros

Why we have: Oceania, China and Mongolia 1 spot for each?? Why we can not have Brazil separate from rest of south america? 😭💔

2025-03-17 14:19

Why would they separate Brazil from SA? They play in the same servers

Because BLAST are too cheap to hold a LAN, so they have to split the geographically big regions up into smaller regions.

2025-03-17 14:25

2 spots for Oceania

2025-03-17 16:11

Apogee wasted spot

5 replies

it's only the MRQ, they're not guaranteed to make the actual major also flair

2025-03-17 14:29

where are ninjas xddd?

2025-03-17 15:05

They are saving strats for last major of the year

2025-03-17 15:53

biggest flair moment of all time

2025-03-17 15:54

"We have to be on the top by January 2025" XD

2025-03-17 18:18

based on the current standings, timbermen should have the last NA spot on the MRQ instead of Getting Info

2025-03-17 14:23

Where did you get that info?

right here gyazo.com/886a897d243e4d3f550eb2cf8151a5..

2025-03-17 14:28

Timbermen is over man

2025-03-17 16:09

Have they disbanded or what? I don't really follow the NA scene, just saw them on the rankings

2025-03-17 18:59

It wasn't really a disband, Peeping went to Nouns, Snav went to Bluejays, and Dea and Dare are playing with Getting Info

2025-03-17 19:42

Why would M80 need to gain points on Wildcard? Doesn't Wildcard have to go through the EU qualifier, due to the rules change?

No, they get treated as whichever region will get them to a further point in the event. If both regions would put them in the same stage, they'll use up a spot from the region with more spots.

2025-03-17 14:31

I love that BLAST decided to hold a "Mongolia and West Asia" qualifier thinking they could get away with it just being Mongolian teams. That being said, so far there has been no info one way or another on whether Valve plan to ban ATOX.

NAVI tier 2 confirmed.

The fight between FQ and RA is going to have huge implications for the asian MRQs, they are both neck and neck in terms of points, nad with RA at PGL Astana Asia Qualifiers, and FQ not playing in a single event up until the MRQ presumably, this slot has a good chance to go to China rather than OCE. The SA MRQ race is nuts. There's a good chance 9Z or Red Canids, or both don't make it. These amazing underdog runs in the brazilian tournaments have been huge for solid and swingers. Shinden is also not too far away from potentiall getting a spot, but that Astana qualifier should settle mostly everything, I think no matter what, no team will decline the offers for the Buenos Aires qualifiers, with what is at stake, they should all accept the VRS invites. In NA, esea advanced team MIGHT have a great chance at qualification and could potentiall steal this spot from getting info if they run better in PGL Astana NA qualifiers. Getting a top 4 finish in ESEA Advanced could also make the difference. In EU, with partizan right on the cusp of getting in, and with them currenty in the lower bracket final (top 3 placement minimum) in ESEA Advanced, they have a terrific opportunity to get in the MRQ, a decent finishing position in the PGL Astana EU Qualifier would also help their efforts, as long as they dont go out without a win. Imo ENCE dont qualify for the MRQ. They've been getting ragdolled by their opponents as of late, they're only playing the Astana Qualifier and nothing else, and most teams behind them are playing a lot better, and playing at least 1 other tournament. Ence need a top 4 finish in Astana to keep their MRQ hopes alive.

2025-03-17 14:40

nice analysis

2025-03-17 14:43

Pretty sure on HLTV Confirmed they figured out that FQ is going to have their ESL Challenger Atlanta win fully decayed from their points calculation so its all but certain RA will jump them unless they go on a massive losing streak.

2025-03-17 16:17

Nice. Way to go, this is needed!

2025-03-17 15:02

gamerlegion getting robbed again

2025-03-17 15:06

pickems in first stage will be OMEGALUL

2025-03-17 15:08

Will Oceania have two spots for the Major?

2025-03-17 15:11

2025-03-17 15:28

So HLTV is lying? Because they are saying that Oceania has two spots in stage 1

2025-03-17 15:56

This is a snapshot for where it stands now. RA is likely to pass FQ in the standings due to not playing in anymore ranked events and their win from ESL Challenger Atlanta will be fully decayed out of their points calculation on the final ranking update

2025-03-17 16:19

They desperately need to change the format without teams skipping stages.

2025-03-17 15:23

The major was always about multiple knockout rounds in order to distill down the competition into the final few for the playoffs.

2025-03-17 16:27

Multiple knockout rounds is all right, but teams skipping those rounds isn't. Moreover, VRS is worse at determining best teams than HLTV ranking.

2025-03-17 16:46

#FAZE UP

this system sucks very fkn hard ngl

2025-03-17 16:24

china getting robbed by OCE

2025-03-17 17:01

Good

2025-03-17 19:44

just the current state of the vrs ranking, OCE likely won't have 2 slots come the major

2025-03-17 22:21

EZ FOR ETERNAL FIRE

2025-03-17 20:12

Garbage format by Blast making big advantage for Oceania and kill China chance.

2025-03-17 20:55

OCE only would have 2 slots if the major were held right now, Flyquest will get overtaken before than thus leaving OCE with only 1 slot

2025-03-17 22:23

Great timing how a team like Eclot magically have a Czech LAN to secure MRQ 1 day before deadline. 3 LAN Wins will catapult them up the ranking well within top 26.

2025-03-17 21:15

Ideally would have been better if PGL Bucharest was also part of this.

2025-03-17 21:34

Falcons free spot? lol

2025-03-17 22:05

Still don't understand how these academy teams can compete in all these tournaments but then not be allowed to compete in a Major if their 'official' team makes it as well. I understand the reasoning behind not allowing both teams to compete in the same tournament, but shouldn't academy teams not be allowed to compete in VRS events if that was the case?

2025-03-18 02:20

The fact there is no actual governing body that oversees this whole thing is unbelievable to me. I don't understand how we have come this far for us to just have Valve implementing these much-needed rules and regulations but without the full knowledge of the scene. The fact Valve seems to keep throwing out small updates to the VRS system, while it's in play, is also quite laughable. It shows there wasn't quite enough thought process behind the original idea as all ideas should honestly be tinkered with AFTER the first Major cycle is done. Need a group of people who oversee this side of the game and then work with Valve to make changes. It's Valves game legally but it was never their community... which is what we are really talking about.

2025-03-18 02:29

valve overcooked with this system big time. it seems to me as if this system would be great if there was a single tournament organizer who ran tournaments like clockwork and always had venues available, etc. however with multiple tournament organizers how teams get their invites it becomes a convoluted mess. teams can lose their tournament spots in between valve ranking updates and it makes organizing very difficult. if they just wanted to break the monopoly of certain tournament organizers they could've done that far earlier. they could have just given some major spots to other organizers like flashpoint for example. some more support to other organizers. i admit i don't like how blast and esl franchised the whole scene, but i don't think punishing the entire ecosystem and making it just too complex and convoluted for everyone. now we are just going to get a thousand small tournament organizers making valve ranking point farms

2025-03-18 03:34