BLAST explains decision to run Open London groups online

4-7-2025 21:23

BLAST's second event of the season will also begin with an online stage.

Unlike in Season 1, the group stage of BLAST Open will not be held on LAN

BLAST has explained why it decided to shift the group stage of BLAST Open London to an online setting after running the same stage of Open Lisbon in its studio in Copenhagen back in March.

"This change is driven by the challenges of the 2025 event calendar," BLAST told HLTV. "Shifting the first stage online reduces the travel strain and should ease logistical pressures for participating teams."

The transition to online is expected to have a significant impact on how the group stage is weighed in the VRS as it is now essentially an online closed qualifier for the playoffs, which will be held at the OVO Arena Wembley in London.

BLAST Open London to begin online

BLAST Open is part of the list of tournaments that have been granted exceptions for 2025 by Valve, but it only covers the ability to run qualifiers in Europe, Asia, North America and South America instead of inviting the teams that are ranked 13th through 16th in the VRS.

Questioned if this change was approved by Valve, BLAST said: "Valve are aware of our changed plans for Open S2."

The online portion of BLAST Open London will run from August 27 to September 1, while the playoffs are scheduled for September 5-7. This will be BLAST's second event of the season after BLAST Bounty, which will also begin with an online stage on August 5.

BLAST added that its studio in Copenhagen, which also staged the matches for Bounty Season 1 from the quarter-finals onwards and the entire Rivals Season 1 event, remains a key part of the business and will be the base of the company's production for Open Season 2.

"Our recent partnership with GamingMalta enables us to operate a second studio dedicated to select Valve events," BLAST added. "This added capacity gives us greater flexibility in how we utilize the Copenhagen studio across our ecosystems."

BLAST to hold Bounty S2 in Malta following multi-year GamingMalta partnership

2025-07-04 21:24

7 replies

"Something something reducing costs something" Nice move bla$t, but if you are going to pull this shit off at least be honest with your audience and don't treat us like imbeciles

2025-07-04 23:47

5 replies

as consumers. it’s an L for sure … but as a TO would you sacrifice your reputation with an “honest” PR statement? or would you give corporate slop to justify saving money in an uncertain economy as well? and please don’t respond like a redditor

2025-07-05 05:21

4 replies

Blast has been taking quite a massive amount of L's these days, all due to their own incompetence and a rather strong desire to lie. They've also been bordering on what's acceptable by Valve's rules. So there isn't really a good reason to like Blast these days apart from Dupreeh being at their desk.

2025-07-05 08:43

3 replies

"these days"

2025-07-05 08:45

1 reply

In ye old days Blast at least had good production, these days are just L's after L's.

2025-07-05 08:46

I might be unfit to respond

2025-07-05 12:51

common L from Blast if I may add

2025-07-05 08:37

We all know the real reason. Post.

2025-07-04 21:25

money

2025-07-05 12:24

bla bla bla common Blast L waffling

Bro is this tier 2 or what

atleast not copenhagen studios

2025-07-04 21:28

@PGL now is the time to bring back open quals for your events

PGL have open quals. NiP made Astana due open qualy

2025-07-04 23:18

2 replies

hltv.org/news/41432/pgl-belgrade-2025-to.. they removed qualifiers for Belgrade, now Bucharest 2 Electric Boogaloo

2025-07-05 07:04

Well we have vrs now at least. But bad for the other teams

2025-07-05 16:19

bLast

2025-07-04 21:30

Tbh, it's understandable because some teams will have 3 tournaments back-to-back: Bounty, EWC, Finals. Shit realisation, but i think they couldn't solve it differently.

2025-07-04 21:31

FISSURE Playground 1 (Jul 15th - Jul 20th 2025) (Serbia) 2 days break IEM Cologne 2025 Stage 1 (Jul 23rd - Jul 25th 2025) (Germany) IEM Cologne 2025 (Jul 26th - Aug 3rd 2025) (Germany) 1 day break BLAST Bounty 2025 Season 2 (Aug 5th - Aug 10th 2025) (Online) 3 days break BLAST Bounty 2025 Season 2 Finals (Aug 14th - Aug 17th 2025) (Malta) 2 days break Esports World Cup 2025 (Aug 20th - Aug 24th 2025) (Saudi Arabia) 2 day break BLAST Open London 2025 (Aug 27th - Sep 1st 2025) (Online) 3 day break BLAST Open London 2025 Finals (Sep 5th - Sep 7th 2025 (UK)

2025-07-05 05:55

yeah, Blast definitely took those things into consideration

2025-07-05 08:39

Translation- "we are cheap". Event before this is EWC which ends three days before BLAST starts, there is zero logistical concerns beyond teams traveling a lot and if they dont want to travel, just skip the event!

2025-07-04 21:32

Yes I'm sure a TO gives cares about how much teams travel, at least come up with a decent lie

2025-07-04 21:33

Pathetic, everyone should boycott this BS.

2025-07-04 21:40

BLAST's favourite hobby, apart from moving their tournaments to copenhagen, is lying.

2025-07-04 22:41

bLost 😭😭😭

2025-07-04 22:49

how is this an L guys? they have 3 events back to back and traveling that much hurts the quality of the games

2025-07-04 22:51

Skip then. Oh wait, thats why blast want to turn it online otherwise those top teams will skip these events. Hell, this feels like a joint idea with those top orgs just like that prize pool split.

2025-07-05 01:43

All TOs organisers taking Ls this year, tbh I don't think they anticipated how many tournaments were going to be running or how different a switch to VRS really was. Or they just don't care. I think ESL has the least amount of damage done to them.

2025-07-04 23:10

I think they expected more skips. but then all the teams went all-in on the loyalty/revenue share and everyone is playing everything (except Vitality on PGL tournaments)

2025-07-05 00:15

Open your damn eyes, nobody cares about anyone's fatigue or travel expenses. Match fixing is now spread to tier 1 as well, cheers

2025-07-04 23:22

2025-07-04 23:34

2025-07-05 17:43

2025-07-05 17:48

2025-07-05 17:50

2025-07-05 17:52

It makes sense though. It takes alot of energy from the players constantly traveling so this is a W.

2025-07-04 23:54

2025-07-05 00:12

why is it an L?

2025-07-05 00:53

online is shit

2025-07-05 01:50

HUH You. Lost

2025-07-05 00:58

It’s Nice for the pro players to travel less ;)

2025-07-05 01:02

Thats part of their job tho. If they chase for the experience and the prize money they would just go, literally anywhere. If they dont want to, just decline the invitation or withdraw from the event if they were qualified through OQ/CQ.

2025-07-05 08:34

Knife only stage?

2025-07-05 01:34

Blast is dead

2025-07-05 02:29

2025-07-05 02:43

330k prize pool for a 6 team event, ts should be bronze MVP, and the PGLs should be silver

2025-07-05 02:52

nah this should straight up be coal MVP

2025-07-05 16:41

Bla bla bla , T2 event inc

2025-07-05 05:10

As shit as this game is and making these guys play it online. Nice.

2025-07-05 05:45

PGL > b[L]ast

2025-07-05 08:28

So the top teams will get upset and I'll have bought a ticket to watch a bunch of underdog teams I don't care about... I just won't buy tickets again if that happens.

2025-07-05 10:57

blast find excuses for their greed

2025-07-05 11:50

o rly?

2025-07-05 12:05

Every Mickey Mouse event stage doesn't need to be on LAN.

2025-07-05 15:55

Do these guys even recognize only 2 teams finish it's tournament in the last day? Most teams get eliminated before the tournament ends, this is just pure stupidity. This basically means only 6 teams would actually travel to london while the others will have to stay home. And btw top teams are probably gonna take a break after this tournament since the next one is fissure playground which most of the top teams won't go and will take a rest for a month till esl pro league. What a joke dude

2025-07-07 17:21