BLAST Pro Series preview

BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen is announced as the first edition of a series of RFRSH-run tournaments to come, which will feature six teams and a $250,000 prize pool. All of the teams attending the Copenhagen event are currently placed in the top seven of our ranking, with only Cloud9, who leapfrogged North this Monday to go up to sixth, missing out.

You can find the full team list below:

SK	Astralis
FaZe	North
G2	Ninjas in Pyjamas

With a big prize pool and an elite team-list, BLAST is already an exciting event, but there are a couple of added twists to the first CS:GO arena event to take place in Denmark.

Every group stage match at BLAST is extremely important

First of all, the whole event will span just two days, with three matches being played simultaneously throughout the BO1 round-robin group stage. Each team will play two matches on the first day— which will be held off-site—, with the remaining matches being played on the second and main day of the event, at the Copenhagen Royal Arena.

The two best-placed teams after the group stage will advance straight to the grand final, which will be played as a BO3, while the remaining four teams will match up in BO1 BLAST Pro Standoffs, which will yield $10,000 to the winners.

BLAST's group stage format, which allows only the two best-placed teams to move on and have a shot at actually winning the grand prize of $125,000, puts a lot more emphasis on the early matches than the average tournament. Depending on other results, at BLAST, losing just two out of five matches is likely to leave you without a chance to make the grand final.

Teams who tend to have slow starts will be punished in Copenhagen, as will those who get complacent after a good start, something Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo touched on in our interview with him in Oakland. Something that could also play a role in the group stage is that the vetos were done well in advance, giving each team time to prepare for specific matchups. However, with five out of six teams at BLAST attending IEM Oakland last week, it's questionable how much time CS:GO's finest have had to do their research.

You can find all the matchups on our event page, with full vetos available on match pages. 

FaZe (#1) (EGB Rate: 3.949)	Age	Rating
Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač	20	1.27
Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács	26	1.23
Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard	23	1.22
Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer	25	1.09
Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen	27	1.00
Robert "⁠RobbaN⁠" Dahlström (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
2nd	IEM Oakland
5th-6th	EPICENTER
1st-2nd	EPICENTER Wild Card Qualifier
1st	ELEAGUE Premier
1st	ESL One New York
9th-12th	DreamHack Masters Malmö

karrigan's superstar machine got back on track last week in Oakland after the engine had struggled in Moscow's cold weather at EPICENTER. At IEM, where rain and olofmeister played up to their usual standards, FaZe topped their group and then silenced the crowd at the Oracle Arena by running over Cloud9 in the semi-finals.

With massive underdogs Ninjas in Pyjamas waiting for them in the grand-final, FaZe must have felt that they had the third title with this roster in their hands, especially with a BO5 on the cards. To start off the series, karrigan's Cobblestone gamble backfired as Ninjas in Pyjamas took a convincing win, even though the Swedes haven't been playing the map a lot themselves. FaZe showed dominance on their map picks, Inferno and Overpass, but when the push came to shove, the difference in the individual performances of the two in-game leaders - Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström and karrigan - decided the winner of the series on Cache.

Despite moving up to the #1 spot in the rankings, FaZe won't be happy about IEM Oakland

Frustration could be read from faces of olofmeister and NiKo as the game was slipping from their hands, and soon we will see if that defeat shook the star-studded lineup. A big part of the defeat falls on karrigan's shoulders: his Cobblestone gamble failed, he was unable to come up with a solution on Train and he struggled individually on Cache—could this game trigger a similar effect to TSM's defeat to Ninjas in Pyjamas at DreamHack Cluj-Napoca? At the last Major of 2015, karrigan insisted on playing Train, it backfired, and the team slowly started losing faith in his ideas, calls and vetos, before finally replacing him with Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander.

With that conundrum in mind, and considering the track record of this FaZe team that sees them either finish top two or crash and burn in the group stage, it is likely that the European mixture will either have a great showing or a total blunder. It all depends on how they show up on the first day and if they have been able to get over the loss to Ninjas in Pyjamas.

SK (#2) (EGB Rate: 3.538)	Age	Rating
Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David	23	1.22
Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga	26	1.18
Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo	26	1.15
Ricardo "⁠boltz⁠" Prass	20	1.14
Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo	22	0.89

Offline placings in the last three months
3rd-4th	IEM Oakland
1st	EPICENTER
9th-12th	ELEAGUE Premier (4/5 of the lineup)
3rd-4th	ESL One New York (4/5 of the lineup)
3rd	ESG Tour Mykonos (4/5 of the lineup)
5th-8th	DreamHack Masters Malmö (4/5 of the lineup)

The Brazilians are set to attend their third LAN event with boltz this weekend, after two quite different campaigns at EPICENTER and IEM Oakland. In their first offline showing after replacing João "⁠felps⁠" Vasconcellos, SK looked strong and ended up taking the crown, edging out a rejuvenated Virtus.pro in a BO5 grand final. However, the more recent event didn't go so well. Following a good group stage opening, SK struggled to close out the game against Astralis and were outclassed by Cloud9. FalleN's side did make it to the semi-finals in the end, but were stopped there by the eventual winners Ninjas in Pyjamas.

A constant at the two events was TACO, who struggled statistically and has been heavily criticized for it. The 22-year-old was always seen towards the lower part of the scoreboard for SK, which can be justified by the tough roles he took up: he was the small site anchor on the CT side and supportive T side player. However, since joining, boltz has taken over most of TACO's anchoring positions on the defensive side, something he seems to be struggling to adapt to. The main issue isn't in TACO's number of frags or his negative rating, as SK had been able to win with him being quiet in the past. The problem is that his overall impact has gone down and that he is losing crucial duels that are costing his team rounds, and, subsequently, maps.

The main stars of SK are on point, but there is more work to be done before they can reach their maximum

Considering the group stage format, which allows teams to take a good and hard look at the opposition on a specific map, SK will have to adapt their B hold on Inferno, which was heavily exploited by Ninjas in Pyjamas, as they will play that map in the opening match, against Astralis. Helping in that matter could be the newly announced analyst Swani, formerly of Liquid, who should take some of the load off of Ricardo "⁠dead⁠" Sinigaglia, who has been acting as manager, coach and analyst for the team.

As boltz has fit in nicely and the fer - coldzera duo continue to cause damage to their opponents, SK are still a team to be scared of. If they are able to fix some of their issues and if FalleN is able to to get just a bit more out of TACO, the Brazilians could easily be a contender for the title in Denmark.

Astralis (#3) (EGB Rate: 5.282)	Age	Rating
Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen	24	1.10
Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth	22	1.06
Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye	19	1.01
Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander	22	1.00
Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman (stand-in)	26	1.05
Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
7th-8th	IEM Oakland
4th	EPICENTER
2nd	ELEAGUE Premier
5th-6th	ESL One New York
5th-8th	DreamHack Masters Malmö

Astralis are attending BLAST in far from ideal circumtances, as their star player and main AWPer, Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz, is struggling with illness. The effect of it could be seen at IEM Oakland, where he first arrived late to the venue, forcing Astralis to field coach zonic in the opening match, and then underperformed in the remaining games, recording his worst LAN performance since Fragbite Masters Season 5, in December 2015.

The 26-year-old Swede will be standing in for Astralis, which could cause communication issues

The 22-year-old has been hospitalized and taken medical leave, forcing Astralis to use a stand-in at BLAST,GODSENT's benched player dennis, which significantly diminishes their chances of having a good run.

gla1ve and zonic are known for their tactical work, but, considering Astralis' limited time to practice with dennis, it is likely that they will mostly be focusing on their own game and won't be looking at the opponents much or take advantage of the possibilities the veto rules provide. On the other hand, due to the new player, they will also be somewhat of a mystery to other teams in Copenhagen, and a motivated dennis could punish the Danish team's opposition at the Royal Arena.

Ninjas in Pyjamas (#4) (EGB Rate: 4.785)	Age	Rating
Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner	19	1.15
Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg	29	1.14
William "⁠draken⁠" Sundin	22	1.11
Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund	27	1.10
Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström	26	0.95
Björn "⁠THREAT⁠" Pers (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
1st	IEM Oakland
9th-12th	ELEAGUE Premier
3rd-4th	DreamHack Masters Malmö

The Ninjas pulled off another miraculous run in Oakland last week, mirroring their 2016 success, now with draken and REZ on the lineup. The latter was the key to their win as he had a great event overall and was simply impressive in the playoffs, which was a huge difference from ESL One Cologne, where the 19-year-old's level dropped significantly as the action moved from ESL's studios to the LANXESS Arena.

Lifting the IEM trophy put a target on NiP's back

In his MVP interview, REZ gave a lot of credit to the team's newly-added mental coach, Jens Hofer, who helped him get over the stage jitters and got the whole team playing on a new level. f0rest had a vintage performance in Oakland, something we are used to seeing from him every now and then, but it's not a given that he will bring the same fire in Copenhagen. The other Ninjas in Pyjamas veteran star, GeT_RiGhT, is managing a stable above average rating, while draken is the complete opposite. The team's AWPer is, interestingly, similar to Mikail "⁠Maikelele⁠" Bill in that way, with erratic performances and sometimes questionable decision making, which make him the X-factor for Ninjas in Pyjamas.

The Swedes have something close to a seven-map pool, alternating their first bans between Inferno, Mirage and Cobblestone depending on the opposition, but they will be playing Train for the majority of the group stage. Ninjas in Pyjamas showed in Oakland they can perform well, but, paradoxically, last week's tournament win will hurt the Ninjas' chances. Now that they are a big event winner, teams will give them a much deeper and harder look than they used to, and changing and innovating after a tournament win is always hard.

G2 (#5) (EGB Rate: 9.688)	Age	Rating
Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub	22	1.21
Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire	24	1.11
Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon	25	1.07
Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt	23	1.04
Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro	20	1.01
Edouard "⁠SmithZz⁠" Dubourdeaux (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
9th-10th	IEM Oakland
3rd	EPICENTER
5th-8th	ELEAGUE Premier
1st	DreamHack Masters Malmö

G2's second half of the year started brilliantly, with a win and an overall great showing at DreamHack Masters Malmö. After a somewhat long period of almost no LAN events, the Frenchmen got back in action in October in the ELEAGUE Premier playoffs, where they were outmatched by Cloud9. It could've been considered a one-off result at the time, but a top-four finish at EPICENTER, where they lost to Virtus.pro, and a 9-10th place at IEM Oakland have shown that G2 are a strong team but nowhere clinical enough to be an elite squad just yet.

G2 are struggling to find consistency

In the group stage games at IEM, where they lost to FaZe, OpTic and Renegades, we saw G2, once again, return to their old vice—force buying. Not only are the Frenchmen limiting themselves in terms of equipment and rifles, they are preventing their best player and potentially the best AWPer in the world at the moment, kennyS, from playing with the big green gun, making it harder for themselves to win games.

The 22-year-old sniper is still putting up impressive numbers, and the ratings of all five players look solid. The only player who seems to be underperforming, at least when compared to his early-G2 level, is bodyy. However, cannot simply say that he is struggling as he keeps doing what is expected of a player in his role.

As is the case with practically every team at the event, G2 could make the full run if things align, but it feels like every other side has more going for them than the Frenchmen.

North (#7) (EGB Rate: 13.554)	Age	Rating
Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke	20	1.20
Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen	22	1.07
Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup	21	1.07
Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså	22	1.06
René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg	27	1.03
Casper "⁠ruggah⁠" Due (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
5th-6th	EPICENTER
3rd-4th	ELEAGUE Premier
1st	DreamHack Open Montreal
2nd	DreamHack Masters Malmö

Similarly to G2, North had a good start to the second half of the year, finishing second at DreamHack Masters Malmő, topping their ELEAGUE group and picking up a win at DreamHack Open Montreal. But the Danes were pretty quiet after their semi-final run in the ELEAGUE Premier playoffs, only attending EPICENTER, where they couldn't make it out of a group that also featured Astralis and G2.

Being the only team at BLAST that didn't attend IEM Oakland and having all of the maps for the group stage decided before the North American event started, North should be well prepared for each BO1 match. And out of all of the teams on the list, North are probably the one that would benefit from the most from this situation, as MSL surely scoured the recent demos of the team's upcoming opponents with the help of ruggah and cajunb, while valde is no stranger to watching VODs while preparing for upcoming games.

BLAST's format should suit MSL and co.

Coming in fresh, playing on home turf and having a lot of time to prepare, North should have a big edge at BLAST. That could outweigh some of the issues they had at recent LANs, most notably certain players simply not performing up to the level necessary for the team to pick up wins against CS:GO's best. Just a glance at the player ratings is enough to spot a massive anomaly - MSL is currently the team's second-best rated player. The difference between the team's leader and aizy and valde is minimal, which, considering MSL's historical individual prowess, is telling of their issues.

If North come into the event as prepared as one would expect, the Danes should pick up wins even without their stars kicking in a higher gear, which would make them a strong pick for the grand final. Should they progress from the groups, the title decider is where their main man k0nfig will need help, if North want to take the title in front of the home crowd.