BLAST Premier Fall Groups teams, schedule, talent, prizes

11-7-2023 23:35

The first international event of the fall season gets underway on Thursday.

Vitality return to LAN with flameZ in tow

Counter-Strike's top teams are slated to return to offline play in Copenhagen, Denmark when the BLAST Premier Fall Groups kick off on July 13. Twelve teams will head to Denmark's capital to fight for six spots at the Fall Final, with viewers getting their first glimpse at a number of rosters that made a plethora of changes during the off-season.

The new rosters debuting at BLAST Premier Fall Groups

Vitality, who already played a showmatch with their new addition Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan, take the stage in the event's opening match against Evil Geniuses, who recently promoted their EG Black roster to become their primary lineup. Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser will then return to action for Ninjas in Pyjamas in a match against Complexity, a lineup which now features Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski in place of Justin "⁠FaNg⁠" Coakley as the team bolters its firepower.

Group B also offers a peek at some new lineups as BIG take on Heroic in their opening match, while the new-look international Natus Vincere and an Astralis featuring two new players and now led by Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer lock horns.

The final set of opening matches features FaZe taking on OG and G2 facing Liquid, with the latter matchup being particularly interesting as we'll finally get a look at how the now-European majority squad fares with Aleks "⁠Rainwaker⁠" Petrov and Robert "⁠Patsi⁠" Isyanov in tow.

Participating teams

Group A

Vitality

Evil Geniuses

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Complexity

Group C

Group B

Schedule

Group A

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2023
13/07/2023	Vitality 15:00 Evil Geniuses	Match
13/07/2023	Ninjas in Pyjamas 17:20 Complexity	Match
15/07/2023	Vitality 16:15 Complexity	Match
15/07/2023	Evil Geniuses 18:25 Ninjas in Pyjamas	Match
18/07/2023	Complexity 15:00 Ninjas in Pyjamas	Match
19/07/2023	Vitality 17:45 Ninjas in Pyjamas	Match

Group B

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2023
14/07/2023	Heroic 12:00 BIG	Match
14/07/2023	Natus Vincere 14:45 Astralis	Match
16/07/2023	Heroic 15:00 Natus Vincere	Match
16/07/2023	BIG 17:40 Astralis	Match
18/07/2023	Natus Vincere 19:10 BIG	Match
20/07/2023	Heroic 15:00 Natus Vincere	Match

Group C

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2023
14/07/2023	FaZe 18:40 OG	Match
15/07/2023	G2 12:00 Liquid	Match
17/07/2023	FaZe 15:00 Liquid	Match
17/07/2023	OG 18:45 G2	Match
19/07/2023	FaZe 15:00 G2	Match
20/07/2023	Liquid 19:15 FaZe	Match

Knockout Stage

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2023
21/07/2023	Astralis 15:00 Complexity	Match
21/07/2023	OG 17:30 BIG	Match
22/07/2023	Evil Geniuses 15:00 G2	Match
22/07/2023	Liquid 19:20 Astralis	Match
23/07/2023	Vitality 15:00 BIG	Match
23/07/2023	Natus Vincere 17:40 G2	Match

Broadcast talent

BLAST's regular broadcast team will cover the action in Copenhagen, Denmark, with recently-formed duo Anders "⁠Anders⁠" Blume and Henry "⁠HenryG⁠" Greer walking viewers through the action alongside the tournament organizer's staple duo, Mohan "⁠launders⁠" Govindasamy and Conner "⁠Scrawny⁠" Girvan.

HenryG, Anders team up as official commentating duo

The complete list of talent can be found below:

Freya "⁠Freya⁠" Spiers - Desk host

James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks - Sideline reporter

Mathieu "⁠Maniac⁠" Quiquerez - Analyst
Jacob "⁠Pimp⁠" Winneche - Analyst

Anders "⁠Anders⁠" Blume - Caster
Henry "⁠HenryG⁠" Greer - Caster
Mohan "⁠launders⁠" Govindasamy - Caster
Conner "⁠Scrawny⁠" Girvan - Caster

Danny "⁠mahone⁠" Hsieh - Weatherman

Prize distribution

BLAST Fall Groups serve primarily to determine which teams qualify directly to the Spring Final, and which teams get cast down to the Showdown. Those that top their groups will proceed directly to the Fall Final, while all other teams will have chances to advance through the Knockout Stage. An additional $177,500 prize pool will be distributed across all 12 of the attending teams, with the distribution of spots and money as follows:

1-3. $27,500 + BLAST Premier Fall Final
1-3. $27,500 + Fall Final
1-3. $27,500 + Fall Final
4-6. $17,500 + Fall Final
4-6. $17,500 + Fall Final
4-6. $17,500 + Fall Final
7-9. $8,500 + BLAST Premier Fall Showdown
7-9. $8,500 + Fall Showdown
7-9. $8,500 + Fall Showdown
10-12. $5,666 + Fall Showdown
10-12. $5,666 + Fall Showdown
10-12. $5,666 + Fall Showdown

On-site coverage

HLTV's own Arron "King_Dempz" Dempsey and Radosław "⁠MAKKU⁠" Makuch will attend the first few days of the BLAST Fall Groups to bring coverage of the event with interviews, photos, and behind-the-scenes content.

holy group a is easy

2023-07-11 23:36

5 replies

Yeah, easy for the goats EGOD and GODplexity

2023-07-11 23:47

1 reply

Complexity wins world final with jt as mvp

2023-07-14 02:42

deja-vu for Vitality getting an easy path

2023-07-12 01:14

Easy for NiP, that’s correct

2023-07-12 05:58

yeah way too easy for junior

2023-07-12 06:22

Should be fun

2023-07-11 23:37

Let’s goooo

just announce it when Pimp isnt there anymore

2023-07-11 23:40

group a and c so unfair seeding :D

2023-07-11 23:45

vitality's group is so easy

Danny the Weatherman Pog

2023-07-11 23:46

he the goat

2023-07-12 11:01

Ez for S1mple

Canada Danny "⁠mahone⁠" Hsieh - Weatherman not funny, the guy is the best rbr analyst we've ever seen in this game.

3 replies

He's amazing

2023-07-12 00:50

2 replies

hey Danne whatsup! i read your tweets about the new Fantasy season, cant wait to see how these roster moves work out! yeah i dont think weatherman is that respectful to Danny so i had to say something here.

2023-07-12 00:52

Hey man, Im glad you do! I appreciate it. I think they should be professional here on HLTV articles with just putting him as analyst. At the same time I think they can joke a little bit about it live or so. Not joke about him personally but like "now it's time for the weather" haha :D

2023-07-12 00:56

EZ FAZE AND NAVI AND OG

2023-07-11 23:52

navi will finish last place sadly

2023-07-12 04:05

we’ll see

2023-07-12 16:19

"Vitality return to LAN for the first time since their Major triumph" no? they were in blast washington nohte cmon

2023-07-12 00:02

Anders! <3

2023-07-12 00:51

Nicee

2023-07-12 00:54

does blast make any profit? pls no troll

2023-07-12 01:04

really thinking in who to bet since almost everyone has changed lineups

2023-07-12 01:15

just don't bet?

2023-07-12 01:31

No, you don't understand. He MUST bet his leftover one dollar left in his account

2023-07-12 10:02

Not this circuit again... Same hostess voice nagging my speakers. Same analysts doing the same analysis over and over. Same interviews from the same interviewer over and over again. Same teams, same plays. CS is so stale right now but it is just something about BLAST that makes it so much staler. They used to be fresh but this formula got old years ago by now. Ugh....

2023-07-12 01:30

10 replies

uhmmmm did u miss player transfers?

Still same plays, different pieces doing the same shit.

2023-07-12 10:08

Noooooooooo, my add is so bad they need to replace the whole ass talent crew every day to keep my interest!!! Bro, who even in the fuck watches that shit anyway? just mute it until the match begins

2023-07-12 10:03

7 replies

Exactly, so why should blast exist if adding analysis and hosting is 50% of the work and they do this piece of work really bad?

2023-07-12 10:10

6 replies

I know that you are just merely pretending at this point but Who is doing it better than blast currently?

2023-07-12 10:15

During 2023 IEM is better than blast for sure, which has not been the case in the past imo. But IEM suffers from the same problems. CS suffers from too many group stages, too little games that actually matters. Like a partner team group stage is so void of consequences that it's ridiculous. You win; nice, advance in format. You lose? Tough luck, try again next week, and next week and next week. The problem is 0 influx of talents and extremely closed circuit formats. Traditionally CS was fully open formats, BYOC LANs and new talents every tournament except maybe same few casters every grand final. CS2 should take a hard look on this history. No partner teams. 100% open format, if a pro team lose on group stage, they're out. Tough luck, get better. More community talents.

2023-07-12 10:23

4 replies

People are starting to realize tho. I ve noticed blast has had really low numbers the last year. And nobody seriously watches analists anyway. Obviously this time they will have high numbers just because people are deprived of cs content, its summer so free time and the crazy roster moves. But yes meaningless games, partner sistem with 0 meritocracy, 0 innovation are the worst part of blast. They should be the best but they are not anymore in my book.

2023-07-12 11:18

+1 I hope sponsors see this and threat to take away the money so they have to do changes

2023-07-12 11:24

You didn't just move the goalpost, you moved to a whole new stadium. This is actually valid argument, but we weren't even talking about this

2023-07-12 14:43

I started off by answering. Then I ranted.

2023-07-12 15:54

Group C is stacked