BLAST Pro Series

14 November, 2017 - 25 November, 2017 Copenhagen, Denmark

Preview

BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen 2017 starts on Friday this week.

This is invitation only tournament for top 6 CS:GO teams, an event organized by RFRSH Entertainment which is the company behind Astralis and Heroic.

The tournament is held in Denmark and 2 teams will defend their country colors, North and Astralis.

I don't expect too much from North because they easily drop maps against "big" teams while they have no trouble winning those easy matches where other "big" teams lose points. On the other side Astralis maybe even have a chance to play in the grand final,  they are home and they don't lack motivation, they are good on LAN on big events and this is an important event for them.

Despite that, the most realistic sequence of events is that Faze play against SK in the grand finals.

I don't expect much from G2 either, they are currently on a losing streak, they have some serious troubles in team, they drop rounds that are already "won" and I think this team needs a roster change, bodyy should go on a "loan" in some tier 2 team to gain some experience and they need fresh blood to replace him.

The best team here is Faze and I expect them to win this tournament, they lost to NIP in grand finals of IEM Oakland and that is nothing to worry about, they are still a great team and they were just unlucky.

NIP is not consistent and they need to play 5 BO1 with tier 1 teams and be one of the best 2.  Brazilian team SK also lost to NIP in semi-finals and that is something that I expected due to recent roster change, they needed one LAN tournament to set things right  and they should be able to play like before now. After all, I don't think they would accept this invitation as a sixth team and come all the way down to Europe if they are not ready.

Tournament Format

The invited teams will start off in a Best-of-One round robin group stage. The top two teams will then face off in a Best-of-Three grand final. If a tie between three or five teams happens they will play a "Sudden Death Shootout", a series of 1-on-1 duels between players blind-picked from either team.

The remaining teams (ranked third to sixth) will play the "BLAST Pro Standoffs", two $ 10,000 winner-takes-all matches. The third-placed team from the group stage get to pick their opponent, which also indirectly determines the other match-up.