New Cloud9 and G2 Esports check-in: BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024 Preview and Predictions
From July 29 to August 4, the third LAN tournament of the second half of 2024 in Counter-Strike 2 will take place on our screens. Unlike Skyesports Championship 2024, the best teams in the world will play at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024. Astralis, BIG, Cloud9, Complexity, FaZe Clan, G2 Esports, HEROIC, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pyjamas, OG, Team Liquid, Team Vitality, GamerLegion, Falcons, Team Spirit and Virtus.Pro will play for six tickets to BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024 and a prize pool of 190 thousand dollars. The teams are divided into four groups, and only the winners of the groups will go directly to the global finals. The teams that take second place will still have to play each other in the Play-In stage, where they will have a chance to get the last two slots. All other teams will go to play BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown 2024, where only one slot for BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024 will be up for grabs.
BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024 will be the first time we will see the new Cloud9 and Team Liquid teams play, as well as the second tournament for G2 Esports with Janusz Snax Pogorzelski as captain. The championship promises to be extremely interesting, and in this article we will share our predictions and decide who will advance to BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024.
Group A — Team Spirit, HEROIC, Complexity and OG
Group A looks like the only one with a clear favorite and several underdogs. Team Spirit is in great shape and no one doubts that they will get the coveted slot at BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024. There are no teams in this group that could claim a chance to beat the best team in the world and take first place. On their way, Team Spirit will have to beat OG and the winner of the HEROIC vs Complexity pair. In the final of Group A, the dragons will most likely meet the roster of Abdul degster Gasanov again and cope with it for the second time.
Of all the remaining participants, only HEROIC is eligible for Play-In. Complexity are in a long decline, and OG lost Nikita HeavyGod Martynenko, the only player who saved the failed roster. Even with HeavyGod, the roster managed to break records for losing streaks and show poor results in tier-2 tournaments. Abdul degster Gasanov wants to prove that he came to HEROIC for a reason, this will be the first tournament for the team in a long time and it is clearly determined to win and does not plan to leave without a slot at BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024.
Group B — Team Vitality, Astralis, GamerLegion and Falcons
Group B looks stronger than the first, but is still not the most competitive. The main favorites are Team Vitality, but Astralis are not that far behind, it is quite possible that we will see a sensation and an unexpected result. If the Danes are in their best form, they are able to cope with Mathieu ZywOo Herbaut and come out on top. But the probability of this outcome is still not that high, we expect that the past season without trophies will charge Team Vitality and give additional motivation for BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024, the team is able to go through its group easily and quickly.
Also in this group are GamerLegion, who do not look like a strong team after the loss of their captain Janusz Snax Pogorzelski, and Falcons. The star roster did not make any changes in the offseason and there are no prerequisites for improving the results, which means that we should expect another failure from the team of sheikhs. Second place in Group B should naturally go to Astralis.
Group C — FaZe Clan, Cloud9, G2 Esports and Ninjas in Pyjamas
Group C will be the most interesting at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024. It features the improving G2 Esports roster, as well as the brand new Cloud9 roster, which we have long wanted to see in the game. It is impossible to predict the level of performance of Kirill Boombl4 Mikhailov’s team, they can either surprise with a bright performance or completely fail at their first tournament. In the first match, G2 Esports will face Ninjas in Pyjamas, who are experiencing a slight decline after a successful performance at YaLLa Compass 2024 and are unlikely to be able to counter G2, who are clearly on the hype after the roster change and are extremely hungry for victories. Cloud9 will begin their journey in the new five immediately with the loudest fight with FaZe Clan. FaZe are undoubtedly the favorites in the match, but we should not forget that the team has also been experiencing a decline in results for a long time and BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024 may become that complete failure that will lead to changes in the roster.
We expect that, like G2 Esports, Cloud9 will be able to surprise with the game in the new roster, since there is absolutely no information about them and Finn karrigan Andersen will not be able to fully prepare his team for this confrontation. Cloud9’s path to BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024 will be extremely difficult, but it should start with a sensational victory over FaZe Clan, this will give additional confidence and a good chance to take second place in the group.
Group D — Natus Vincere, Virtus.Pro, BIG and Team Liquid
The last group has two main favorites at once, but the remaining teams in the form of BIG and Team Liquid are unlikely to be able to impose a fight. The only difficulty in predicting the results of Group D is the outcome of the Virtus.Pro vs Natus Vincere match in the group final, but given that NAVI recently won the Esports World Cup 2024, the VP roster has a better chance of this, which also showed good progress at the tournament in Riyadh. Natus Vincere is unlikely to be able to show the same level of play when absolutely all opponents are ready for them, but they are still obliged to get the second slot at BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024. BIG does not look like a team that is capable of fighting with world giants, but the club received Rigon rigoN Gashi, for whom they fought for quite a long time, and may surprise. Most likely, this will happen not at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024, but at the next tournaments. There is absolutely no faith in the new Team Liquid roster and it has a huge chance to take the last place in the group.
BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024 will be an extremely important tournament for all teams. Getting out of the Showdown will be almost impossible, and no one wants to miss the last BLAST finals. We believe that Team Spirit, Team Vitality, G2 Esports and Virtus.Pro will directly advance to the Fall Final. HEROIC, Astralis, Cloud9 and Natus Vincere have the best chances to get to Play-In, where Natus Vincere and Cloud9 will be closest to getting the last slots. However, Kirill Boombl4 Mikhailov’s roster has a chance to fail on the first try and fail their performance at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024, and Natus Vincere may fail after winning the Esports World Cup 2024, as was the case with the triumph at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024. We will see how it will actually be at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024 from July 29 to August 4.
The final prediction for BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024:
1-4 place: Team Spirit, Team Vitality, G2 Esports and Virtus.Pro;
5-6 place: Natus Vincere and Cloud9.