Return of s1mple and check of Team Spirit. preview of BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024
BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024 will take place from March 6 to 10. 16 teams will meet in the battle for the last opportunity to get to the spring finals, including Team Spirit, Team Falcons with Oleksandr s1mple Kostyliev, Cloud9, HEROIC, Monte, Team Liquid and Ninjas in Pyjamas.
Despite the fact that the upcoming Showdown will be held online, the tournament will be extremely important as the last practice of some teams before PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 and a chance to rehabilitate themselves after failure in BLAST Premier: Spring Groups. The last chance tournament from BLAST this time turned out to be really big due to the list of participants. Considering that there are only two slots up for grabs, the competition will be extremely high. In this article we will discuss what to expect from the teams at BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024 and who will be able to get to the summer championship with a prize pool of $425,000.
Testing Spirit's strength
The upcoming BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024 will be a serious test for the Team Spirit roster. The team needs to prove that it can remain the strongest over the long haul after the triumph at IEM Katowice 2024 and the successful PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: European RMR.
During the qualifications for the major, the team had already begun to experience slight difficulties due to the careful preparation of the opponents for their playing style and, in particular, for the actions of Danil donk Kryshkovets. However, Team Spirit has never had any problems online and this format should benefit them. The team was unable to pass BLAST Premier: Spring Groups due to two substitutions: Danil donk Kryshkovets and Boris magixx Vorobiev did not make it to the tournament due to visa problems, and with coach Sergey hally Shavaev and Oleg baz Kulynych, Team Spirit was unable to cope with Team Liquid and FaZe Clan.
At BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024, the roster’s first opponent will be the American roster of Elevate with little-known players. The match should not be a problem for Team Spirit and to qualify for the finals they will only have to win the match against the winner of the GamerLegion – BIG pair and the decisive match. The opponents in the bracket are happy with the passes, but most likely the team will have to compete for the slot with the returning Oleksandr s1mple Kostyliev as part of Team Falcons. In this meeting, there is more faith in the achievements of the Russian squad and the talent of Danil donk Kryshkovets than in the star esportsman, who was inactive for several months.
s1mple debuts for Team Falcons
The most anticipated event of BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024 will be the debut of Oleksandr s1mple Kostyliev for Team Falcons. He will undoubtedly strengthen a star-studded team that has faced great difficulties since the signing of the squad. But big questions arise as to what form the player will return in, who has not played a single official match in CS2 and hates the updated version of the shooter with all his heart. In Team Falcons, Kostyliev will play a new role as a second sniper. It’s still difficult to imagine how the updated roster will perform, but undoubtedly it has a great chance of reaching BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024.
Without s1mple, Team Falcons failed in the group stage, losing to Astralis and Team Vitality. Together with Mohammad BOROS Malhas, she was only able to cope with problematic OG. At BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024, their first opponent will be Metizport, a Swedish mix of young unknown players. Like Team Spirit, Falcons must play the debut match, and after it meet the strongest of the Monte – Imperial pair.
Another chance for Cloud9
At BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024, the Cloud9 lineup will get another chance to succeed. Kirill Boombl4 Mikhailov’s team experienced big problems that were difficult to solve without replacements in the roster, but it seems that the team managed to find the right solutions and phenomenally pass PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: European RMR without a single defeat, beating Team Vitality in the match for the slot. Against this background, the failed BLAST groups are already forgotten, where Cloud9 lost to Virtus.pro and BIG, and IEM Katowice, where it took last place.
To consolidate their success and prepare well for PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, the team needs to go through BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024. On this path, the Chinese Rare Atom and the winner of the Team Liquid – SAW match will try to stop them. Next, Cloud9 will most likely play the slot with HEROIC, which should easily cope with the new lineup of Ninjas in Pyjamas and the best of the Complexity – OG pair. Despite the fact that the Danes are gaining good momentum, we still believe more in the firepower and personal performance of the roster of Kirill Boombl4 Mikhailov.
New rosters and their capabilities
Several new lineups will perform at BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024, namely Monte, Team Liquid, NIP and BIG. Everyone except Liquid failed to qualify for the major and made the expected replacements. Transfers are highly questionable, and only BIG has been strengthened.
Most likely, Monte planned to maintain its successful lineup even after the unexpected failure at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: European RMR. But Victor sdy Orudzhev and Alexander br0 Bro had other plans for this. The former has not yet announced his future, and the young talent has left for Astralis. The new players of the club were Vladislav Kvem Korol and Jack Gizmy von Spreckelsen. With such a roster, it will be difficult for Monte to show anything at big tournaments, and the first expected failure should be BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024. The team is unlikely to cope even with their first opponent, Imperial.
The management of Ninjas in Pyjamas itself took drastic measures. The organization got rid of three players at once: Daniil headtr1ck Valitov, Patrick es3tag Hansen and Kristian k0nfig Wienecke. This solution will definitely not be the key to solving NIP problems, especially considering the players who will be stand-ins at upcoming tournaments. The once legendary club will be represented by not the most promising esportsmens from the Young Ninjas academy – Max maxster Jansson, Leo Silence Ingvarsson and Maoz BluePho3nix Paz. Ninjas in Pyjamas could not compete on the big stage anyway, and now it will be almost impossible to do this until a full-fledged roster is formed.
Despite the strengthening of the roster in the person of Florian syrsoN Rische and John JDC de Castro, this is unlikely to help BIG earn a slot at BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024. The team has clearly become stronger, but the opponents it will have to face are not yet strong enough. Perhaps over time the roster will open up and be able to show good play, but this will definitely not happen at Showdown.
Most of the updated rosters believe in the possibility of success for Team Liquid. The club gained greater ambitions on the professional scene with the addition of Russell Twistzz Van Dulken and Casper cadiaN Meller. At BLAST Premier: Spring Groups, the team failed to cope with FaZe Clan, but they looked good. This performance is not enough to draw conclusions about the strength of Team Liquid against the strongest teams, and Showdown should already answer many questions about this.
The upcoming BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024 will be one of the largest tournaments after the completion of PGL Major Copenhagen 2024. It has already brought together the strongest teams in the form of FaZe Clan, Team Vitality, Natus Vincere, G2 Esports, Virtus.pro and Astralis. Considering the list of teams taking part in the Showdown, the squads that make it through will only strengthen the prestige of the tournament and will definitely be able to compete with the finalists of the Spring Groups.
We expect that Team Spirit and Cloud9 will be able to earn the coveted slots at BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024. The teams are superior to their opponents in all key qualities: personal performance, firepower and gaming experience in current lineups.