BLAST Premier World Final 2024 Groups Preview

The BLAST Premier World Final 2024 is just around the corner. Beginning on October 30, eight of the top teams from the entire year of Counter-Strike will meet in Sentosa, Singapore for a chance at one of two remaining trophies in 2024. The tournament will start in the Group Stage, where the eight teams have been split into two groups.

With the Group Stage being only two days long, every match is crucial to determine a team’s standing. The top three seeds per group will qualify for the Playoffs, with the first seed getting a round one bye. The last place team in each group will be sent home. Who should we be looking at to battle for the spot in the semifinals, and who is trying to avoid elimination?

Group A – A NAVI Playground

Group A at the BLAST Premier World Final is expected to go only one way. NAVI, the current best team in the world, should take first seed. While NAVI isn’t unbeatable, the other notable contenders in this group have all had their issues as of late.

FaZe Clan has clearly fallen off from their form earlier in CS2. The once title contending squad has struggled immensely to break into tournament Semifinals. Over the last six months and nine tournaments they’ve played, FaZe has only made the top four a single time.

It’s hard to pinpoint the issue of why FaZe’s magic has seemingly run out. Still, the general sentiment is that if they don’t make deep runs at the BLAST Premier World Final or the upcoming Perfect World Shanghai Major, forced roster changes may be in order for the first time in forever.

As for MOUZ, they’re likely going to be the second seed out of Group A. This young squad has been getting better, inching closer to lifting another big trophy. They were just recently stopped short by NAVI at the IEM Rio finals. MOUZ looked outclassed in that series, and it might take some more time for this team to truly be at NAVI’s level.

Oh yeah, and there’s Astralis. It’s unfortunate to say, but this squad is easily the most likely to go home. They just haven’t found their footing yet with Casper “cadiaN” Moller coming in as IGL. On paper, their ceiling should be much higher, but we haven’t seen any indication of that yet.

Group B – A Brutal Battle for Survival

Unlike Group A, Group B actually has a lot of variability to it. Yes, G2 and Vitality are the likely candidates for first seed, especially with them dodging each other in the group opener. The second and third ranked teams in the world respectively would both like to assert their dominance with the Major coming up. However, Both Spirit and Liquid have some real upset potential.

It’s impossible to ignore the fact that Spirit has Danil “donk” Kryshkovets on their side. He can easily carry a game by himself, as we’ve seen numerous times in the past. However, that has become less and less common as teams have adapted to his play. It’s going to take the rest of Spirit raising their level around him if they want to make a deep run.

As for the only NA squad at the BLAST Premier World Final, Team Liquid’s progression has been coming along at a steady pace. They’ve had some blunders here and there, but they have been playing fairly good Counter-Strike as of late. While they’re probably the most likely team to be eliminated on paper, they could easily make it through by playing to their potential on either day.