Everything to know about BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022
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Events

Everything to know about BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022

The schedule, format and teams competing at the BLAST Fall Groups
Image of Coby Zucker
Coby Zucker
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Published: Aug 17, 2022 11:09 am

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022 is set to kick off soon and run from Aug. 19-28. The event marks the start of the fall season for BLAST Premier and offers teams the chance to qualify directly into the Fall Finals in November.

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Teams will also be competing for more than $175,000 in prize money and valuable circuit points necessary to qualify for the World Final at the end of the year.

BLAST Fall Groups will be the first big tournament for Tier 1 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive since before the Summer tournament break. Natus Vincere are the returning BLAST champions. The team from the Commonwealth of Independent States region won the BLAST Premier: Spring Finals in June. Along with FaZe, they became the first team to cement their spot in the World Final.

BLAST Fall Groups format

The BLAST Fall Groups format will be the same as the Spring Groups. Competition is divided into three stages: group stage, play-in stage and a last chance stage.

Beginning with the group stage, 12 teams will be divided into three groups. The groups will play out in best of one matches with a double elimination bracket. No teams will be eliminated from the competition during this stage of play, as it’s only for seeding.

Next, in the play-in stage, teams will battle it out in three separate gauntlets. The fourth and third-place teams from each group will crossover and play in the quarter finals, second-place teams will advance directly to the semifinals and the three winners go directly into the finals. The brackets are all single elimination, best of three matches. The winner of each gauntlet qualifies for the Fall Finals.

The fourth-place team of each gauntlet is eliminated, but they’ll still have a chance at redemption at the Fall Showdown. Second and third-place teams from the gauntlets will have one final chance to qualify in the last chance stage. The six teams will all play one best of three with the winner qualifying for the Fall Finals and the loser moving to the Fall Showdown.

BLAST Fall Groups teams

The 12 BLAST partner teams invited to Fall Groups 2022 are:

  • Group A:
    • Team Vitality
    • OG
    • Ninjas in Pyjamas
    • Astralis
  • Group B:
    • Natus Vincere
    • Complexity
    • G2 Esports
    • Team Liquid
  • Group C:
    • FaZe Clan
    • Evil Geniuses
    • Heroic
    • BIG

The storylines

While the BLAST Fall Groups are mostly about qualifying to the next event, they will also be a great chance to see top teams in action after the player break. Some teams coming into the event with new look rosters are Complexity, Evil Geniuses, G2 Esports and Team Vitality. In particular, G2 will be under a lot of scrutiny after adding Justin “jks” Savage and Rasmus “⁠HooXi⁠” Nielsen to the team. Likewise with Vitality, who brought in Lotan “Spinx” Giladi.

With only six of the 12 teams able to qualify for the Fall Finals, competition will be tight. Obvious choices for teams to advance are FaZe Clan and Natus Vincere — although Na’Vi could be playing without Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev. After that, it’s anyone’s guess who will come out guns blazing for the return to Tier 1 competition.

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Author
Image of Coby Zucker
Coby Zucker
Coby Zucker is Upcomer's resident CS:GO writer. He's also played League of Legends at the collegiate level and is a frequent visitor in TFT Challenger Elo. He's a firm believer that Toronto should be the next big esports hub city.