BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2021
BLAST has just kicked off the second event of the year, and this time it’s the BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2021. Earlier in February, we had the pleasure of watching Spring Groups, which was the first chain of BLAST Premier events scheduled for this year.
Spring Showdown features a $162,500 prize pool, which will be divided among the 16 competing European teams. The event lasts from April 13th and until April 18th, and in this action-packed week, the participating teams will fight their way to the top where the winners will qualify for the Spring Finals. Make sure not to miss this exciting CSGO event, and follow us to stay up-to-date for more CSGO betting tips and tricks.
Watch BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown LIVE!
The Tournament Format
Spring Showdown is a week-long event, with 16 teams competing to qualify for the Spring Finals. Only 2 out of 16 teams will manage to proceed further, so the stakes are incredibly high.
This event is a single-elimination bracket, and all matches are played as Bo3. This means that the event uses a Playoff format, which is natural since it’s a continuation of the previous Spring Groups 2021 event.
The Prize Pool Distribution
The tournament features a massive $162,500 prize pool and a large number of sponsors, among which is also Betway esports.
- 1st-2nd – $30,000 & qualification for the Spring Finals
- 3rd-4th – $16,250
- 5th-8th – $10,000
- 9th-16th – $3,750
Spring Showdown – Our Favorites
Since there’s such a large number of teams competing, it’s very hard to accurately predict who’s going to come out on top. However, we’ll go over some of the most promising teams that we find to be the most likely candidates to qualify for the BLAST Premier: Spring Finals.
Gambit Esports
The Russian esports veterans are our number one pick in this esports tournament. They are one of the 3 teams that were directly invited to participate in this event, with the other two being Heroic and FURIA Esports.
Their opening match is against NASR Esports, an Emirati CSGO team, who qualified for the Spring Showdown by winning the Calyx Dune Cup.
We see this match as an easy win for Gambit, and we expect them to take a clean 2-0 sweep. Undoubtedly, the esports odds on Gambit will be low, but this is an incredibly safe bet.
Heroic
The ESL Pro League Season 13 champions are in great shape, and they are looking to continue their winning streak and take this tournament.
The Danish crew is facing SAW in their opening match, and this is yet another safe betting pick if you wish to warm yourself up before raising the stakes.
SAW is a new Finnish CSGO organisation, and they stepped into CSGO just a year ago, in 2020. In this matchup, they stand no chance against Heroic, and the most they can hope for is to lose this match gracefully. Heroic gets our vote, and we see them moving forward into the Round of 8.
FURIA Esports
The third and final team that received direct invites is FURIA Esports. Like the previous two teams we mentioned, FURIA also finished at the very top of the ESL Pro League Season 13, taking the 3rd-4th spot.
This Brazilian CSGO powerhouse will be facing their countrymen from MIBR. MIBR qualified from the Lower Bracket of Spring Groups, after losing to Team Liquid in the LB Round 1. Sadly for them, they now face an even bigger threat in their opening match of Spring Showdown.
These two teams already faced one during the ESL Pro League Season 13 Group C, where FURIA took a clean 2-0 victory without breaking a sweat. We expect FURIA to take this win, and move forward where they’ll face Gambit Esports.
Potential Surprises for Spring Showdown 2021
We’ve covered our top 3 picks for this event, and one of them is certain to qualify for the Spring Finals. However, there’s a few other teams we’d like to mention, who have the potential to surprise us.
OG
The Danish esports squad kicked off this event with a massive upset. They took a 2-0 win against Astralis, who are the number 2 team on the official ESL ranking list. These two teams faced off against each other in the BLAST Premier: Spring Groups Lower Bracket. There, Astralis won, which is why this came as such a massive surprise.
OG will be facing G2 Esports, who quickly dispatched Endpoint with a 2-0 result. It will be a difficult battle, but if OG can pull off another surprise win, they’ll be one step closer to qualifying for the Spring Finals.
Dignitas
Dignitas was another surprise in this event. They won 2-0 against Team Liquid, a team coming from Spring Groups Lower Bracket. With the wind in their sails, they now await the winner from the match between Team Spirit and Extra Salt. We expect Team Spirit to take a decisive win, and face Dignitas in the Round of 8.
Dignitas have a great shot at winning this match and moving forward to face either OG or G2. The ultimate surprise would be a match between OG and Dignitas, in which case all bets are off.
