The heart beats on

Complexity have finally won an event.

Look, it’s ‘only’ an ESL Challenger, but silverware is silverware - and we guarantee Falcons would have given anything to get their grubby little talons on the trophy.

The Americans weren’t all that convincing against MIBR, but they were the first team to stop deko’s reign of terror and deny Aurora a grand final spot, and also the team to finally stop dupreeh - who was incredible throughout.

In fact, that was their biggest boon - they were able to, at least partially, muzzle the superstars who had been running amok on Jönköping. deko had destroyed The MongolZ and showed glimpses of genius against Col, but they stopped him - and brought a star of their own.

Shakespeare could write 100 sonnets about ELiGE’s third map against Aurora and not be out of material. Beauty and perfection. 29 kills in 16 rounds. 16 rounds. 29 kills. 159 ADR.

It was he who once more rose to the occasion on the second map of the grand final, taking four scalps in a coffin-nailer round to start the party for Complexity. Vertigo was largely a team effort, but JT gets a lot of credit for seven opening kills.

Complexity’s Vertigo remains fearsome even with the changes, by the way. They’re yet to lose on it, going 10-0 in the last three months.

As we began to doubt Complexity’s credentials, they have reminded us not to count them out.

North America’s heart is still beating strong.

BLAST Goes Weird

Visa issues and time zones. Who cares! A Major is coming to NA. And to Texas no less.

Next summer, BLAST will host NA’s first Major since 2018. It takes place in the liberal Texas stronghold of Austin, where artists, tech bros, and barbecue pit bosses proudly wave their unofficial slogan of “keeping it weird”.

There’s probably been a reason for the big gap in Majors, given the visa issues we’ve seen at almost every NA event since… forever. Thankfully, IEM Dallas went pretty smoothly, which can only make one hopeful.

BLAST also announced that they’re changing their format for 2025.

Starting off with BLAST Bounty, a 32-man tournament with an interesting twist. Each team will have a bounty placed on their head based on their seeding, and if you beat someone you’ll win 50% of the bounty, while the rest goes onto your own. But they're using Valve rankings for invites, so something tells us seeding might be a bit dodgy.

Then there's BLAST Open, and BLAST Rivals.

These two events will be a bit like what you're used to. They're 16 and 8-team events respectively, aiming to get the best teams playing in arenas around the world.

This is all probably part of BLAST's plan to appease Valve. Will it work? More than likely. So long as their rankings are used, we’re sure they'll be happy.

King donk conquers London

The last S-tier tournament before the player break. In the final, a clash of titans. Katowice champions versus Paris Major winners. A script that even Shakespeare would envy.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be quite one-sided. Team Spirit dominated NAVI and lifted the trophy after a 3-1 series.

The main spotlight goes to you know who. Finishing the tournament with an impressive 1.33 rating across 12 maps, donk stands head and shoulders above the competition. The battle for the baby goat status is fierce, as the 17-year-old secures his fourth MVP medal. Remarkable.

That’s the thing with Team Spirit. It is genuinely scary how young they are. Chopper, at just 26, already feels like a seasoned elder among teammates who weren’t even born when TaZ won his first S-tier event. The future couldn’t be brighter.

NAVI haters can now break out the champagne. The team has officially entered fluke territory. Even with occasional highlights, their shaky post-Major form is seriously damaging their reputation. jL’s phenomenal performance in Paris hasn’t carried over to recent events, despite a respectable showing at this tournament. Maybe this iteration of NAVI has really hit their ceiling.

All things considered, 2024 is shaping up to be Spirit’s year, and we’re all in for the journey.

Final standings at Blast Premier Spring Final 2024:

1st Spirit – $200.000

2nd NAVI – $85.000

3-4th Virtus.Pro – $40.000

3-4th Vitality – $40.000

5-6th Astralis – $20.000

5-6th FaZe – $20.000

7-8th G2 – $10.000

7-8th SAW – $10.000

🥸 Role reversal

🎵 Always look on the bright side of life, jL

😯 Nah fam

This TL;DR was written by aizyesque, shoko, Horizzon and napz.
Welshy coded the email and Crash_ copy edited.

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