If you showed BLAST Bounty S2’s Finals lineup to someone back in 2019, they’d be thrilled. A final stage featuring the likes of Liquid, Astralis, FaZe, and MOUZ? That was about as stacked as it got.

Fast forward seven years (damn, we’re getting old), and those four - joined by Spirit, The MongolZ, paiN, and 3DMAX - make up an underwhelming list.

Still, it’s what we’ve got, and we’re not complaining… much.

The ruthless single-elimination online stage claimed two heavyweights right off the bat. FURIA fell to domestic opposition in Shar… sorry, DENDELE (let the record show it’s a much worse name), while Vitality suffered an even bigger upset at the hands of a rejuvenated Liquid, who followed it up with another convincing sweep over G2.

Is this just the usual honeymoon period, or are we witnessing the Js effect? That’s a question for another story - which, conveniently, comes right after this one.

MOUZ, Astralis, and The MongolZ all enjoyed relatively straightforward routes to Malta. MOUZ dispatched Nuclear TigeRES and FOKUS, Astralis got pat Nemesis and HOTU, while The MongolZ pushed through HEROIC and Wildcard. Even so, Astralis - despite a red-hot jabbi - left plenty to be desired, struggling in both series.

By contrast, the new kids on the block for both MOUZ and The MongolZ made great first impressions, and it’ll be interesting to see how they fare on LAN.

Missing out on a trip to the jewel of the Mediterranean are FUT, whose qualification hopes were crushed by 3DMAX. Unfortunately for them, new signing xfl0ud couldn’t carry over the form he showed in his debut series against SINNERS.

With the first stage behind us, Spirit emerge as the favourites to lift the trophy, despite looking surprisingly vulnerable against both OG and 100 Thieves. Of course, Spirit can afford to look shaky and still make Playoffs because... donk. Enough said.

As always, every impression we take away should come with a healthy grain of salt. A handful of online matches at the start of the season can only tell us so much. Thankfully, the real test is just around the corner.