BLAST Premier has a ticking timebomb on it. The Danish TO’s semi-franchised circuit will have to be fully open by 2025, meaning that this 2024 season will be it’s last in this format of Groups → Showdown → Finals.

2024, then, is the last chance for BLAST to get a nice cash injection, and they’re taking full advantage.

EG sold their spot to Cloud9 for a hefty six-figure sum (very hefty, according to SPUNJ) and BLAST took note to add a further four spots to the tournament circuit.

So in come Falcons (featuring head BLAST-critic Snappi), Virtus.pro (who will single-handedly kill pay-per-view discussions in BLAST’s head office), GamerLegion, and Spirit. Yep, that’s right: donk will face all the best teams in the world, as early as January.

How GamerLegion got the spot instead of someone like FURIA, MOUZ, (or even the new BLEED team), we do not know. But they’re hardly whipping boys — the circuit should be far more competitive than when we had bloody EG.

16 teams (four groups of 4) will compete for 6 spots at the Spring Final in London, those going to the four group winners before a four-team bracket featuring all of the second-place teams decide the last two.

As curtain-raisers go, we’ve seen far worse. Roll on the new season.