The land of the free and the home of the brave.

The next stop in the tier 1 calendar will take us to Murica - more specifically, Texas - for BLAST Rivals 2026 Season 1.

Well, it’s most definitely not taking us anywhere, because this team lineup alone gives you plenty of reasons not to make the trip - especially if you’re an NA fan, considering there isn’t even a single NA team attending. Though, to be fair, that says more about the state of the scene that it does about the tournament itself.

First and foremost, it’s in the US. Pretty self-explanatory.

Then, Falcons, Spirit, PARIVISION, MOUZ, Aurora, and The MongolZ have all declined their invitations, which means this will simply be another free trophy for Vitality. Not that their attendance would necessarily change much, but you get the point.

Out of the top nine teams at the time of the invites, only Vitality, FURIA, and NAVI accepted theirs, with the rest of the lineup filled out by FUT, Astralis, G2, FaZe, and GamerLegion. Not exactly must-watch CS…

Don’t get us wrong - we’ll still follow every single bit of it, as the true CS nerds we are, but it does feel a bit underwhelming.

Still, FURIA and NAVI look like the only teams with a slight chance of winning more than 10 rounds per map against Vitality. Who are we kidding… just look at how that turned out for them in Rio.

We’ll be rooting for FUT, though. They’re always a fun team to watch, and if anyone can be the dark horse, it’s them. We’re hoping for an entertaining Playoffs run, maybe even a Grand Final appearance. We’ve all seen what these kids are capable of, so there’s definitely a chance.

But the team everyone will have their eyes on is FaZe. They’ll be kicking off the post-karrigan era in Fort Worth, with the debut of Neityu and coach enkay J. With NAVI waiting in the opener, expectations aren’t exactly high, but it’ll still be interesting to see how they shape up - especially with what will most likely be a lower final against GamerLegion for a spot at the Dickies Arena.

Either way, nothing really matters in the grand scheme of things, as the only three certainties in life are death, taxes, and Vitality lifting every f-cking trophy they set their sights on.