BLAST Premier Expands to 16 Partnered Teams in 2024

The Denmark-based tournament organizer BLAST has expanded its Counter-Strike 2 esports ecosystem by increasing the number of partnered organizations in the BLAST Premier Affiliate Member Teams program to 16 for the 2024 season. This strategic growth incorporates four new organizations—Falcons, GamerLegion, Team Spirit, and Virtus.pro—into the existing roster of established teams, while Cloud9 officially assumes the league position previously held by Evil Geniuses.

The expansion is accompanied by structural adjustments to the 2024 tournament format. Both the Spring and Fall Groups will now feature 16 teams, with a revised progression path that sends six teams to the respective Finals and 10 teams to the Showdown events. To support this increased scale, BLAST has added two best-of-three matches to each group stage and raised the prize pool for the Spring and Fall Groups to $190,000 USD each. The Showdown format has also been updated to include 10 teams from the group stages alongside six regional qualifiers, culminating in a 16-team bracket.

These changes reflect a broader effort by the organizer to refine its competitive structure for the 2024 season while maintaining consistency in the scheduling of its major finals. The expansion of the partner program and the associated prize pool increases underscore a commitment to scaling the league's footprint within the professional Counter-Strike landscape. This development follows a period of significant activity for the organizer, including recent multi-year agreements to manage esports operations for other major titles.