Five of the best Counter-Strike teams in the world will battle against each other at BLAST Pro Series Madrid starting on Friday, May 10.
This will be the first BLAST event of the year played in Europe after two tournaments were held in the Americas.
Here’s everything you need to know about BLAST Pro Series Madrid.
Stream
BLAST Pro Series Madrid will be broadcast on BLAST’s three Twitch channels since the matches in the group stage are played simultaneously. If your favorite team isn’t playing on the main broadcast, you can follow them on the second or third channels.
Format
Matches will be played for two days at the Madrid Arena. Six teams will fight for their share of the $250,000 prize pool and for BLAST Pro Series points based on their placement at the event. The top four teams to gather the most points in 2019 will be automatically invited to the BLAST Pro Series Global Final at the end of the year.
BLAST Pro Series Madrid follows the same format as other BLAST tournaments. The teams will play through a best-of-one, round-robin group stage and the two top teams qualify for the best-of-three grand final. The winners will take home $125,000. Second place gets $50,000, while third and fourth get $25,000 and $15,000, respectively.
Teams
Invited teams:
- Astralis: Nicolai “device” Reedtz, Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth, Emil “Magisk” Reif, and Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander
- Natus Vincere: Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, Denis “electronic” Sharipov, Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko, Ioann “Edward” Sukhariev, and Egor “flamie” Vasilyev
- ENCE: Aleksi “allu” Jalli, Jere “sergej” Jalo, Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen, Jani “Aerial” Jussila, and Sami “xSeveN” Laasanen
- Ninjas in Pyjamas: Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg, Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund, Fredrik “REZ” Sterner, Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson, and Dennis Edman
- Cloud9: Timothy “autimatic” Ta, Maikil “Golden” Selim, René “cajunb’ Borg, Will “RUSH” Wierzba, and Daniel “vice” Kim
Play-in teams:
- Movistar Riders: Óscar “mixwell” Cañellas, Aitor “SOKER” Fernández, Alejandro “mopoz” Fernández, Alejandro “ALEX” Masanet, and Raúl “DeathZz” Nieto
- Giants: Ricardo “fox” Pacheco, Christopher “MUTiRiS” Fernandes, Ricardo “rmn” Oliveira, João “KILLDREAM” Ferreira, and Luís “ZELIN” Lousada
Schedule
BLAST Pro Series Madrid will kick off at 9:15am CT on Friday. The two Iberian teams will go through a best-of-three play-in and the winner advances to the group stage.
Friday, May 10
Play-in
- 9:15 am CT: Movistar Riders vs. Giants
Round one
- 1:45pm CT: ENCE vs. Natus Vincere
- 1:45pm CT: Astralis vs. NiP
- 1:45pm CT: Cloud9 vs. TBD
Round two
- 3:15pm CT: NiP vs. ENCE
- 3:15pm CT: Cloud9 vs. Natus Vincere
- 3:15pm CT: Astralis vs. TBD
Saturday, May 11
Round three
- 8am CT: Astralis vs. Natus Vincere
- 8am CT: Cloud9 vs. ENCE
- 8am CT: NiP vs. TBD
Round four
- 9:20am CT: Astralis vs. ENCE
- 9:20am CT: Cloud9 vs. NiP
- 9:20am CT: Natus Vincere vs. TBD
Round five
- 10:40am CT: Astralis vs. Cloud9
- 10:40am CT: NiP vs. Natus Vincere
- 10:40am CT: ENCE vs. TBD
The best-of-three grand finals will take place on May 11 at 1pm CT, while the Standoff (where the third-place team plays a series of one-vs-one games against the crowd’s favorite team) will be played one hour before.
Key storyline
Astralis will look to bounce back after they got knocked out at BLAST Pro Series Miami in April. Nicolai “device” Reedtz and crew are still the best team in the world, but Liquid’s success at IEM Sydney last weekend should threaten the Danes’ reign. Astralis will play against tough opponents like Na’Vi, ENCE, and NiP.
Will Astralis get back on top or will another contender emerge victorious? We’ll find out when BLAST Pro Series Madrid begins tomorrow.
