Astralis, Team Liquid, FaZe Clan, and Ninjas in Pyjamas—the four best CS:GO teams from BLAST Pro Series events in 2019—will compete against each other at the BLAST Pro Series Global Finals in Riffa, Bahrein starting Dec. 12.
These teams will be fighting for the maximum glory in BLAST Pro Series events and for their share of the $500,000 prize pool. NiP are the only team out of these four that didn’t win any BLAST Pro Series tournaments in 2019. Astralis and Liquid won one each and FaZe won two.
Here’s everything you need to know about the BLAST Pro Series Global Finals.
Stream
The BLAST Pro Series Global Finals will be fully broadcast on BLAST Pro Series’ Twitch channel. There won’t be any simultaneous matches, so it’ll be easier to keep up with all the action.
Format
Since there are only four teams playing, the tournament will feature a double-elimination bracket. All of the matches will be played as best-of-three series.
The two best teams will play the grand finals on Saturday and the two other teams will play the traditional BLAST Pro Series Standoff earlier. The winner of the BLAST Pro Series Global Finals will take home $350,000.
Teams
- Astralis: Nicolai “device” Reedtz, Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth, Emil “Magisk” Reif, and Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander
- Team Liquid: Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken, Keith “NAF” Markovic, Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski, Jake “Stewie2K” Yip, and Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella
- FaZe Clan: Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, Håvard “rain” Nygaar, Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer, Helvijs “broky” Saukants, and Marcelo “coldzera” David
- Ninjas in Pyjamas: Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg, Simon “twist” Eliasson, Fredrik “REZ” Sterner, Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson, and Nicolas “Plopski” Zamora
Schedule
Thursday, Dec. 12
- 6am CT: FaZe vs. NiP
- 10am CT: Astralis vs. Liquid
Friday, Dec. 13
- 6am CT: Upper bracket final
- 10am CT: Lower bracket final
Saturday, Dec. 14
- 6am CT: Consolidation final
- 9:45am CT: BLAST Pro Series Standoff
- 11am CT: Grand final
Key storylines
Independent of the outcome, Astralis will finish the season as the best CS:GO team in the world in HLTV’s rankings. But this is a great opportunity for Liquid to step up since the North Americans haven’t won a tournament since IEM Chicago in July.
FaZe still have to show more before critics can say that they’ll be a top team in 2020. They’ve had mixed results so far since adding Brazilian superstar Marcelo “coldzera” David and the young Helvijs “broky” Saukants. But they won BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen in November in dominant fashion.
It must hurt NiP as a brand to witness its biggest rival, Fnatic, climb its way back to the top, especially because NiP hasn’t won any tournaments in 2019. After letting the legendary Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund go in September, Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg is reportedly negotiating with Dignitas, so this could be the last time that one of the greatest Counter-Strike players of all time wears NiP’s colors.
