The BLAST Premier Spring initially began as a LAN tournament, but it transitioned to online play due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Alongside the change of format, the event was also split into two regions – Europe and North America – in a bid to avoid any connectivity issues what would occur when teams from different regions faced off.

Evil Geniuses earned their spot in the finals tournament through the BLAST Premier American Showdown, where they topped a group containing Triumph, Cloud9 and 100 Thieves. Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz and his crew lost to MiBR 1-2 in the decider, yet they managed to finish third thanks to a phenomenal 2-0 win against Gen.G in the play-in match.

That result earned Evil Geniuses a spot at the BLAST Premier Spring 2020 American Finals, where they met with Team Liquid, FURIA Esports and MiBR. EG defeated Liquid in the opening match of the competition with a 2-1 reverse sweep but were again outmatched by MiBR, who reversed EG with a 19-16 overtime win on Dust II.

However, stanislaw and his men kept at it and edged past FURIA 2-1 in the lower bracket finals set up a rematch with MiBR in the grand finals. EG grabbed the lead with a 16-14 win on Dust II and sealed the deal 19-15 in overtime on Inferno to claim $160,000 in tournament winnings and a ticket for the BLAST Premier Global Final.

Unlike Evil Geniuses, who had to fight their way through the American Showdown, Complexity Gaming earned a direct invite to the BLAST Premier Spring 2020 European Finals after finishing as runners-up of their group in the regular season. There, Benjamin “blameF” Bremer and co. claimed comfortable 2-0 wins over Astralis and Team Vitality, but they proved to be no match for the reigning IEM Katowice champions, Natus Vincere, in the grand finals.

Complexity began their run at the European Finals with a pair of 2-1 wins against OG and Natus Vincere, which earned them a date with FaZe Clan in the upper bracket finals. BlameF and co. entered the bout as underdogs but came out as the alphas, sweeping FaZe with a 16-11 win on Nuke and a 16-14 result on Dust II.

The final fixture of the BLAST Premier Spring 2020 European Finals saw Complexity take on Team Vitality for the first time since they met at ESL One: Road to Rio – Europe: Group Stage in April. The bout began with commanding 16-2 win to Vitality on Vertigo thanks to an outstanding performance from Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, who produced a 2.01 rating with 112.2 ADR and +11 K/D. But the rest of his team failed to show up, which allowed Complexity to edge out a 19-16 win and tie the series at 1-1.

The best-of-three grand finals entered Nuke, where Vitality held a 12-10 lead but could not seal the deal on T-side. Complexity won the final map 16-12 thanks to a strong showing from their in-game leader, BlameF, who carried his team with +12 K/D and a 1.68 rating. He finished the series with an average rating of 1.26, second only to ZywOo’s high mark of 1.56.

With that result, Complexity won their first high-profile tournament and their fifth CS:GO title of the year following their successful runs through the third, fourth, sixth and seventh seasons of #HomeSweetHome. Alongside the title of BLAST Premier Spring 2020 champions, Complexity also pocketed $335,000 in tournament winnings and a ticket for the Global Final.

The BLAST Premier Global Final is slated to begin on January 18, 2021 as a LAN tournament. Joining Complexity, Vitality and Evil Geniuses will be the BLAST Premier Fall 2020 and ESL One Rio 2020 champions, as well as the top three teams from BLAST Premier Circuit 2020.

Esports bookmakers have 100 Thieves priced as slight favourites over G2 Esports, which is fair. It is not so much that 100T are especially strong, but rather that their opponents look weaker than usual.

G2 have not seen any notable success on the CS:GO stage since they finished third-fourth at ESL One: New York back in September, and even there they only bested ENCE. While G2 pocketed silver at cs_summit 5 in December, the only two teams they defeated were FURIA and the old-look Virtus.pro.

G2 are a solid team on paper, yet it is clear something isn’t clicking in the squad. The team’s performance has suffered somewhat since the signing of Nemanja “nexa” Isakovi? and Nemanja “huNter-” Kova? back in September. At first, it seemed like the new squad needed time to gel, but after almost five months, it is clear that the issues lie somewhere else.

100 Thieves have yet to claim silverware since they signed the old Renegades roster. Their best result came in November, when they finished IEM Beijing in second place. That said, 100 Thieves�� roster works like a well-oiled machine with established synergy. While they might lack serious quality to contest top-tier titles, their teamwork alone gives them an edge over G2.

This bout will be a close one, so there is a good chance all three maps will be played. While 100 Thieves look the stronger team, G2 hold an advantage over them on Train and Dust II.

OG have seen fair amount of success since building their team back in December, namely the top-four finish at cs_summit 5. However, we don’t believe this squad is ready to make any serious noise on the big stage just yet.

The main concern we have with OG is that their roster consists of five players signed from five different teams, which clearly spells synergy concerns. There is no denying their cs_summit 5 run was a remarkable achievement, but since that initial hype has faded, OG have failed to deliver.

At ICE Challenge 2020, they finished fifth-sixth after dropping the ball in a 0-2 loss against MAD Lions. The European mix also finished IEM Katowice Open Qualifiers #2 fifth-eighth following a humiliating 10-16 defeat against AGO.

Evil Geniuses enter this bout fresh off a solid run at EPICENTER 2019, where they made it to the semi-finals but went down 0-2 to mousesports. Prior to that, Evil Genuises also claimed a fifth-sixth finish at the ESL Pro League S10 Finals and third-fourth at the ECS Season 8 Finals back in November.

OG might have a bright future ahead, but their results in recent weeks suggest they will struggle to keep up with Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz and his squad.