With its novel format, map vetos declared well in advance and the current trials and tribulations of the invited teams, the first big arena CS:GO event in Denmark sure looks set to be a frantic and unpredictable one.

The Format and its Consequences

Except for the Grand Final - every single match will be played as a Bo1. This makes the tournament a potential minefield of upsets. Considering that a key selling point for BLAST is non-stop action, especially on the second day in the Royal Arena, fatigue and dwindling concentration could be key deciding factors in the later Bo1s.





Each team will play a minimum of four maps on the second day, with the finalists playing three maps and a Bo3. This isn't entirely unheard of, but most top-tier tournaments have moved away from endurance feats like these for the better part of the last two years.





This uncertainty could be somewhat counterbalanced by the map vetos being declared well in advance, giving the teams ample time to prepare finely tuned strategies. Five of the participating teams will be making the long haul flight to Copenhagen from the west coast of the U.S. having competed in the recently concluded IEM Oakland while North is the only one with a more relaxed schedule. It is well within reason that Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen is busy stuffing aces up his navy blue Adidas jersey as the others are having a well deserved nap while flying over the Atlantic.

Watching the tournament, makes me want @BLASTSeries to start tmrw! I cant f****** wait to play in front of a danish crowd. — Mathias Lauridsen (@MSLcsgo) November 15, 2017

While all of this means hours of constant entertainment for the viewer, analysts and pundits will have a hard time drawing conclusions or incorporating this event into narratives with a wider scope due to all the quirks listed above.





Living in a Cacheless Society

Unsurprisingly, Nuke didn't manage to slip by the initial veto process. What is a lot more intriguing, however, is that Cache will also be completely absent from the first 15 Bo1s. This is due to the teams with wider map pools such as SK, Astralis, FaZe and North banning it against NiP, who tend to favor the map. They can still find some solace in managing to slip Cobblestone past G2 in the veto, granting them a definite edge for that match.





Apart from this quirk, we will have some classic map based rivalries play out; Mirage will see the most fierce competition with FaZe and North both electing to face SK and G2 on it, plus a Danish Derby on Overpass, while FaZe and Astralis continuing their bitter squabble on Inferno.





MSL and the Danes suffered a crushing 16-1 defeat at the hands of Kenny "KennyS" Schrub and co. on Mirage in the upper bracket finals of Group B at Epicenter. G2 was playing incredibly well (and not force-buying themselves into bankruptcy for a change) in St. Petersburg, a form they have yet to regain since, perhaps the volatile nature of this tournament will allow their ambitions to bear fruit.





Can NiP Keep Riding the Wave?

Looking at the other teams, FaZe and SK will still be reeling and evaluating their upset at the hands of NiP, who come into this tournament having achieved arguably what is the biggest upset in recent (if not all of) CS:GO history. Beating SK in the semis with an unrelenting Marcelo "coldzera" David in the server (+27 kills across 3 maps on the losing team) in a Bo3 would have been big enough of a feat in itself.





However, taking down the roided-out monster that is FaZe in a five map screamer of a final should put plenty of wind in the sails of the Swedes as they set their sights on the shores of Denmark.

W I N N E R S #IEM pic.twitter.com/cQpZCbL9jC — ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) November 20, 2017

The Ninjas performance at BLAST will depend heavily on Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg and Fredrik "REZ" Sterner maintaining their exceptional form while they count on Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund to back them up , while Richard "Xizt" Landström and William "draken" Sundin remain a liability with their inconsistency despite coming away from Oakland with the silver platter .





The impact of coach Björn "THREAT" Pers will be hard to gauge, while his timeouts definitely tipped the scale in Oakland, his impact could be diminished in the frantic barrage of Bo1s. All in all, another win against such stacked opposition relies on too many factors to be likely for NiP, especially when considering the number of unfavorable maps they have to play.





Kneecapped Giants

SK and FaZe can still be considered strong favorites despite the blunders of this past weekend, it is up to Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo and Finn "karrigan" Andersen to rally their respective troops and hit the ground running on Friday. Karrigan will also have to dig deep with little time for individual practice if he wishes to see his men emerge victorious, as his sub-par performance on the server and tactical missteps were at least partly to blame for the lost IEM final.

Lost against @NiPGaming 3-2. They played really well, some NiPmagic in the air here in Oakland. Thank you all for your support. This was a bad series from me, sorry ❤️ — FaZe karrigan (@karriganCSGO) November 20, 2017

Unfortunately, the other home team Astralis are an unknown factor in all of this, as their performance will depend greatly on Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz's personal well-being, rendering the other predictors of their success here useless. If dev1ce does happen to miss this tournament, triumph for the other teams at BLAST Pro Series will carry the same asterisk as the victories earned during the overlapping injuries of Olof "Olofmeister" Kjarber and Ladislaus "Guardian" Kovács in the spring of 2016.

Cover image courtesy of BLAST Pro Series