BLAST Premier Spring 2021 Europe – The teams to watch

The BLAST Premier Spring Groups for 2021 are almost upon us soon. The action is going to kick off on February 4 with Group A, Group B follows suit on February 8 and then Group C on February 12. A packed schedule for the month of February where it will be vital to know which team to look at, and which one of these teams might bring more to the table than expected.

There are enough teams who can put up a fight against Astralis but it will always be a challenge. After all they’re playing on their home turf which will make them feel a bit more comfortable, in theory. Seeing as it is Astralis, they should have learned from their mistakes during that recent loss against NaVi, and will come out of the gates swinging.

What is the deal with BIG? Can they not contend with the ever so mighty Astralis? Recent results cast doubt on that claim. Whilst they still hold on to their 4th place in the HLTV ranking, they were recently beaten by Spirit, a 14th ranked team in DreamHack Open January 2021 Europe. It makes BIG a less reliable opponent but it has to be said that BIG has been performing somewhat irregularly. They could have some really good days and still really surprise us. Nevertheless they are the only likely opponent that might give Astralis a run for their money in group A.

Diving into the broad pool of participants, the Americans make an appearance. Liquid still being active in Europe means they also participate in European competitions. Their form has been improving and they have shown that they can handle the competitive European region. The first opponent that they will go up against is FaZe, which should be a team they can handle. FaZe has been showing decline in form as of late.

We also find G2 and OG in the same ballpark. The outlook for them is different. G2 will face off against Evil Geniuses, a battle they should be able to handle seeing as Evil Geniuses has had rather lacklustre performances as of late. The problem for G2 comes later in their group, as they most likely would face off against Vitality, the number 2 in the world that will happily give them a run for their money.

OG starts off with a tough situation from the get go, although as mentioned earlier this will also depend on how well BIG is going to perform. They can be very hit or miss, and if they do miss we would potentially be seeing OG facing Astralis, which would be one of the more interesting matches to watch. Astralis and OG have not really faced off against each other recently, and OG has been performing excellent lately, rarely booking a loss. When they did book a loss, it was against a strong Heroic. A tough one to predict.

Earlier we talked about the elephant in the room but there is also a figurative mouse in the form of MIBR and its fresh-faced roster. Performance so far has been mediocre but has shown certain promising signs. They have managed to beat out teams such as FaZe and OG but struggle with some of the more established teams such as Heroic. They should still be taken seriously however.

A fresh roster can sometimes find itself in the middle of a tournament and use that to propel itself further, ending up far higher on the leaderboard than anyone saw coming. Everyone knows how easy it is to let the overconfidence take over and not treat an enemy too seriously. So keep an eye on MIBR and what they might pull off.

The groups are well divided and will undoubtedly provide some exciting Counter-strike to watch. When it comes to the winner, it’s likely that Astralis maintains their dominance but Natus Vincere could just as easily decide to bite back and keep their BLAST superiority going. Keep a close eye on both of them.

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