BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles will be the 4th BPS edition of this season. Scheduled to take place between July 12th – 13th in the US, the event offers a prize pool of $250.000 and features six of the world’s best teams. Four of them are already known, but before we get into the tournament itself, let’s take a look at what happened during the first three 2019 editions of BPS.
BLAST Pro Series – The Story So Far
In 2019, BLAST Pro Series already took place in Sao Paulo, Miami, and Madrid. Here’s what happened in each of these locations and how the situation stands overall.
BLAST Pro Series Sao Paulo
BPS Sao Paulo saw the destruction of MIBR right in front of their home crowd, the rise of ENCE and the triumph of Astralis over Team Liquid in the Grand Final. This victory must have been very satisfying for the Danes, who had lost to Liquid in the Grand Final of iBUYPOWER Masters IV at the end of January.
The results of the Sao Paulo edition of BPS were the following:
- 1st place: Astralis – 10 points
- 2nd place: Team Liquid – 8 points
- 3rd place: ENCE – 6 points
- 4th place: Ninjas in Pyjamas – 4 points
- 5th place: FaZe Clan – 2 points
- 6th place: MIBR – 0 points
BLAST Pro Series Miami
This tournament was full of upsets and marked the beginning of the end for Astralis. Or at least, the start of something that looks troublesome for the Danes, who somehow managed to dominate the CS:GO scene for an entire year. Astralis only finished 5th at BLAST Pro Series Miami, after they suffered three consecutive losses on the second competitive day.
The team that won the title at BPS Miami was FaZe Clan, followed by Team Liquid. This was the second Grand Final lost by Liquid at a BPS event in 2019. The overall results were the following:
- 1st place: FaZe Clan – 10 points
- 2nd place: Team Liquid – 8 points
- 3rd place: MIBR – 6 points
- 4th place: Natus Vincere – 4 points
- 5th place: Astralis – 2 points
- 6th place: Cloud9 – 0 points
BLAST Pro Series Madrid
BPS Madrid was another unique and unusual BPS event that saw the rise of ENCE to the heights of glory and their triumph over Astralis not once but twice, on three maps in total, including Nuke, where they had been undefeated for a very long time. The win streak was above 30 when ENCE finally proved their readiness and defeated CS:GO’s final boss on this map.
IT IS ALMOST NO MORE FOR @ENCE!
CHAMPIONS 🏆🇫🇮#BLASTProSeries #Madrid pic.twitter.com/Y7ZPJJ4rrM
— BLAST Pro Series (@BLASTProSeries) May 11, 2019
One other thing that made BPS Madrid quite interesting was the organizer’s decision to give one of the local teams the chance of a lifetime and compete in the event. Giants Gaming ultimately won the Iberian qualifier and although they finished 6th at the tournament, they did manage to beat NiP in one of their games, which must have felt amazing for them. Furthermore, their overall round score was 55 W – 68 L. That’s quite impressive considering the skill difference between themselves and everyone else at the event.
The results of BPS Madrid were the following:
- 1st place: ENCE – 10 points
- 2nd place: Astralis – 8 points
- 3rd place: Ninjas in Pyjamas – 6 points
- 4th place: Natus Vincere – 4 points
- 5th place: Cloud9 – 2 points
- 6th place: Giants Gaming – 0 points
Overall Ranking
This is how the teams performed so far. Keep in mind that at the end of the season, the top four competitors from this table will be invited to take part in the BPS Global Final. Points taken from https://blastproseries.com/blast-2019-season/
- 1st place: Astralis – 22 points
- 2nd place: Team Liquid – 16 points
- 3rd place: FaZe Clan – 12 points
- 4th place: Ninjas in Pyjamas – 10 points
- 5th place: Natus Vincere – 8 points
- 6th place: MIBR – 6 points
- 7th place: Cloud9 – 2 points
BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles Participants
BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles features six world-class teams, four of which have been announced.
Team Liquid
After the first four months of this season, we no longer speculate when we say that Team Liquid is as strong with the current lineup as they were with TACO and zews. Both Stewie2K and the team’s new coach, adreN, fully blended with the rest of the squad and the results have been excellent so far: four Grand Finals and two titles. Last season, Team Liquid had eight of them in total but only two titles. So the fact that they already won two trophies and played in four Grand Finals in just four months puts Liquid way ahead of themselves for 2019.
🏆 WE ARE YOUR IEM SYDNEY CHAMPIONS 🏆 pic.twitter.com/TWP76hWiOE
— Team Liquid (@TeamLiquid) May 5, 2019
Given the fact that only one more circuit team will be invited to take part in BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles and that Astralis, ENCE and Natus Vincere aren’t yet on the list, Team Liquid has excellent chances of winning the event. At the very least, they should play in the Grand Final. It’s basically their tournament to lose, as it takes place on their home soil and has no real opponents that can challenge them so far. Based on the global rankings and everything we’ve seen from Liquid this season, BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles should be in their bag.
FaZe Clan
FaZe Clan has a huge ceiling but also a very low floor at this point. Their inconsistencies and tournament form makes them a hit and miss type of team. They may end up winning a tournament or they may end up finishing last. It’s quite obvious that YNk and NiKo are experimenting with various tactics and strategies and until they master at least three or four maps, you should expect FaZe to be a volatile competitor.
In 2019, FaZe Clan won the title at ELEAGUE CS:GO Invitational by defeating Cloud9 in the Grand Final. They also won the title at BLAST Pro Series Miami, after three impressive victories on the second day of the tournament, against Natus Vincere, Astralis and Team Liquid. Their third notable performance came at IEM Katowice Major, where they finished 5th – 8th.
FaZe Clan is the kind of team that’s fully reliant on momentum. That’s why you should never place a CS:GO bet on or against them until you’ve seen them play at least one map at the tournament. That first game often shows you how good they are at the time of the event.
Going into BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles, we expect FaZe Clan to finish 3rd or 4th.
MIBR
MIBR has started to play well again. Right after they changed their roster, they finished 3rd – 4th at IEM Katowice Major but then they had almost two months of disastrous results. Then they resurfaced with a 3rd place finish at BPS Miami and a 3rd – 4th place finish at IEM Sydney.
All things considered, we regard MIBR as one of the stronger teams at BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles and expect them to finish 2nd or 3rd, depending on who the 5th directly invited team will be. If it’s Na’Vi or NiP, then they’re more than likely to play in the Grand Final. But if it’s ENCE or Astralis, the 3rd place is probably the best they can hope for.
Cloud9
And finally we have Cloud9, but this team isn’t worth analyzing given how weak they are. We expect C9 to finish 5th at BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles, simply because the 6th competitor will be a Wild Card Invite/Qualifier team that is likely to be even weaker than they currently are.
