BLAST World Finals 2023: Overview & Predictions
The CS2 professional season is finally coming to an end as we are approaching the last big event of 2023. The BLAST World Finals features 8 of the best teams competing for a million dollars. The teams were invited as a result of winning other big events or BLAST circuit events.
Contrary to previous years where we would see roster changes after this event, when heading into the new year. We are seeing a few teams that would make their roster debut in this event or play their first LAN game at the event.
I would be discussing each team individually regarding their recent results and my expectations from each team. The 8 teams that would be attending the event are:
Faze Clan (HLTV Ranking #1)
Team Vitality (HLTV Ranking #2)
Mouz (HLTV Ranking #3)
ENCE (HLTV Ranking #4)
G2 Esports (HLTV Ranking #5)
Natus Vincere (HLTV Ranking #8)
Cloud9 (HLTV Ranking #10)
Heroic (HLTV Ranking #22)
Group Stage Participants
The tournament is broken into group stage and playoffs. The group stage will feature the teams broken into groups of 4 teams in which the teams topping the group would secure a spot in the semi finals of the play offs. The 2nd and 3rd place teams will face each other in order to make it to the semi finals and the team in last place will be eliminated. All the matches in the tournament will be Best-of-Threes.
The groups were drawn as follows:
Group A:
Team Vitality
ENCE
Natus Vincere
Cloud9
Group B:
Faze Clan
Mouz
G2 Esports
Heroic
Faze Clan
Roster:
Håvard “rain” Nygaard
Helvijs “broky” Saukants
Finn “karrigan” Andersen
Robin “ropz” Kool
David “frozen” Čerňanský
Recent Results:
BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2023: 2nd
CS Asia Championships 2023: 1st
Thunderpick World Championship 2023: 1st
Intel Extreme Masters Sydney 2023: 1st
Overview:
Faze have been one of the most dominant teams in Counter-Strike 2 at the moment, they’ve had one of the best win streaks winning the first three out of the four tournaments that have been held in the new version of the game, having a streak of 18 games won in a row before losing the grand finals of the last event to Team Vitality.
Their journey in CS2 looked shaky at the start as they lost their first game of CS2 to GamerLegion at IEM Sydney however, they recovered from that loss and went on an undefeated streak to win that event and the next two events without losing a single match.
The team will be coming in with their first player change in the roster since the start of 2022 when they signed ropz. The team will be playing with the addition of Frozen in place of Twistzz who will be returning back to Team Liquid.
Frozen had been a part of MOUZ since 2019 and was the longest staying player in the current roster as all of his former teammates were promoted from MOUZ NXT or were a part of the academy team in the past. He will be reuniting with his former teammates, ropz and karrigan again in FaZe. This MOUZ core trio had seen success in the past and peaked at #2 of the HLTV rankings before, he should have no problem with synergizing with this team as he has already played under Karrigan.
The team would still be expected to perform at the same level and put up the same results despite the roster change as the team has been pretty strong lately and the roster on paper looks pretty strong even after the change.
Can Frozen keep Faze Clans’ momentum going? Image Courtesy: HLTV
Vitality
Roster:
Dan “apEX” Madesclaire
Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut
Lotan “Spinx” Giladi
Shahar “flameZ” Shushan
William “mezii” Merriman
Recent Results:
BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2023: 1st
Intel Extreme Masters Sydney 2023: 13th-16th
Overview:
The last major winners had a shaky start to their CS2 run as they were knocked out in last place at IEM Sydney 2023. Even before the transition to CS2, Team Vitality were a top team that kept falling short as they had multiple top 8 finishes in multiple tournaments but failed to win most of them, with their only win being at Gamers8.
During the one month break after IEM Sydney the roster had made some changes, bringing back XTQZZZ in as coach and signing mezii to replace Magisk. The new roster immediately showed results as they won the Blast Premier Fall Finals, beating Faze Clan in the grand finals to end their winning streak.
Vitality are going to be one of the favorites going into the tournament however, considering that the teams participating are all pretty strong and their group having Cloud9, NaVi and ENCE as well. I am hopeful that they will actually be making it out of the group stage as the other teams are less consistent than Vitality.
Mouz
Roster:
Ádám “torzsi” Torzsás
Dorian “xertioN” Berman
Kamil “siuhy” Szkaradek
Jimi “Jimpphat” Salo
Ludvig “Brollan“ Brolin (Stand-in)
Recent Results:
Elisa Masters Espoo 2023: 5th-6th
CS Asia Championships 2023: 2nd
Thunderpick World Championship 2023: 5th-8th
Intel Extreme Masters Sydney 2023: 3rd-4th
Overview:
Mouz were able to win the last event in CS:GO as they had won ESL Pro League Season 18 against Navi. They have been a top team in CS2 but, unable to secure any trophies with the closest being a second place finish in CS Asia Championships 2023 where they lost to an unstoppable Faze Clan.
The team consists of some of the youngest players in the roster at the moment and most of them were promoted from their academy program MOUZ NXT. Siuhy was a part of Mouz NXT before he was signed by GamerLegion however, he was recalled back to the organization after his success at the Paris Major.
Mouz did lose their most experienced and oldest player in the roster; Frozen who went to reunite with his old teammates in Faze Clan. The team would be attending the event with Brollan as a stand-in; Brollan who would be looking to replace Frozen as the player with the most experience in the team.
They are in the same group as Faze clan who had eliminated them from 3 different tournaments in a row however, their group also have Heroic and G2 Esports; both teams that are also either fielding stand-ins or new additions to the roster. This will be a test for Mouz but I see them making it out of the group stage.
Heroic
Roster:
René “TeSeS“ Madsen
Rasmus “sjuush“ Beck
Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen
Jason “Salazar” Salazar (Stand-in)
Rasmus “Zyphon” Nordfoss (Stand-in)
Recent Results
BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2023: 5th-6th
Thunderpick World Championship 2023: 5th-8th
Roobet Cup 2023: 9th-12
Overview:
The Danish powerhouse were one of the top teams in the first half of 2023, winning BLAST Premier Spring Finals, a top 4 finish at the Paris Major and top placements in other tournaments.
However, it all came crashing down at the second half of the year, they ended 21st-28th at ESL Pro League and in October we saw the whole roster blow up as they first announced that cadiaN was being benched and a few weeks later they issue a statement regarding a breach of trust by Stavn and Jabbi and benching them as well. In a single month we saw the core of the roster being benched.
The team had acquired Dupreeh from Team Vitality on a short-term contract till the end of the year so they can think about what roster they’ll field for 2024 however, they still had 2 spots that they had to fill in. They have been fielding various stand-ins for the events they have attended; from MOUZ NXT players to bringing cadiaN back for a last dance with the team at Blast Fall Finals in Copenhagen.
The team had taken a huge drop in their rankings due to all these changes and they will be the lowest rated team at the tournament. They will be attending the last year of the event with Zyphon and Salazar as a stand-in from Sprout and ECSTATIC respectively. It feels like it will be a tough event for the team and I think they may be the most likely to exit the event early unless they can pull of an upset by beating either MOUZ or G2 Esports.
G2 lifting the IEM Cologne 2023 trophy. Image Courtesy: HLTV
G2 Esports
Roster:
Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač
Nikola “NiKo” Kovač
Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov
Nemanja “Nexa” Isaković
Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen
Recent Results
CCT Online Finals #5: 5th-6th
Intel Extreme Masters Sydney 2023: 3rd-4th
Overview:
G2 Esports have been a team that’s been struggling to make their roster work. They only had brief flashes of success every now and then as they won IEM Katowice 2023 at the start of the year and then IEM Cologne 2023 in August. Apart from that, it has only been a string of consecutive disappointing results with multiple top 8 finishes.
The team has some of the best players such as Niko and M0nesy however they struggle to win trophies and be a consistent team. In CS2, they only played IEM Sydney 2023 which turned out to be the farewell for jks as he was quietly benched by the team and Nexa was brought back to the team. This has been a questionable change by them and it has been looking rough for them as they finished 5th-6th in the CCT Online Finals losing to Aurora Gaming and Guild Eagles.
G2 would be looking to defend their title as they found success at the end of last year by winning the BLAST World Finals 2022 against Team Liquid. Luckily, their group already has other teams that are struggling with roster issues such as Heroic and Mouz who would be fielding a stand-in for the event. This gives them a hope of actually being able to qualify for the playoffs.
Natus Vincere
Roster:
Valerij “b1t“ Vakhovsjkyj
Aleksi “AleksiB“ Virolainen
Justinas “jL“ Lekavicius
Ivan “iM“ Mihai
Ihor “w0nderful“ Zhdanov
Recent Results
BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2023: 5th-6th
Intel Extreme Masters Sydney 2023: 9th-12th
Overview:
Navi decided to take a huge risk by revamping their whole squad and going with an international roster after the Paris Major. The team has yet to provide any trophies and they struggle to make it to the semi finals of most events, they only made the grand finals of ESL Pro League Season 18 ever since the roster changes.
The team also took a huge hit when their star player s1mple decided to step down from the squad citing personal reasons. The organization signed w0nderful from Sprout to fill in his shoes but the gap left by s1mples absence can not be filled.
Their opening game will be against Team Vitality which will be a tough challenge for them. The other opponents in my group stage are ENCE and Cloud9 and Cloud9 has had their number in the past however, ENCE might be a team that they might win against to hopefully make it to the playoffs.
ENCE
Roster:
Paweł “Dycha” Dycha
Pavle “maden” Bošković
Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia
Guy “NertZ“ Iluz
Lukas “gla1ve“ Rossander
Recent Results
Elisa Masters Espoo 2023: 3rd-4th
CS Asia Championships 2023: 3rd-4th
Intel Extreme Masters Sydney 2023: 5th-6th
Overview:
ENCE has had a meteoric rise after the BLAST Paris Major as they were constantly placing well in all the tournaments. They won IEM Dallas over MOUZ right after the major and after which they had multiple second place and top 4 finishes at most of the events they played.
Their status as one of the top teams might be under scrutiny now as they have just added gla1ve and kuben to take over the IGL and coaching duties respectively. This may mean that the whole team would have to go through their whole strat book again and may need to work on them all over again.
The newcomers would also have to adapt to the team and figure out each player's synergy and chemistry. This will obviously take some time and practice in order to get the hang of things again. This is also a shot for gla1ve to prove himself as a top-tier IGL and win trophies with a different team apart from the dominant Astralis back in 2018-2019.
I feel like they are one of the weakest team in their group however, considering that Navi had not looked good and Cloud9 being inconsistent at some times; we may see them pulling off an upset and make it to the playoffs.
Will the new coach and IGL affect ENCE performance? Image Courtesy: HLTV
Cloud9
Roster:
Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhaylov
Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov
Abai “HObbit” Hasenov
Denis “electroNic” Sharipov
Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy
Recent Results
BetBoom Dacha 2023: 5th-6th
BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2023: 3rd-4th
Thunderpick World Championship 2023: 3rd-4th
Intel Extreme Masters Sydney 2023: 9th-12th
Overview:
Cloud9 looked like a pretty strong roster on paper after the roster shuffle; however their results did not reflect that as they struggled to put up a good performance in the tournaments they played; mostly reaching top 8 in most events. Their only good results were in qualifiers or online events.
The team did make a shocking change as they benched sh1ro to bring in Boombl4 from 1Win where he had a good showing. This strange change of replacing their star awper with another IGL sort-of worked out as the team started to show some improvement however, the lack of a dedicated AWPer is still present which shows in some games that they play.
I can see the roster actually performing well however, if teams figure out how to play around their roster of not having a dedicated AWPer then we can see them struggling. I still believe that they can make it to the playoffs of the event considering their opponents are also going through inconsistency and roster changes.
Group Stage Predictions
This will be an exciting tournament to watch as all the teams are coming into new rosters or struggling to produce results that would be expected from those teams. I believe that the group stages would end up as follows:
Group A:
Team Vitality
Cloud9
Natus Vincere
ENCE
Group B:
Faze Clan
Mouz
G2 Esports
Heroic
What are your opinions on who is going to win this event and which team is going to surprise us the most?
