by With Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2023 in the rearview mirror, the focus shifts to the next big event on the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive calendar – BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023.
Scheduled to take place from June 7-11 at Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washington, DC, the tournament will feature eight CS:GO teams vying for the lion’s share of the $425,000 prize pool and a ticket for BLAST Premier World Final 2023.
Here is our BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023 tournament preview, including our top outright betting picks.
All eyes on Team Vitality
Team Vitality head to DC as the outright favourites to win another big CS:GO event, following their success at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023. Vitality were deserving winners of their maiden Major title, but much of their success was due to other top dogs underperforming.
G2 Esports were a complete mess, Heroic, in typical fashion, choked in the semifinals, and FaZe Clan lost traction at the worst time of the season. Fortunately for Vitality, things haven’t changed much since.
Heroic and FaZe Clan crashed out of IEM Dallas 2023 in the semis, and G2 Esports exited the tournament in the quarterfinals with a rough loss against FaZe. Thus, Vitality’s three biggest rivals at the BLAST Premier Spring Final are not in the best shape.
Still, take away Vitality’s Major title run, and we have a team that has been suffering from the same thing over the last few months. They won Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2023 in April but had to fight through the lower bracket and had a couple of close calls on their way to the top, so having them priced at +250 to win the Spring Final might be a bit of an exaggeration.
Can Astralis prove the doubters wrong?
It’s been years since we could call Astralis a good team, but they’ve looked better recently. At IEM Dallas 2023 they defeated Team Liquid and Cloud9, which is much more impressive than it seems.
The Danes then lost a close game against ENCE (16-12, 17-19, 12-16) and were eliminated from the tournament by MOUZ (20-22, 9-16) to finish in fifth place. Yet even that isn’t that concerning, knowing that Astralis’ only defeats came against the eventual finalists – and both games were very winnable for Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander and his crew.
Astralis are quietly improving, making them an exciting outsider pick to do some damage at Spring Final. We wouldn’t call them a top-tier team just yet, but at +1200 to win the 2023 BLAST Premier Spring Final, Astralis present solid value.
BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023 predictions
Of the four leading hopes to win the Spring Final – Vitality, Heroic, G2 Esports, and FaZe Clan – Heroic are the most inviting pick. G2 Esports have not accomplished anything since IEM Katowice, FaZe Clan are not playing well and even publicly stated that their in-game communication is lacking, and Vitality played well in Paris but have otherwise not shown much this year.
Even though Heroic are known to slip at the final hurdle of any significant event, they’ve reached at least the semifinals of every A- and S-Tier tournament since ESL Pro League Season 17. So regardless of their lack of titles won, Heroic are the most consistent top-tier team in the world.
As an outsider pick, we have to go with Astralis. They’re improving and will be there to take their chance as soon as any of the top sides slip up, and based on what we’ve seen over the last few months, it’s not too wild to believe that might happen.
