BLAST Premier World Final 2023 Groups Preview | The Big Competitors

The BLAST Premier World Final 2023 is here, bringing together eight of the best CS teams in the world for one last tournament this year. For some of these teams, it’s an opportunity to top off a great year with some more silverware. For others, it’s the final chance to break their duck in 2023 for their first trophy.

With a $1 million prize pool on the line, it’s sure to be a banger. We’re looking at Group A and B to see which teams at the BLAST Premier World Final 2023 will end the year on top.

Credit: BLAST

BLAST Premier World Final 2023 Group A

For us, Group A has one clear favorite here – Vitality. The team ended the FaZe CS2 win streak at the BLAST Fall Final 2023, winning the trophy while bedding in new signing mezii. A team that can win while in transition is one to be feared on the server. Even with NAVI up first, we expect Vitality to go all the way in Group A and beyond.

Group A:

Cloud9
ENCE
Vitality
NAVI

The second and third progressing teams of Group A are a toss-up. Cloud9’s honeymoon phase with Boombl4 seems to be over, while the ceiling for gla1ve’s iteration of ENCE remains totally unclear. We’re going with NAVI and Cloud9 to take these spots here. With Vitality up first, it’ll likely be a Lower Bracket run for NAVI, but they’ve shown a ton of potential in 2023 waiting to be unleashed. Meanwhile, we simply believe in Boombl4’s AWPer-less Cloud9 more than we do gla1ve’s squad.

Credit: BLAST

BLAST Premier World Final 2023 Group B

Of the two, we’d say Group B is overall the stronger side of the bracket. Even still, it’s hard to look past FaZe as group winners here. Despite losing Twistzz to the new Liquid CS2 roster, they’ve brought in a near like-for-like replacement in frozen, weakening group rivals MOUZ in the process. We don’t expect any fall-off from the FaZe that won their first three competitions in CS2, and another Grand Final to boot.

Group B:

FaZe
Heroic
MOUZ
G2

The second team is trickier to predict. We’re writing off Heroic’s chances already, with inexperienced AWPer salazar filling in the final slot for the team. Then, there’s MOUZ. With star rifler frozen now gone, they’ve chosen Brollan to fill in for this event. Ultimately, we’re going with G2 and MOUZ for second and third place respectively. G2 have struggled in some recent online CCT matches, but you can’t write off that star trio of NiKo, huNter- and m0NESY. For MOUZ, we think Brollan fighting to save his career can be a huge difference-maker for the team, especially against this Frankenstein of a Heroic roster.