Today, Blast has announced that the Blast Premier Spring Finals 2024 will be held in none other than London, UK. This will come as huge news to British Counter-Strike fans who have had to wait nearly four years since the last S-Tier CS event held in the UK, Blast Premier: Spring Series 2020.
The tournament, announced on stage at ESI London 2023 by Esports host Frankie Ward, will be held at the OVO Arena in Wembley. This venue has previously played host to the FaceIT 2018 London major, with the Spring Finals 2024 being the largest Counter-Strike event in the UK since, taking place from the 12th to the 16th of June. The first two days of competition will be held in the arena behind closed doors, before opening up to the public for three days from the 14th-16th of June. The teams in attendance will be decided through the Spring Groups and Spring Showdown, hoping to qualify to fight for a part of the $425,000 Prize pool, with dates for these qualifiers yet to be announced.
The current reigning BLAST Spring Champions are Heroic, who beat out Major Champions Vitality to secure a spot at the BLAST World Final 2023, which is being held later this year in Abu Dhabi.
BLAST Premier’s Programme Director, Andrew Haworth said in their press release:
London is renowned for hosting world-leading events in sport, music and entertainment with the city now setting its sights on being a leading destination for esports. We look forward to working with London & Partners and Live Nation to achieve this aim. Bringing the first BLAST Premier arena event of 2024 to London is an important and exciting first step in this journey.
Sean Ryman, VP of Sport and Family Entertainment commented:
BLAST Premier’s arrival in the UK heralds the start of an exciting new partnership, a pioneering venture for Live Nation UK in the world of esports.
Whilst the country saw only a couple of Global Offensive events held here, hopefully, the first CS2 event being held so soon after the game’s release will show signs of good things coming, and hopefully more events will be held in the UK. With the recent boom in UKCS representation at the top level, it will be a great chance to see that representation show what they can do on home soil.
Tickets for the event will be available from Live Nation, with the presale starting on Wednesday 25th October, and the general sale from Friday 27th October.
