BLAST revamps 2027 circuit

BLAST has announced a significant revamp for its 2027 circuit including more LANs and financial incentives. The revamps to financial incentives come from BLAST bumping up their overall investment towards Counter-Strike by $1.5M USD for 2027, taking the figure to a whopping $10M USD. Apart from prizemoney and club share, a new "acceptance fee" will be handed out to teams for attending BLAST's events based on the team's VRS position. $700,000 USD has been allocated towards "team experience" which will go towards "improved lodgings at events and travel conditions to events to reduce the travel strain a dense global calendar creates."

Moving away from the financial side of things, BLAST Bounty is set to receive significant structural changes. The tournament moves away from a 32-team event to a 16-team event, fully played on LAN. Previously, Bounty started with a couple of rounds of online play, resulting in many non-European teams declining invites. Bounty will feature 12 invited teams in 2027 alongside four teams from regional qualifiers from Asia, Europe, North and South America.

With a fully LAN-focused structure, stronger VRS impact and the removal of main event online matches, the biggest moments will play out on the biggest stages.
Anne Banschbach, Programme Director, BLAST

BLAST Open and Rivals will stay the same more or less, with the exception of increased prize pools. BLAST's move to increase the prize pools and bring in more LANs seems to have come from organizers like PGL returning to the Counter-Strike space in a more active capacity, gunning for Majors, prime slots and a bigger piece of the calendar.

BLAST's 2027 events dates announced so far are:

• BLAST Premier Event 1 - 13th - 24th January (Schengen)

• BLAST Premier Event 2 - 15th - 28th March (TBA)

• BLAST Premier Event 3 - 10th - 23rd May (TBA)

• BLAST Premier Event 4 - 30th August - 12th September (TBA)

• BLAST Premier Event 5 - 4th - 17th October (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil)

• BLAST Premier Event 6 - 8th - 14th November (TBA)

Read the full announcement here