BLAST eases Oceania's registration hurdles

Oceanic Counter-Strike was always on the backfoot given their massive ping disadvantage when competing in online qualifiers and tournaments hosted in the Asian region. Since Oceania almost always falls under the wider Asia-Pacific region when tournament organizers categorize open and closer qualifiers, teams from the region have an uphill road to make it to main events.

The region's struggles have amplified in recent times with multiple tournament organizers using the 5E platform to take registrations and host online qualifiers within the Asia-Pacific region. The process was always tedious for teams outside Mainland China but the Oceanic region struggled on multiple fronts including access, signups and check-ins.

Through a post on X, BLAST's Esports Operations Manager, James 'Wattsy' Watts has announced a quality of life change to help ease the Oceanic registrations process. He encourages teams to reach out to [email protected] for onboarding help. A single player can reach out on behalf of the whole team and complete the formalities.

The change comes weeks before BLAST Open Porto's open qualifiers kick off. GGTV will begin hosting open qualifiers across China, Mongolia, Rest of Asia and Oceania on 6th July 2026 which leads into the closed qualifier on 10th, 11th and 12th July 2026.