BLAST Premier Fall combined into one region; BIG, FURIA replace 100 Thieves, Liquid in first stage

The organizers confirmed that the Fall season will be played online in one, combined region and revealed that BIG and FURIA will replace 100 Thieves and Liquid in the "Series" stage.

100 Thieves are excluded from the event after the United States-based side, one of BLAST's twelve long-term partner organizations, announced its exit from CS:GO, which will come into effect at the conclusion of IEM New York later this week.

Meanwhile, unlike Evil Geniuses who will make two separate trips to Europe to take part in the entire BLAST Premier season as well as in the North American division of IEM Beijing, Liquid will skip the first stage and will only begin their campaign in the Fall season in the Showdown tournament, which will run from November 23-29.

BLAST Premier Fall is set to bring Europe and North America back together

BLAST's decision to de-regionalize the first two stages of the Fall season comes as little surprise after HLTV.org reported earlier this month that several North American teams were deciding on making a trip to Europe for the end of the 2020 season, with the Denmark-based organizer being one of the main driving forces behind the plan.

The move will make BLAST Premier Fall Series the first tournament to pit multiple of North America's best teams up against the brunt of European competition since the coronavirus pandemic struck in March and left tournament organizers with no option but to separate their events into regional divisions.

The Fall Series now comprises ten out of the top twelve teams according to HLTV.org's World Ranking from October 12, as well as Ninjas in Pyjamas (No. 16) and MIBR, who are currently unranked as they only have two players on the roster after placing Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga, Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo, and Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo on the bench in mid-September.

The team list for BLAST Premier Fall Series, which will take place on October 26 to November 4, now looks as follows:

Astralis
Vitality
BIG
OG
G2
Ninjas in Pyjamas Natus Vincere
Evil Geniuses
FURIA
FaZe
Complexity
MIBR Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo Age: 25 Team: MIBRB Rating 1.0: 0.93 Maps played: 1172 KPR: 0.61 DPR: 0.64 Evil Geniuses #5 Peter 'stanislaw' JarguzTarik 'tarik' CelikVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Ninjas in Pyjamas #16 Simon 'twist' EliassonFredrik 'REZ' SternerHampus 'hampus' PoserTim 'nawwk' JonassonNicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez Zamora 100 Thieves #14 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiJay 'Liazz' Tregillgas Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo Age: 29 Team: MIBRB Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 1340 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.60 Liquid #10 Keith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipRussel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenMichael 'Grim' Wince BIG #6 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzTizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschFlorian 'syrsoN' RischeIsmailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşNils 'k1to' Gruhne Natus Vincere #3 Egor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovKirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovIlya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy Vitality #4 Richard 'shox' PapillonCédric 'RpK' GuipouyDan 'apEX' MadesclaireMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautKévin 'misutaaa' Rabier Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga Age: 28 Team: MIBRB Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1322 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.68 Complexity #12 William 'RUSH' WierzbaKristian 'k0nfig' WieneckeNiels Christian 'NaToSaphiX' SillassenValentin 'poizon' VasilevBenjamin 'blameF' Bremer Astralis #1 Peter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzPatrick 'es3tag' HansenEmil 'Magisk' Reif FURIA #7 Henrique 'HEN1' TelesAndrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoKaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato G2 #11 Audric 'JACKZ' JugNemanja 'huNter-' KovačKenny 'kennyS' SchrubFrançois 'amanek' DelaunayNemanja 'nexa' Isaković OG #8 Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittValdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenIssa 'ISSAA' MuradMateusz 'mantuu' Wilczewski MIBR Vito 'kNgV-' GiuseppeAlencar 'trk' Rossato FaZe #9 Nikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' NygaardMarkus 'Kjaerbye' KjærbyeMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidHelvijs 'broky' Saukants