BLAST Rivals Monterrey moves to Copenhagen

The esports tournament organizer, BLAST, has announced that will move this month’s BLAST Premier Rivals event to Copenhagen, Denmark. Originally planned to be held in Monterrey, Mexico, BLAST decided to move the tournament to its studios due to “unforeseen logistical challenges.”

Although the company did not specify which challenges, some community users have pointed out that the problems could be related to the tight schedule between tournaments, with invitations announced too late for the event.

Prior to the start of BLAST Premier Rivals, the top Counter-Strike teams will participate in IEM Melbourne later that month. Since the event ends on April 27, it will be a logistical challenge for teams to fly from Australia to Mexico. Aside from the problems it could cause for the teams, the sudden change of venue has hurt fans who had planned to attend the LAN event, as they had already booked travel and accommodation.

“I don’t understand how BLAST can sell tickets in January and, 30 days before the start of the event, change continents. No apology has been offered to teams or fans who have already purchased flights, booked hotels and applied for visas.”said one user on Reddit commenting on the announcement.

The change will also indirectly hurt the Mexican city, as the event was expected to generate some $12.5M in economic benefits, as well as collaboration with Latin American e-sports organization Liga Ace.

BLAST Premier Rivals is an eight-team tournament with a $1M prize pool, which will feature the top four teams from the Valve Global Ranking System (VRS) and four wildcard teams from four different regions. The teams, however, are yet to be confirmed.

The tournament will feature a best-of-three (BO3) GSL format to determine the six teams that will advance to the playoffs. The winner will not only take home the prize, but will also win two Frequent Flyers Program (FFP), which will count towards BLAST’s $2M revenue sharing program.