The best 12 teams in the world are part of the cohort heading to Copenhagen for BLAST Open's group stage.

Teams

The entire top 12 of HLTV's world rankings are heading to Copenhagen, joined by No. 16 FURIA and regional underdogs M80, Imperial, and The Huns via the BLAST Rising qualifiers (where Astralis also got their spot).

The seeding was done using an older version of Valve's rankings, meaning Spirit and back-to-back champs Vitality are both in a stacked Group A.

Format

BLAST have 'borrowed' the IEM Katowice and Cologne format for Open, two eight-team groups with double elimination GSL brackets.

That means a six-team playoffs, two via the upper bracket final in each group and one from a five-match lower bracket, with the group winners heading straight to the semi-finals. It's all BO3 until the BO5 grand final.

The group stages will be held in BLAST's revamped Copenhagen studio that we saw for Bounty, before the six playoff teams fly to Lisbon for playoffs in the MEO Arena.

Schedule

As we are used to with BLAST, there will be four series per day in the group stage with a later start time of 12:00 than PGL's 10:00 — leaving three hours per series before the clock strikes midnight in the rolling schedule.

Playoffs will stretch over the weekend of March 28-30, starting at 16:30 on the Friday with a best-of-five grand final at the same time on Sunday.

Here are the opening matchups:

Date	Matches
BLAST Open Lisbon 2025
19/03/2025	Spirit12:00 The Huns	Match
19/03/2025	MOUZ14:30 Falcons	Match
19/03/2025	Vitality17:00 Astralis	Match
19/03/2025	FaZe19:30 Virtus.pro	Match
20/03/2025	G212:00 Imperial	Match
20/03/2025	Eternal Fire14:30 Liquid	Match
20/03/2025	The MongolZ17:00 M80	Match
20/03/2025	Natus Vincere19:30 FURIA	Match

Prizes

$400,000 is on offer via a conventional prize pool. That means reduced VRS significance compared to PGL and ESL's 'club share' style solution that tops their prize pots around the $1,000,000 mark.

Organizations will still be compensated via participation fees and the $2.5m annual 'Frequent Flyers' programme.

1st. $150,000 (3 Frequent Flyer tokens)
2nd. $60,000 (1 token)
3-4th. $40,000 (1 token)
5-6th. $20,000 (1 token)
7-8th. $10,000
9-12th. $7,500
13-16th. $5,000

Fantasy

Fantasy is open for groups now, and users have a decision to make given Vitality and Spirit are both in Group A. Picking the right horse in Group B, with plenty of options, will be crucial to success.

The following prizes are on offer courtesy of Chicken.gg:

1st. Hydra Gloves | Rattler (Field-Tested)
2nd. AWP | Hyper Beast (Field-Tested)
3rd. M4A1-S | Hyper Beast (Field-Tested)

Talent

Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt features as this season's token ex-pro on the desk alongside regulars Jacob "⁠Pimp⁠" Winneche and Alex "⁠Mauisnake⁠" Ellenberg, while YouTuber Donald "voo" Parkhurst returns from Bounty.

Alex "⁠Machine⁠" Richardson and Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill are also notable additions to the broadcast teams.

Commentators

Mohan "⁠launders⁠" Govindasamy
Conner "⁠Scrawny⁠" Girvan
Alex "⁠Machine⁠" Richardson
Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill

Analyst desk

Freya "⁠Freya⁠" Spiers - Host
James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks - Host + Interviewer
Jacob "⁠Pimp⁠" Winneche
Alex "⁠Mauisnake⁠" Ellenberg
Donald "voo" Parkhurst
Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt