Report: PGL Major Antwerp Americas RMR set to clash with BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown
Dust2.us has learned from sources with knowledge of the situation that Valve and PGL are planning to announce more details regarding the trio of RMR events that will act as qualifiers for PGL Major Antwerp 2022 tomorrow — including the dates and location for the LAN events.
Based on the information revealed to Dust2.us, the three RMR events will all be held in Europe and are set to be played out over the course of two weeks in mid-April, with the Americas RMR directly conflicting with BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown, which is set to run from April 20th - 24th.
This scheduling oversight has the potential to create major problems for North and South American teams, as BLAST intends on running an online North American-based bracket for the Spring Showdown requiring teams to stay stateside. BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown currently features top North American teams Liquid, Evil Geniuses, and Complexity, along with Brazilian squad MIBR.
Notably, all four of these teams are BLAST partners, meaning it would likely be difficult for them to back out of their commitments to play in the Spring Showdown.
The most likely solution to the problem would be for BLAST to reschedule the Spring Showdown to avoid all three RMR events. However, that would likely force them to run the event during ESL Pro League Season 15 or in the two weeks in the leadup to the Major, time which would likely be used by teams for travel and to bootcamp pre-Major. The only other option would be to run it post-Major in the three weeks before the start of the Spring Finals, which increases the risk of the event conflicting with IEM Dallas 2022.
Dust2.us has reached out to BLAST and PGL regarding this matter and will update the story if/when they reply.
PGL Major Antwerp 2022, CS:GO's 17th Major, is set to start on May 9th.