BLAST to kick off 2023 with Spring Groups
Starting on January 19th, twelve of the best Counter-Strike teams will compete at BLAST Spring Groups for a chance at qualifying for BLAST Spring Finals. The North American trifecta of Liquid, Complexity and Evil Geniuses were included in those twelve teams announced today, as well as Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken's FaZe.
Concluding on January 29th, this will be the first major competition of 2023, with the IEM Katowice Play-In kicking off on January 31st.
Looking back on last years BLAST Spring groups, the NA contingent of Liquid, Complexity and EG will be hoping for much better results despite a very different landscape this time around. Richard "shox" Papillon and Paytyn "junior" Johnson were playing for Liquid and Complexity respectively, while EG were fielding the Jacky "Stewie2K" Yip iteration of their roster.
All three NA sides would finish in last place in the opening tournament of 2022. Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis and Liquid came close to claiming the BLAST World Final trophy at the end of 2022, losing out to G2 in the grand final in Abu Dhabi.
