NRG attempted to buy Evil Geniuses' BLAST spot

Dust2.us has learned this week that NRG, who have only just recently returned to the North American scene, had been one of the bidders for Evil Geniuses' BLAST Member Team spot. The spot had gone up for sale recently as part of EG's gradual withdraw from Counter-Strike, with the organization also exiting ESL's Louvre agreement.

Ultimately, the North American organization would be outbid by fellow NA organization Cloud9, who, reportedly, paid $900,000 for the spot, which includes access to both seasons of BLAST Premier and highly sought-after revenue sharing, which guarantees an annual income for all members.

Following their entry into CS2 in late November, NRG have only played a handful of online events, with the winter player break bringing an end to the 2023 season. The Canadian squad will be in action next week for the 2024 PGL Copenhagen Major Americas RMR North American Open Qualifiers on January 8th. With BLAST, NRG would immediately guarantee themselves four further events in 2024 that also count towards their Valve ranking, which will become the standard for events in 2025.

BLAST Premier, in its current form with member teams, will only exist for the remainder of 2024 and be obsolete in 2025 due to Valve's recent ruling on these so-called franchised leagues. The same happens to ESL Pro League, which will have to be restructured in the next year.

While NRG ultimately did not get the winning bid for Evil Geniuses spot, Dust2.us has learned they have also lodged interest with BLAST for one of the available affiliate spots that does not include revenue sharing. Should NRG be awarded one of those spots, they will effectively replace Evil Geniuses as the third North American affiliated team in the BLAST Spring and Fall Group Stages.