NRG not among new BLAST affiliates
After failing to acquire Evil Geniuses' vacant spot as a BLAST Partner Team, NRG is seemingly without an affiliate spot for BLAST as a whole after being beaten out by Spirit, Virtus.pro, GamerLegion, and Falcons.
BLAST opened four slots for affiliates after Evil Geniuses' spot was heavily contested, with "an overwhelming interest in BLAST Premier membership.” The difference between Partner Teams and Affiliates is that the latter won't receive any revenue share that the original twelve members of the BLAST program receive.
In a report by Dust2.us, it was revealed that NRG tried to keep the number of North American BLAST Member Teams the same, only to Cloud9 to swoop in and buy the vacant spot for a reported $900,000. In the same report, it was told that NRG also showed interest in acquiring an Affiliate spot.
Two Russian organizations, one European, and one Saudi Arabian will be present in BLAST Premier during 2024. However, that membership will end in the next year after a Valve ruling decreed that these franchised leagues would not be allowed to continue in 2025.
With the expansion of the teams' list, BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2024 will also suffer format changes, going from 24 matches to 26, all while removing "all redundant matches." The rest of the events remain unchanged, for now.
