BLAST Rising Open Qualifier to start next week

One of BLAST's new tournaments is set to begin with NA open qualifiers on February 6th. The open qualifier in North America is organized by Gamers Club.

The stakes are qualification into the closed qualifier, of which the top four teams will advance to. From the closed qualifier, the twelve teams will invited via the Valve Regional Standings (VRS) will be joined by the four from the open qualifier. The teams will then be divided into four groups of four. The squads will battle it out in a GSL double-elimination format, with each group winner being sent to BLAST Rising Finals.

From there, the top four VRS-ranked teams in the region (that haven't been invited directly to BLAST Open) will be waiting for them. The eight teams will play in a single-elimination bracket, with the winner of the event qualifying for BLAST Open in March, being held in Lisbon, Portugal.

The signup link for the NA Open Qualifier may be found here.