In this special series of articles, Esports News UK’s coverage of the Blast Premier Spring Final 2024 is in collaboration with the betting partner GGBET UK
Vitality’s Counter-Strike team won the Blast Premier World Final 2023 in Abu Dhabi today to conclude a stellar year of big wins.
They defeated Faze Clan in a convincing 2-0 grand final (13-5 on Inferno and 13-7 on Nuke), after topping group A and beating G2 and Navi in the playoffs.
The first-place finish, which saw Vitality take $500,000 of the $1m Blast Premier World Final 2023 prize pool, follows a string of event wins this year, including IEM Rio, Gamers8 and two other Blast events.
Vitality also ended UK esports organisation Into the Breach’s incredible run at the Blast Paris Major earlier this year to go on and win that tournament.
Today’s 2-0 grand final win versus Faze was a repeat of Vitality’s Blast Premier Fall Final 2023 victory last month, which saw UK player William ‘mezii’ Merriman win his first tier one CS title, shortly after joining Vitality from Fnatic.
The Brit is clearly hitting peak form right now, with impressive plays such as this clutch 1v3 below in the semi-final this weekend.
Blast Premier tweeted out ‘Ankara Meziiiii’ (“still mezii”) in the clip, a reference to the Spanish commentary accompanying footballer Lionel Messi’s incredible solo goal versus Getafe back in 2007.
The event’s British host James Banks asked Mezii if he might get a knighthood if he wins a major.
“Yeah, maybe so!” Mezii answered.
“It’s been a good start. Hopefully we can just keep pushing on, like apEX said, the goal is the major and we’re going to keep working hard and keep grinding.”
Mezii, Vitality
Mezii continued: “[There’s more to give from me.] This is just the start for me and the team. We had goals to do well at these tournaments, and that’s what we’ve done. Next year is where we build this momentum and just keep going with the confidence.”
He added on Twitter: “We did it. We worked hard, we practiced, and I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished. Excited to see what the future has in store, thanks for all the support.”
The UK CS community – and the wider community – also showed their support of Mezii throughout the tournament:
Vitality’s roster at the tournament consisted of apEX, ZywOo, Spinx, flameZ and mezii (with the latter two previously playing for UK esports org Endpoint), plus coach XTQZZZ.
And speaking of Endpoint, the UK org won the Monsters Reloaded 2023 LAN in Istanbul yesterday.
The Blast Premier World Final 2023 also saw Team India beat Team Pakistan in a showmatch.
Cloud9 set to become Blast Premier Member Team in 2024 after acquiring Evil Geniuses’ slot
In other Blast Premier news, North American-based esports organisation Cloud9 will become a Blast Premier Member Team for the 2024 season after acquiring the slot owned by Evil Geniuses, following a competitive bidding process.
Andrew Haworth, Programme Director for Blast Premier, said: “We are delighted to add Cloud9 to our stable of world-leading esports organisations for the 2024 Blast Premier season in what is shaping up to be an exciting year with arena events set for London and Copenhagen. Cloud9 has an illustrious history in Counter-Strike and will bring a lot to the tournaments with their addition for the upcoming season.
“We thank Evil Geniuses for their support and participation over the last three years and wish them all the best in the future. The competitive bidding process undertaken further highlights the growth and development Blast Premier has enjoyed year-on-on-year.”
Jack Etienne, Co-Founder and CEO of Cloud9, said: “I am thrilled to announce Cloud9’s participation in Blast Premier. Joining this prestigious league reflects our commitment to excellence and competitiveness on a global stage. We look forward to showcasing the skill and determination of our talented players as we continue our CS2 journey with Blast Premier.”
Chris DeAppolonio, CEO for EG, added: “Since its inaugural season, Evil Geniuses has supported and participated in Blast Premier as part of our commitment to the NA Counter-Strike scene. While we will no longer participate in Premier going forward, we are thankful for the three years we competed and look forward to supporting NA Counter-Strike talent within the league from afar.”
The news also comes after EG recently left the League of Legends North American LCS.
Blast Premier Member Teams include Astralis, NIP, G2 Esports, OG, Team Vitality, NAVI, FaZe Clan, Complexity, Team Liquid, Heroic, Cloud9 and BIG.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
