In this special series of articles, Esports News UK’s coverage of the Blast Spring Final 2024 is in collaboration with the betting partner GGBET UK
London came alive this weekend as Counter-Strike swept the capital, and the fans at Wembley Arena did not disappoint at the Blast Premier Spring Final. Reece Barrett rounds up the weekend’s endless antics with a look at some of the best crowd signs.
For over a year now, broadcast talent Jacky has been tweeting at the official Counter-Strike account daily to try and voice one of the in-game characters.
It should come at no surprise that the broadcast talent had the London crowd on his side, and Jacky even enlisted one fan to be involved in his 366th consecutive post.
Rocket League caster Adam ‘Craftman’ Stewart got his sportsmanlike sign onto the big screen, where the Friday crowd promptly booed at the idea of friendly competition…
With sole Englishman William ‘mezii’ Merriman eliminated in the semi-finals, the London crowd had to crown a new king to support for the weekend.
A phone screen still counts as a crowd sign, right? Natus Vincere’s Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen was chosen to become an honorary Brit, though perhaps this was a curse too, as the in-game leader’s side were also knocked out in the semi-finals.
More love for Aleksib was shown by Twitter user @tteokbeeokki, who gave the Navi leader his flowers and also paid tribute to Vitality’s Shahar ‘flameZ’ Shushan throughout the weekend.
There was plenty of support for Navi from the Wembley Arena crowd on Sunday, and while they did lose in the grand final 3-1 to Team Spirit, there were signs that tried to draw some sort of connection between the United Kingdom and the Ukrainian organisation.
English casters JustHarry and Hugo Byron were also given their flowers, just months after commentating on their first Major grand final at PGL Copenhagen Major 2024.
We were robbed of these iconic crowd signs due to Edeninho sitting too close to the pyrotechnics, which would have paid tribute to stalwart Epic.LAN and ESEA team ‘RossKempBald.’
See Edeninho and naia with the signs below:
Two English fans also channeled their love for the infamous Counter-Strike agent “Number K,” with a tongue in cheek crowd sign to complete the look. We’re not sure how comfortable the cosplayer on the left looks though…
One fan even pushed his luck by getting the Vitality players to sign a “Karrigan is a fraud” poster, which Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire found particually perculiar.
There were plenty of antics at the signing session, including a cheeky fan who got Mezii and co to put their signatures on his Pot Noodle (a snack brand that also sponsored the Blast Premier Spring Final).
Vitality were all too happy to scribble on whatever the fans wanted, whether it be crowd signs or cup noodles, and they were all smiles at the session after Vitality’s Blast Premier quarterfinal win on Friday.
After G2’s passport drama, coach TaZ’s return to Counter-Strike and their eventual group stage elimination, a fan in the crowd poked a bit of fun at the European roster.
Only one of our experts predicted G2 to finish into the top two and only one got Spirit winning the event correct too – here’s the recap on our full Blast Premier Spring Final predictions here.
Virtus Pro were the team to make a somewhat shocking run into the semi-finals at G2’s expense, so the London crowd had to embrace Dzhami ‘Jame’ Ali’s saving antics – one of the most meta crowd signs of the weekend.
Sunday brought us a lovely moment as two newly-wed fans shared their history on the big screen.
Watching Counter-Strike in the flesh for a honeymoon? It beats the Maldives or Bora Bora for us!
Swiftys, look away now.
There was plenty to do in Wembley last week as Counter-Strike took over the capital, including ESI London 2024 and a UKCS meetup at Boxpark arranged by the UKIC and charity community The Binmen.
The latter were dotted throughout the crowd all weekend and got their self-promoting crowd signs snapped – here’s oTYL3R sporting a sign promoting the Binmen:
Finally, with Sunday’s action taking place on Father’s Day, one cheeky onlooker admitted that his kids were waiting for him at home as he enjoyed the grand final at Wembley Arena.
Related article: How fans partied in London at the Blast Premier Spring Final 2024 with GG.BET
Reece is a sports journalist who has previously worked with the likes of BBC Radio Solent, Southern Daily Echo, Salisbury Radio, VAVEL and many more. He is currently studying a degree in Sports Journalism at Solent University.
