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Victorious Vitality, fighting Falcons, and a fizzling FaZe.
BLAST Rivals Spring saw eight teams battle for supremacy in the confines of the BLAST Studio in Copenhagen, Denmark — and at yet another event this year, the level of CS2 played was out of this world.
The CS2 scene is as healthy as it gets with top teams all vying for the opportunity to bring down the juggernauts that have ascended to godly status, with Vitality joining the pantheon of the best teams to ever play the esport.
Here’s our Good, Bad, and Ugly moments from BLAST Rivals Spring 2025!
The Good: A new rivalry for the ages…
Fans got exactly what they wanted with BLAST Rivals Spring: An epic rematch ofIEM Melbourne’s best-of-five finalbetween Vitality and Falcons. Not only did we get five maps again, but Falcons continue to push Vitality to their limits.
Falcons broke the 14-match streak on Inferno to open the series with a win, then came back from 2-1 down with the overtime victory on Mirage. Sure, Nuke wasn’t a triple-overtime banger this time around — with Vitality dispatching Falcons in regulation — but the gap between the two continues to narrow!
Vitality’s streak continues at BLAST Rivals Spring 2025: 25 matches, 5 trophies
In a back-and-forth grand final, Vitality defeated Falcons. Individual mastery and team tactics were mind-blowing: for both teams.
Eugene Bozhenko
This sets up the pair for a two-team rivalry the likes of which we haven’t seen in CS in some time. Both will missPGL Astana, meaning the next time we could see them play head-to-head will be at IEM Dallas on May 19.
After that, it’s the Austin Major. Imagine a final that goes all five… no sorry, three maps… Valve, there’s still time to make the final a best-of-five — a rivalry like this deserves it!
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The drawback of the epic final was the lack of atmosphere around the final, there’s no better way of saying it. We witnessed how epic this Vitality and Falcons rivalry is in front of a full crowd but to have it locked away in a darkened studio certainly killed the vibe.
BLAST more than made up for it on the broadcast front. Over a million concurrent viewers turned in to catch the grand final according toEsports Charts— a record for a non-Major BLAST event.
Average viewership was high as well, with over 300,000 watching every game on average, and 12.3 million watch hours were recorded over the short eight-team tournament. The more laidback approach to the rest of the broadcast worked in BLAST’s favor, with the brilliant crew of talent helping to keep viewers invested.
The final just lacked theelectricity of the Rod Laver Arenalast week. Here’s hoping BLAST looks into a live audience in some way for future Rivals events, especially if the top four attending make the semis. Even if it’s an EPL-style audience of 2,000 or less, it’d go a long way!
The Ugly: Pull the plug, FaZe
We must reiterate the same points made from ourIEM Melbourne recap last weekin the case of FaZe. Can we expect to see FaZe make a deep run at the Austin Major in their current state? The answer is surely “no,” so roster changes must be considered, right?
The nature of the BLAST Rivals format meant FaZe did make the playoffs here in Copenhagen, but6th in an eight-team eventand with several wildcard invites attending isn’t a good look.
It would also have helped if their losses to the top teams were competitive, but theblowout to MOUZ here on Miragestings. It’s looking likePGL Bucharest’s third-place finishwas just an anomaly for FaZe, but even there they didn’t beat any current top 10 team.
The writing’s on the wall for FaZe. Will changes be made before Dallas, or will they rest on their laurels for Austin — then blow the team up in July?
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