FaZe Clan will debut with their new signing, jcobbb, against ECSTATIC at 17.00 CEST.
The upcoming BLAST Open London, featuring a 6-team bracket, will hold its qualifying group stage starting today.
The tournament will be played at the OVO Wembley Arena from September 5th to 7th of this year.
Online group stage with VRS impact
The group stage will be held fully online, contrary to what BLAST had originally planned.
This would normally reduce the VRS impact of the group stage, however, Valve granted a VRS exception to this tournament.
Team Liquid is currently on the borderline of qualifying for the next major, currently outside the threshold to qualify.
They have thankfully been able to take a spot at this tournament after EWC winners, TheMongolZ, dropped out due to visa issues.
Format
The group stage will feature a group stage identical to that of IEM Cologne and Katowice.
There are two groups, each with a double-elimination bracket. The top three teams from the group, i.e. the top two from the upper bracket along with the winner of the lower bracket, advance to the playoffs.
The sole winner of each group, decided by the upper bracket final, will benefit from a bye, skipping directly to the semi-finals of the tournament.
Opening matchups
The opener to the tournament will feature Team Vitality against M80. The latter is coming off just winning their NA ESL Challenger League final today, and will have to face the 7-time champion this year.
The other matchups are:
14.30 GamerLegion vs Virtus.pro
17.00 FaZe vs ECSTATIC
19.30 Natus Vincere vs Fnatic
