BLAST Rivals Monterrey moves to Copenhagen

Esports tournament organiser BLAST has announced it will move this month’s BLAST Premier Rivals event to Copenhagen, Denmark.

Originally planned to take place in Monterrey, Mexico, BLAST decided to move the tournament to the BLAST studios due to ‘unforeseen logistical challenges’.

“While we won’t be in Mexico this time, we look forward to returning in the near future,” the tournament organiser said in a post on X.

While the company didn’t specify which challenges, some users in the community have pointed out that issues might be related to the packed schedule between tournaments, with invites being announced too late for the event.

Before the start of BLAST Premier Rivals, top Counter-Strike teams will be taking part in IEM Melbourne that month. With the event ending on April 27th, it will make it logistically challenging for teams to fly from Australia to Mexico.

Aside from the troubles potentially caused to teams, the sudden change of venue has inevitably hurt fans who had planned to attend the LAN event, having already booked travel and accommodations.

“I don’t understand how BLAST can sell tickets in January, then with 30 days until the start of the event, just change continents. No apology has been offered to teams or fans that have already purchased flights, booked hotels, and applied for visas,” said a user on Reddit when commenting on the announcement.

The change will also indirectly hurt the Mexican city as it was expected to generate around $12.5m (~£10m) in economic benefits from the event, as well as the collaboration with Latin American esports organisation Liga Ace.

BLAST Premier Rivals is an eight-team tournament with a prize pool of $1m (~£804,150), featuring the top four teams in the Valve Global Ranking System (VRS) and four wildcard teams from four different regions. Teams, however, are yet to be confirmed.

The tournament will feature a best-of-three (BO3) GSL format to determine the six teams heading to the playoffs. The winner will not only take the prize pool but will also win two Frequent Flyers Program (FFP), which will count towards BLAST’s revenue share program of $2m (~£1.55m).