BLAST has set the opening group-stage matchups for BLAST Open Porto, HLTV reports. The group stage will be played at the tournament organiser's studios in Copenhagen from August 26 to 31, narrowing a 16-team field down to six before the playoffs move to the Super Bock Arena in Porto, Portugal.
The field is drawn largely from the Esports World Cup. Ten of the teams competing in the EWC playoffs will travel to Copenhagen shortly after playing in Paris, and they are joined by M80, Lynn Vision, 9z and paiN, each of which was eliminated in the Esports World Cup group stage. DENDELE and Inner Circle, who fell short in the EWC open qualifier, round out the list.
Group A
Natus Vincere, Spirit and FURIA are the primary contenders for Group A's three playoff spots, according to HLTV. The group's headline opening fixture is Aurora against G2, a match between two sides that will expect to be in contention for the same places.
Group B
Group B opens with a lineup change at Vitality. Justinas "jL" Lekavicius will stand in for William "mezii" Merriman, who is stepping away for an event while on paternity leave. The Lithuanian's debut for the team comes against Inner Circle, one of the two open-qualifier casualties that made the field.
The rest of the group's opening slate pairs the remaining six teams:
- MOUZ against 9z
- Falcons against Lynn Vision
- FUT against Legacy
The format puts a premium on winning a group outright. The winner of each group advances directly to the semi-finals, while the runners-up and the third-placed teams that emerge from the lower bracket take the quarter-final places. With eight teams in each group and three playoff spots available in each, the Copenhagen stage will eliminate ten of the sixteen entrants before the event reaches Portugal.
The split venue is the other notable feature of the event. Playing the groups from a studio and reserving the arena for the playoffs keeps the Porto leg to the six teams still alive, and it compresses the turnaround for the ten EWC playoff sides moving from Paris to Copenhagen with little rest in between.
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