Tier 1 Counter-Strike turns its focus towards the United States of America as it prepares for its mini-NA swing with BLAST Rivals Fort Worth and IEM Atlanta in quick succession.
While IEM Atlanta will see Counter-Strike leave its traditional US heartland, BLAST Rivals Fort Worth takes place on familiar ground in Texas, where BLAST hosted its Austin Major in 2025.
The tournament will see eight teams, invited purely via VRS standings, compete for the BLAST Rivals trophy over a rapid-fire six days of CS action.
BLAST Rivals Fort Worth Schedule and Format
The BLAST Open Rotterdam will unfold towards the end of March, culminating in a grand final on March 29. Here’s the full schedule:
- April 29-May 3
- Group stage: April 29-30
- Playoffs: May 1-3
The format is typical of BLAST eight-team events, with six of the eight teams advancing from groups to the playoffs. The winner of each four-team group will advance directly to the Semi-Finals.
Group Stage:
- Two groups of four teams, double-elimination.
- The top team from each group advances directly to the semi-finals.
- Group runners-up and lower-bracket winners advance to the quarter-finals.
- All matches are best-of-three.
Playoffs:
- All matches are best-of-three, except the Grand Final, which is a best-of-five.
- Six-team single-elimination bracket.
BLAST Rivals Fort Worth Teams
BLAST Rivals Fort Worth, like IEM Atlanta, faced several invitation rejections from the top teams. Falcons, Spirit, MOUZ, Aurora, Parivision, and The MongolZ all declined invitations, with Visa issues being a potential barrier.
Despite that, BLAST Fort Worth did attract several of the most-supported teams in Counter-Strike. The BLAST Rivals Fort Worth Teams are:
- Vitality
- FURIA
- NAVI
- Astralis
- G2
- FaZe
- GamerLegion
- FUT
The opening matchups have been revealed by BLAST. They are:
Group A:
- Vitality vs FUT
- Astralis vs G2
Group B:
- NAVI vs FaZe
- FURIA vs GamerLegion
Prize Pool:
BLAST Rivals Fort Worth features a $1,000,000 total prize pool, but its distribution is highly skewed towards Club Share, which is directly awarded to organizations.
- Prize Pool: $1,000,000
- Club Share: $650,000
- First place: $250,000 ($125,000 of which is Club Share)
BLAST Rivals Fort Worth Location
BLAST Rivals Fort Worth will be played in full in Fort Worth, Texas. The playoffs will see fans attend the Dickies Arena in Forth Worth.
Unusually for BLAST, the stage will be in the centre of the arena as part of a 360 set-up.
How to Watch BLAST Rivals Fort Worth 2026
BLAST Open Rotterdam 2026 can be watched on BLAST Premier’s channels across platforms on Twitch, YouTube, and BLAST’s own platform:
BLAST Rivals Fort Worth 2026 Predictions
You know what they say? Counter-Strike is a game where 10 people enter the server, play between two and five maps, and in the end, Vitality wins.
Vitality are the unstoppable force at the top of Counter-Strike, and there is no immovable object to challenge them.
Truly, there is little hope of a shock upset at BLAST Rivals that deprives Vitality of another trophy, but there are still intriguing storylines to delve into elsewhere, like ‘who will come second?’
After a Semi-Final run at their home event at IEM Rio, Furia seem best-placed to challenge Vitality again.
The two played out a competitive series in Rio, but the pressure of delivering at Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo’s last Brazilian Tier 1 tournament seemed to wilt the team, especially young AWPer Danil ‘molodoy’ Golubenko.
The pressure will be less fierce in front of a largely nonpartisan NA crowd, but they also threaten to revert to their pre-IEM Rio form, which severely struggled on the T-side.
FUT returns to Tier 1 after their PGL Bucharest 2026 victory. The young roster was formerly the core of NAVI Junior, NAVI’s academy team.
With one trophy each this year, PGL Bucharest and ESL Pro League Season 23, respectively, FUT are on pace to challenge their once senior team, showing rapid and continuous progression against Tier 1 teams.
NAVI themselves have been making strides, but are generally helpless against Vitality, as displayed by their IEM Rio Quarter-Final elimination.
The team is playing more solid CS than at any time since StarLadder Budapest 2025, but still lacks star power despite Drin ‘makazze’ Shaqiri’s immense growth individually.
Astralis have also shown strong signs of growth, and start in an interesting matchup against G2, who showed positive signs at IEM Rio despite fielding a stand-in.
FaZe will start against NAVI in their first contest since the departure of Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen to Falcons. Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken described the news as “sudden” to the roster.
In losing a core piece of FaZe’s identity, it is hard to see FaZe assert themselves so early after the loss of their captain.
FaZe are expected to field French rifler Ryan ‘Neityu’ Aubry in the meantime, with French leaker neL sharing that Twistzz will also take over IGLing duties in the interim.
Predicted winner: Team Vitality
Who do you think will finish second at BLAST Rivals Fort Worth? Discuss that on our Discord.
For more CS news, see why German player MAUschine slapped his opponent at a local LAN.
Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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