Four of the six spots for BLAST Rivals Hong Kong 2026 after the opening day of the event, which shockingly saw Spirit get 13-0’d by FUT with a stand-in, but progress nonetheless.
The Counter-Strike tournament is the final Tier 1 tournament before the start of the PGL Singapore Major 2026, which starts on November 24.
Spirit progress at BLAST Rivals Hong Kong despite 0-13 loss on Nuke
FURIA were the first in the competition to make the playoffs after defeating Legacy 13-10, 13-7 in a messy contest that saw Kaike ‘KSCERATO’ Cerato emerge as the difference maker in the battle of the Brazilians.
Vitality joined them in the playoffs after dispatching Falcons upon Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire’s return to action for Vitality after the birth of his child.
The Frenchman consistently chirped at the Falcons players as Vitality recovered from losing leads on both Anubis and Dust 2 to get over the line 13-10, 13-10.
Spirit progressed, as expected, after the news that FUT’s IGL Aulon ‘Krabeni’ Fazlija would miss the event due to Visa issues. FUT, playing with their coach András ‘coolio’ Fercsák, however, stunned Spirit on map 2 of Nuke, winning 13-0 against a stunned Spirit roster who laughed off the experience before converting Ancient 13-5 to progress with a 2-1 series win.
The last series of the day saw G2 upset IEM Beijing 2026 champions, MOUZ, in a 2-1 victory which saw them recover from a map deficit to close the series out on Ancient and Inferno.
Final two BLAST Rivals Hong Kong 2026 Playoff spots to be decided
BLAST’s format is an eight-team event with a six-team playoff, so only two teams don’t make the playoffs for the Hong Kong event.
Therefore, teams only needed to win their opening matchup to guarantee being in the playoffs. The winning teams will now contest the decider for who progresses directly to the semi-finals and who will have to start the playoffs in the quarter-finals.
The losing rosters have one final chance to make the playoffs in the elimination matches, which will decide the final two teams to make the quarter-finals of the event.
The Upper Finals will be:
- FURIA vs Vitality
- Spirit vs G2
The elimination matches will be:
- Falcons vs Legacy
- FUT vs MOUZ
Will Falcons recover to make the Playoffs? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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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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