BIG partners with BLAST Premier

The German team BIG has signed a partnership agreement with BLAST and will participate in the next season of the Premier League. This is announced on the tournament operator's official website.

Robbie Douek, CEO of BLAST, said: “BIG are highly respected in the industry and have been one of the most successful esports organisations over the past 12 months – making them the perfect addition to BLAST Premier as a Member Team. Last year’s highly successful circuit came to a record-breaking conclusion on Sunday and we are excited for BIG to be a part of our plans for 2021 as we continue to deliver world-class Counter-Strike to all corners of the world.

“We undertook an in-depth and extensive process when selecting BIG for our latest Member Team, the scope and level of interest and investment for this final slot is testament to the incredible growth and success of BLAST Premier over the last 12 months.”

The BLAST Premier circuit is one of the most competitive tournaments on the CS:GO scene with 11 of the 12 Member Teams currently ranked in the top 20 world rankings. BLAST Premier Member Teams include: Astralis, NiP, G2 Esports, OG, Vitality, NAVI, FaZe Clan, Complexity, Team Liquid, MiBR, Evil Geniuses and BIG. The draw for the Spring Groups and schedule will be announced for next month’s event on Thursday.

Daniel Finkler, CEO of BIG, said: “We are incredibly proud and excited to be a part of BLAST Premier as a Member Team. The successful acquisition is an indication of our outstanding development in the past years. We have clearly established ourselves among the world’s best teams thanks to our team’s hard work and people working behind the scenes.

“The tournament series BLAST has created in recent years is one of the most-watched, entertaining and competitive in Counter-Strike, and we look forward to competing alongside some of the world’s best teams in the upcoming seasons as a Member Team. At this point, we want to thank our investor Marc Staperfeld, who shared our ambition and supported us tremendously with the buy-in fee during the highly competitive bidding process.”

One of the slots on the BLAST Premier partner team roster remained vacant following 100 Thieves' decision to leave the CS:GO competitive scene last October. The North American organization dropped the roster, the core of which is currently represented by EXTREMUM.

BLAST Premier's full list of partner teams:

 Astralis
 Vitality
 NAVI
 BIG
 Liquid
 OG
 G2
 Complexity
 FaZe
 Evil Geniuses
 NiP
 MIBR

The spring season of BLAST Premier 2021 starts on February 4. In the first stage of the championship all 12 partner teams take part, the best of them pass directly to the final part, and the outsiders have to compete with the guest teams in the Showdown tournament. The total prize pool for BLAST Premier Spring 2021 is $737,500.