The preview of BLAST Pro Series Lisbon 2018

BLAST Pro Series Lisbon 2018 is going to take place from 14 to 15 December in Portugal. In this material we will remind you about the features of the championship and tell you about the chances of winning.

General information

BLAST Pro Series Lisbon 2018 will be held in the capital of Portugal which is Lisbon. Six invited collectives will take part in the competition that will decide a prize pool of $250,000. All the participants are placed in one group with the Round Robin system and two of the best rosters will play at the Grand final. We should mark that the organizers of BLAST hold show-matches at their competition and this time it can be held in Danger Zone.

Holding place

The holding place of the competition has been chosen to be Altice Arena with the capacity of 20.000 seats. Altice Arena is a multi-purpose closed arena where music concerts, various exhibitions and sports competitions are held regularly.

Teams’ analysis

Natus Vincere (HLTV rating — #3)

The guys from Natus Vincere are the current champions of the tournament of BLAST series - the collective turned out to be the strongest at the competition in Copenhagen. Now Zeus and his team are not in their best shape as at ESL Pro League Season 8 - Finals the roster got placed on the 5-6 position, but the players were considered to be one of the favorites of the win. But “Born to Win” can have the same success as they had a month ago if they will treat this championship seriously and Astralis will not show their best game.

Natus Vincere's roster and the players’ rating for the past three months:

• Ioann “Edward” Sukhariev — 1.03
• Egor “flamie” Vasilyev — 1.04
• Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev — 1.34
• Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko — 0.93
• Denis “electronic” Sharipov — 1.21
• Mykhailo “kane” Blagin — coach

Astralis (HLTV rating — #1)

The guys from Astralis are the best team of this year for sure, as they managed to win nine major competitions and thanks to that they got a status “The Champiom of Intel Grand Slam Season 1” and got a money reward of $1,000,000 along with the other prize. The collective also won a tournament by BLAST - Dev1ce and the team were the strongest at BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018. At the last competition, ESL Pro League Season 8 - Finals, Astralis took the first place which proves their perfect shape. BLAST in Lisbon must be the last competition for glav1e and the team this year and we are sure that the collective will end the year successfully.

Astralis’ roster and the players’ rating for the three last months:

• Nicolai “device” Reedtz — 1.21
• Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth — 1.18
• Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen — 1.13
• Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander — 1.12
• Emil “Magisk” Reif — 1.15

Cloud9 (HLTV rating — #26)

Cloud9 have not been able to show their best results on the professional stage for a long time a day the last time when the collective was seen in Best Three at LAN finals approximately nine months ago. The organization have tried a lot of new players and they have got to the final roster, signing KioShiMa, but it didn't lead to any good result. At the moment Flusha and the team look like obvious pretenders for the last place but the roster had approximately three weeks to get prepared for BLAST, so the guys can surprise.

Cloud9's roster and the players’ rating for the last three months:

• Timothy “autimatic” Ta — 1.05
• Will “RUSH” Wierzba — 1.00
• Maikil “Golden” Selim — 1.01
• Robin “flusha” Rönnquist — 1.04
• Fabien “kioShiMa” Fiey — 0.97

FaZe Clan (HLTV rating — #5)

FaZe Clan had mixed results during this year but in autumn the guys started to play better. Maybe it is connected with the return of Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer. In November, the roster managed to win EPICENTER 2018 and to get to Three Best at IEM Chicago 2018, and after that the roster had approximately one month to get prepared for BLAST Pro Series Lisbon 2018. We should mark that now their in-game coordinator is Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, and if we take into account their time for preparation, we can say that the guys are to get to at least Three Best.

FaZe Clan's rating and the players’ rating for the last three months:

• Håvard “rain” Nygaard — 1.04
• Finn “karrigan” Andersen — 0.89
• Nikola “NiKo” Kovač — 1.17
• Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács — 1.04
• Olof “olofmeister ” Kajbjer — 1.02

MIBR (HLTV rating — #4)

The team performed well in autumn taking the second place at ECS Season 6 and the 3-4 position at ESL Pro League Season 6, but at BLAST Pro Series Lisbon 2018 the collective will have a substitute - Fer will not be present due to his ear surgery. Braxton “swag” Pierce will be performing for the Brazilians as a substitute. He has a great individual performance and looks like a good replacement. It's difficult to predict how FalleN and the team will perform at the upcoming competition as besides the substitute, there are rumors about their possible reshuffle in the Brazilian team.

MiBR's roster and the players’ rating for the last three months:

• Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo — 1.09
• Fernando “fer” Alvarenga — 1.10 (reserve)
• Marcelo “coldzera” David — 1.20
• Jacky “Stewie2k” Yip — 1.00
• Tarik “tarik” Celik — 0.98
• Braxton “swag” Pierce — 1.22 (substitute)

NiP (HLTV rating — #7)

NiP showed good results in autumn and they didn’t make any change in the roster so their chances of making it out of the group are very high. Last month the roster got a title of “vice-champions” ar BLAST Pro Series: Copenhagen 2018 and to get to Four Best at the LAN finals at ECS Season 6, which brought them the seventh position in HLTV rating and proves their good shape.

NiP’s roster and the players’ rating for the last three months:

• Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg — 1.13
• Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund — 1.12
• Fredrik “REZ” Sterner — 1.01
• Dennis “dennis” Edman — 1.00
• Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson — 1.01