Things are getting heated as one of the best CSGO events in Europe is slowly but surely approaching. Many teams have tried very hard to secure their participation, and there is still some hope left for those who did not.

Locked And Loaded – The Participants

There are still three regional qualifiers for the approaching Spring Showdown.

Some of the big tournaments like TWR Eastern European Masters, the RTP Arena Cup, and Pelaajat.com Nordic Masters have all ended, with the Copenhagen Flames, Bad News Eagles, and Movistar Riders taking first place in their respective competitions and earning spots in the European division of the BLAST Spring Showdown.

The group stage of the Iberian RTP Arena Cup went mostly as expected, with all of the favorites progressing to the playoffs. The Movistar Riders struck a snag when they lost to OFFSET in the leaders’ match, but they quickly rebounded versus team Rhyno to schedule a playoff series versus SAW.

The Qualifiers

Movistar Riders edged out a victory in the second overtime on the third map in the semifinals between both Iberian giants. The completely Spanish squad met 00NATION, who qualified from the closed qualifier, in the final. However, the majority of the Brazilian squad was unable to win the event, and the favorites finally prevailed, with Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia and his team earning a berth in the BLAST Showdown.

This year’s TWR Eastern European Masters had a high level of team parity, thus while SKADE came in as the top-ranked team, most of the teams were on the same level, making the eventual winner difficult to predict. The group stage was not kind to Bad News Eagles, as they were defeated in overtime by SKADE and barely managed to beat Nexus 16-14 in the group final.

While Bad News Eagles had little trouble dispatching SINNERS in the playoffs, SKADE had to battle Eternal Fire for a long time to win the match in the semifinals. The final showdown between the best teams from Kosovo and Bulgaria was a close one as well, with the organization-less side coming triumphant despite Georgi “SHiPZ” Grigorov’s heroic effort.

Hellslayers, the new Swedish squad led by Robin “flusha” Rönnquist and Jesper “JW” Wecksell, is certainly the greatest story from the highly anticipated Nordic Masters event. The new mix started the group stage on a high note, defeating both ECSTATIC and Dignitas to qualify for the playoffs.

Similarly, Copenhagen Flames finished first in their bracket after two highly competitive victories over DREAM and KOVA. Both the Copenhagen Flames and the Hellslayers dominated their matches in the semifinals, setting up a fascinating final between the heavy favorites and the surprise underdogs.

On map one, the Swedes won early, and on map two, they came back from a nine-round deficit to force overtime. Hellslayers, on the other hand, couldn’t maintain their momentum and, after falling in overtime, couldn’t claw their way back into the game on map three, forcing the Danish team into the Showdown.

Down below is the list of qualified participants for this year’s BLAST Spring Showdown Europe: