FURIA, Liquid secure final BLAST Premier Global Finals spots

The two North America-based squads round out the list of teams attending the $1 million tournament from January 18-24.

The final two teams that will attend the BLAST Premier Global Finals have been determined via the BLAST leaderboard, a ranking system that takes into account teams' performances in a series of top events that have taken place in 2020, including those hosted by ESL and Flashpoint.

Astralis, Complexity, Vitality, and Evil Geniuses had earned their spots at the event through top placements in the Spring and Fall finals for Europe and North America, while Natus Vincere and G2 both hold considerable leads on the BLAST leaderboard, assuring them of their own spots at the event.

As such, five teams were left in contention for the last two spots heading into the IEM Global Challenge - FURIA, OG, Liquid, BIG, and HEROIC.

Liquid's win over BIG put them over the line for a spot at the Global Finals

The hopes of Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen's troops lay solely in the failure of the four teams taking part in the event as OG would not have a chance to garner any additional points of their own, and those hopes briefly bloomed as HEROIC were handed an early exit from the tournament in the group stage, putting the Danish squad out of the race.

However, OG's slim chances quickly dwindled as Liquid and BIG both secured playoff berths, putting them in close contention to take spots at the top of the leaderboard. The German roster were the sole squad among the five that required an absolute tournament victory in the IEM Global Challenge in order to secure their spot, but had their own hopes dashed as Liquid dispatched of them in a two-map series in the semi-finals.

That win, in turn, earned Liquid their spot in the Global Finals, and also assured FURIA a slot as BIG and OG would no longer be able to surpass them in points, completing the team list for the $1 million, eight-team event.

The list of qualified teams that will attend the event, taking place in early 2021 from January 18-24, is as follows:

Complexity - BLAST Premier Spring Europe Finals
Vitality - BLAST Premier Spring Europe Finals
Evil Geniuses - BLAST Premier Spring NA Finals
Natus Vincere - BLAST leaderboard
Astralis - BLAST Premier Fall Finals
G2 - BLAST leaderboard
FURIA - BLAST leaderboard
Liquid - BLAST leaderboard

BIG #5 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzTizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschFlorian 'syrsoN' RischeIsmailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşNils 'k1to' Gruhne Natus Vincere #3 Egor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovKirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovIlya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy Vitality #1 Richard 'shox' PapillonCédric 'RpK' GuipouyDan 'apEX' MadesclaireMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautKévin 'misutaaa' Rabier Evil Geniuses #15 Peter 'stanislaw' JarguzTarik 'tarik' CelikVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Complexity #11 Justin 'jks' SavageWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaKristian 'k0nfig' WieneckeValentin 'poizon' VasilevBenjamin 'blameF' Bremer Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen Age: 23 Team: OG Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 821 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.66 HEROIC #4 Casper 'cadiaN' MøllerJohannes 'b0RUP' BorupNikolaj 'niko' KristensenMartin 'stavn' LundRené 'TeSeS' Madsen Liquid #17 Keith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipRussel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenMichael 'Grim' Wince G2 #8 Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNemanja 'huNter-' KovačKenny 'kennyS' SchrubFrançois 'amanek' DelaunayNemanja 'nexa' Isaković Astralis #2 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif FURIA #6 Henrique 'HEN1' TelesAndrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoKaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato OG #7 Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittValdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenIssa 'ISSAA' MuradMateusz 'mantuu' Wilczewski