All news: BLAST

Tournament operator BLAST, formerly RFRSH Entertainment, was founded in 2016. Since 2019, it has been renamed to BLAST. Since 2019, the CEO of the company has been Robert Marc Douek.

Series of tournaments BLAST Pro Series

Since 2020, the main development vector for BLAST has been the production of BLAST Premier tournaments. Championships under the auspices of BLAST quickly took their place among the most sought-after competitive Counter-Strike in the world.

The first championship held by BLAST under the new name took place in November 2017. It was named BLAST Pro Series: Copenhagen.

The first BLAST Pro Series was played by 6 top-class teams: Astralis, FaZe Clan, G2 Esports, Ninjas in Pajamas, North and SK Gaming. The victory at BLAST Pro Series: Copenhagen was celebrated by SK Gaming, and he himself launched not the longest, but the most intense league.

Later, 10 more tournaments were held under the auspices of the BPS. The minimum prize fund played within the BLAST Pro Series was $250,000, and therefore attracted title clubs. At various times, SK, Astralis, NAVI, FaZe Clan, Team Liquid, ENCE and others became BPS champions.

The latest BPS tournament hosted by BLAST was BLAST Pro Series: Global Final 2019. Astralis became the champion of the $500,000 major event.

BLAST and BLAST Premier

In 2020, BLAST is rebranding its main esports asset. The BLAST Pro Series is being replaced by BLAST Premier.

At first, BLAST Premier championships were held in two regions: Europe and America. Like BPS, they attracted big players in the competitive scene.

The first tournament of the BLAST Premier series was BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 Regular Season. Later, the “blast” ecosystem grew: in the first year of the existence of the series, 9 championships out of 11 planned were held. BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 Showdown and BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 have been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Natus Vincere became the winner of the first championship from BLAST for 1,000,000. Subsequently, the Ukrainian club will become a permanent resident of the BLAST Premier series championships and a multiple champion of various types of tournaments.

In 2021, BLAST are transitioning their league to a franchise model. Now partner teams will play in tournaments held by the Danish organization. The league had 12 partners, among which were the strongest teams in the world: Astralis, BIG, Complexity, Evil Geniuses, FaZe Clan, G2 Esports, MIBR, NAVI, Ninjas in Pajamas, OG, Team Liquid, Team Vitality.

In addition to partner clubs, other teams also participated in the tournaments. They qualified for the BLAST: Showdown championships through qualifiers and victories in local tournaments.

The BLAST franchise model was successful due to the active cooperation of the tournament operator with other big players in the competitive scene. BLAST has partnered with ESL, PGL and others to reward teams in other major tournaments with invitations to the BLAST Premier. Thus, the champions of ESL Pro League, IEM Rio Major and PGL Major Antwerp will play at BLAST Premier: Global Final.

BLAST investment

The organization actively participated in the life of eSports teams. At various times, BLAST held assets in Norse, GODSENT, Heroic and Astralis.

In addition, BLAST owns BLAST Tech Aps. The company specializes in the production of software and other IT technologies that are used to develop the organization's main esports asset - the BLAST Premier series of tournaments.

To organize tournaments and produce events, BLAST actively attracts Danish and international investors. In 2016, 4 million euros were invested in the company, in 2017 another 7.2 million, in 2018 200 million Danish crowns were invested in BLAST.

In November 2018, BLAST received another 10 million euros in investments, followed by another 12.5 euros and 14.8 million DKK in 2020.

As of 2020, BLAST's capital was valued at DKK 121,099,367. In 2020, the company's turnover was DKK 47,811,496 and the net profit was estimated at DKK 85,596,516.