by The 2022 BLAST Premier World Final will be the final event of 2022, with eight of the world’s best Counter-Strike teams battling it out over four days of competition at the Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Of the US$1 million prize pool, the winner will take home half, while the runner-up will receive a $250,000 cheque for making the grand final.
Of the eight teams at the BLAST Premier World Final, we will have both the PGL Major and IEM Rio Major winners, FaZe Clan and Outsiders, along with the BLAST Premier Spring Final and BLAST Premier Fall Final winners, Natus Vincere and Heroic. The ESL Pro League Season 16 champions, Team Vitality, also qualified, while G2 Esports, OG and Team Liquid booked their places at the World Final due to their position on the BLAST Leaderboard.
Esports betting sites have FaZe Clan as their market favourite at +300, with Outsiders (+350), Heroic, Natus Vincere (both +400), and Team Vitality (+600) rounding out the teams marked under double figures.
Best Bet: FaZe Clan – +300
Heroic are resting Martin “stavn” Lund and playing with a stand-in, ex-Astralis rifler Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke. Natus Vincere are taking a substitute, Andrii “npl” Kukharskyi, who is expected to play some maps throughout during their World Final run, while OG and G2 Esports are in shocking form coming into the final event of the year.
FaZe and Outsiders would have to be the two in-form teams that aren’t making roster changes or resting any players at the World Final. Due to these factors and considering FaZe Clan have won IEM Katowice, IEM Cologne, ESL Pro League Season 15 and PGL Major Antwerp, they deserve to be favourites.
FaZe Clan will enter the BLAST Premier World Final as the favourite after their runner-up finish at the BLAST Premier Fall Finals at the end of November. At +300 with esports betting sites, we are getting a great price for a team looking for their first World Final success.
After being knocked out early in the IEM Rio Major, FaZe entered to the BLAST Premier Fall Final with a heightened level of determination to show everyone that their underwhelming performance was just a hiccup. Led by the Fall Final MVP, Helvjis “broky” Saukants, FaZe finished second, losing to Heroic 1-2 in a very tight best-of-three series.
If FaZe Clan iron out a few more kinks and turn up in Abu Dhabi with a similar focus, they will be extremely hard to beat. Their first game will be against G2 Esports on Wednesday at 13:00 GST.
