Blast Major Champion Predictions, Odds and Picks
Vitality
Fresh off a 3-0 grand-final domination (after the first map) over MOUZ at IEM Dallas, ZywOo and friends roll into Austin riding a 30-series win streak – six straight event trophies and an 83 % map win rate since February.
Everyone knows by now how impressive Vitality is, especially with the Estonian killer ropz. They have won everything since the start of February. It is an impressive stat in MR24 format, where little details and little swings could change the outcome of the matches in a heartbeat.
But streaks are made to be broken. If Vitality never felt any pressure, this is the time. They have been crowned unbeatable, and from now on, only winning is good enough. Is that burden too heavy to carry in the biggest tournament of the year, with every other team aiming their crosshairs at you?
We can’t have Vitality win again. The volatility in our beloved CS is just too high.
Vitality are offered maybe all-time low – 1.72 odds to win this tournament – and it is just too short. We’re banking on a little upset here.
Vitality roster:
apEX
ropz
flameZ
mezii
ZyWoo
The top 3 contenders for the French team
Team Spirit
Team Spirit was the hottest team of last year(?) — at least they earned by far the most prize money in 2024.
Spirit also took home the first title of the year, BLAST Bounty, and finished second to Vitality at IEM Katowice. People might be sleeping on Spirit a little bit here, since they didn’t attend IEM Dallas and had a couple of semi-final losses before convincingly claiming the title at PGL Astana. To be fair, none of the other top-5 teams attended. Still, they showed strong form heading into the Major.
Donk (the reigning Player Of The Year) brings hyper-aggressive entries, razor-sharp aim and amazing sense for such a young player. He will crack himself many oppositions. sh1ro is still one of the best AWPers in the game, but he has to have a stellar tournament to carry Spirit to the Title.
Spirit is truly a champion contender here and could dethrone Vitality even head-to-head in the Final. Team Spirit works tactically like a well oiled machine with chopper at the Joystick.
Of course there is a huge gap between Vitality and the rest. But the offered 5.50 odds are just too high — the skill difference is not that big.
Team Spirit roster:
donk
sh1ro
chopper
magixx
zont1x
Falcons
After a million years of despair for Team Falcons one day they just clicked and almost robbed a big title from “The Vitality” both in IEM Melbourne and BLAST Spring Final. Now they seem to be one of the three best squads in the world.
After bringing NiKo, they had a long, slothful period and even one of the greatest riflers ever could not make any impact. Kyxsan has been whining years now how they are in building mode after trying different players.
The same is happening just now after adding “god-mONESY”. Even already, they are proved to be top-dogs and it is scary for other teams to see how the machine will move in Austin when they have a couple weeks of boot camping and fixing the issues map to map and getting even more comfortable with the AWPer in the team.
While Falcons have never lifted a big trophy, their ceiling is sky-high with the current roster — and they’ve shown they can challenge the best.
Superstar trio of NiKo, mONESY and TeSeS could challenge every top three in the game. All of them sometimes have off-form performances, and the Falcons may be the most volatile team in the top 4. Right now everything has been going quite smoothly, but it is well-documented that NiKo can get very frustrated when things go south, and it reflects everyone’s performance.
Falcons success lies a lot too on magisk’s and kyxsan’s shoulders. While they both are capable of shooting heads, especially magisk has struggled from time to time anchoring the sites. If all five perform at a good level, every team should be afraid of the “big birds”.
While writing this pick we’re starting to get worried for the Falcons’ potential, but the bookmakers’ #2 spot and 4.00 odds are not getting the “hurrah” this time.
At those odds, Team Spirit or others might offer better value and more upside.
Falcons
Team Falcons roster:
Kyxsan
NiKo
TeSeS
Magisk
mONESY
MOUZ
Did you all see the “Jimmy’s” 1v5 clutch? If that x-factor will be brought by the Finn to Austin, there could be a conversation that MOUZ goes all the way at last. The team has been in many grand finals lately, but the young team doesn’t seem to have the grit to win. Even Vitality’s mezii said in the interview that MOUZ are playing better than them, but it’s in their heads — they just can’t cross the line against the French organization.
“Mice” pushed Vitality to overtime twice in Dallas groups; Jimpphat & xertioN match the French-Israeli riflers pound-for-pound. Also, if they hadn’t dropped the ball at their feet in the Grand Final’s first map, the whole match could have been different. Anyway, getting close against the world’s best shows that this team has potential.
MOUZ are the #4 favorite according to odds to claim the Major Title in Austin (6.50). The odds are tempting, but we may have to pass on it this time.
MOUZ roster:
Brollan
Jimpphat
xertioN
Spinx
torzsi