Fnatic and mousesports fire back at BLAST over CSGO Premier snub Members of both of the mousesports and Fnatic organizations are airing their grievances with BLAST Pro Series about the tournament organizer\u2019s comments regarding the teams\u2019 snubs from the upcoming 2020 BLAST Premier Series. BLAST Pro Series\u2019 upcoming premier series is a drastic shakeup to the formula that the organizer used in 2019. From two-day tournaments featuring mostly best-of-one series to a year-long league stretching along two seasons, fans were excited about the expanded format. But some fans weren\u2019t happy about which teams were included and which were left aside, and the teams that are forced to watch from home are even less happy about the reasons why. Both mousesports and Fnatic were left off the upcoming 2020 BLAST season, despite their strong showings toward the end of 2019, and the fact that they are currently ranked in the top three globally on HLTV. BLAST director Nicholas Estrup said the organizer wasn\u2019t \u201crelying on rankings\u201d to determine invites, and that an organization\u2019s future \u201clong-term play\u201d was a significant factor in decision-making. Members of both teams have taken extreme offense to those comments. Fnatic founder and CEO Sam Mathews retweeted the December 25 Dexerto article that covered the comments by BLAST\u2019s Estrup and provided his response to the matter. Mathews said he and the rest of Fnatic were surprised not to be included, and that \u2018seeing them [BLAST] publicly slate our org, the most storied in esports & a legacy in CS rivaled by few, is beyond disappointing.\u201d We’ve been staying private, obviously surprised by the choices of @BLASTProSeries in choosing not to add @Fnatic to the core. However seeing them publicly slate our org, the most storied in esports & a legacy in CS rivaled by few, is beyond disappointing. https:\/\/t.co\/m3K2bva5eA \u2014 Sam Mathews (@sammathews) December 26, 2019 Fnatic star Robin \u2018flusha\u2019 R\u00f6nnquist retweeted his CEO\u2019s sentiments, and the head coach Andreas Samuelsson replied with his comments as well, saying, \u201cWe are beyond disappointed not getting invited to blast. We have been quietly trying to understand, but nothing makes sense for us.\u201d We are beyond disappointed not getting invited to blast. We have been quiet trying to understand but nothing makes sense for us. “”thinking long term and not only of the rankings””??? That’s extremely rude to an organization with the legacy we have\u2026\u2026. https:\/\/t.co\/ZPf1jkL8TG \u2014 Andreas Samuelsson (@SamuelssonCSGO) December 26, 2019 Fnatic isn\u2019t alone in their frustrations. Members of mousesports aren\u2019t pleased about the exclusion either, including their press director Jan Dominicus, who said: \u201cThat they now think it\u2019s ok to question our \u201clong play\u201d in public is extremely irritating to me. We have fielded elite CS teams for 17 years with no plans to stop anytime soon, FYI.\u201d Totally agree on this. I havent lost a word on @BLASTProSeries and didnt ask for any explanation. That they now think its ok to question our “”long play”” in public is extremely irritating to me. We have fielded elite CS teams for 17 years with no plans to stop anytime soon fyi. https:\/\/t.co\/c6gDDWcFED \u2014 Jan Dominicus (@Jandominicus) December 27, 2019 It\u2019s hard not to understand where both organizations are coming from. Both teams have been competing in Counter-Strike for well over a decade, dating back to the 1.6 competitive days. Fnatic have been a team synonymous with success in CSGO specifically, having claimed three major championships while being a flagship franchise for the scene. While the point about rankings not being the most crucial thing to determine invites is understandable, it is still questionable to leave number 2 and number 3 at home. And it\u2019s easy to see how both Fnatic and mousesports would be insulted by a relatively new tournament organizer alleging that the teams aren\u2019t in it for the long haul despite over 15 years of activity in the scene. Not only are both teams winning now, but they have both indicated that they are indeed preparing for the future, with both rosters fielding youngsters with star potential in Fnatic\u2019s Ludvig \u2018Brollan\u2019 Brolin and mous\u2019 David \u2018frozen\u2019 \u010cer\u0148ansk\u00fd. The spring 2020 season for the BLAST Pro Series Premier circuit begins on January 31, 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fnatic and mousesports fire back at BLAST over CSGO Premier snub Members of both of the mousesports and Fnatic organizations are airing their grievances with BLAST Pro Series about the tournament organizer\u2019s comments regarding the teams\u2019 snubs from the upcoming 2020 BLAST Premier Series. BLAST Pro Series\u2019 upcoming premier series is a drastic shakeup to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}