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BLAST Open Spring 2025 – Team Preview & Outright Betting Tips

By Tit Krajnik

17 Mar 2025

Tit Krajnik 17 Mar 2025

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BLAST Open Spring 2025 begins on Wednesday, March 19
16 Counter-Strike 2 teams vie for the lion's share of the $400,000 prize pool
Team Vitality and Team Spirit lead the way as the main favourites

BLAST Open Spring 2025

BLAST Open Spring 2025 is the fifth S-Tier Counter-Strike 2 esports tournament of the season and the second BLAST-organised event, following BLAST Bounty Spring 2025.

Can Anyone Stop Team Vitality and Team Spirit?
Outsiders, But No Less Dangerous

Hosted in Lisbon, Portugal, BLAST Open Spring 2025 will feature 16 Counter-Strike esports teams who will attend one of the most important tournaments of the season, albeit only two are viewed as the main threat for the title.

Can Anyone Stop Team Vitality and Team Spirit?

Coming into BLAST Open Spring 2025, there are two clear favourites to come out on top – Team Vitality and Team Spirit. Priced at 3.50 and 4.33 on the top betting sites, the two squads have shown enough since the turn of the year to be put in a class of their own.

Team Vitality head to Portugal, chasing their third consecutive tournament title. Having already won Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2025, Vitality added their second S-Tier trophy this week when they topped a stacked lineup of teams at ESL Pro League Season 21.

Vitality's dominance this season is not to be ignored, and fatigue could set in for the Bees; they're unquestionably the team to watch at BLAST Open Spring 2025 as massive favourites to take home the top prizes.

The list of teams that can challenge Vitality is not long, but it does include another serious threat to win the BLAST Open Spring 2025 trophy – Team Spirit.

The Russian outfit have, unlike Vitality, not won two tournament titles, but they came close to winning all three events they've attended this season.

A gold medal from BLAST Bounty Spring 2025, followed by a runner-up finish at Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2025, and a semifinal run at ESL Pro League Season 21 are three very good reasons to keep Spirit in your mind as potential BLAST Open Spring 2025 champions.

Admittedly, Spirit need their star player, Danil "donk" Kryshkovets, to step up if they wish to play at the peak of their capability. However, Spirit have shown they can be a threat even when donk is not doing all the heavy lifting.

Outsiders, But No Less Dangerous

Team Vitality and Team Spirit are billed as two clear favourites to win BLAST Open Spring 2025, yet the tournament will not lack other strong contenders who cannot be written off.

MOUZ are considered one of the betting outsiders to win the trophy in Lisbon, carrying a tag of 11.00 underdogs, which, considering their past results, does not make a lot of sense.

MOUZ had a rough start to the year, with early elimination from BLAST Bounty Spring qualifiers and a 13th-16th-place finish at Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2025. However, they have since won PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 and placed second in ESL Pro League Season 21.

Behind Spirit and Vitality, MOUZ have been the most impressive team of the year and definitely the most successful team over the last two months. They have outperformed the community's expectations before, and MOUZ can do it again.

Natus Vincere are another strong squad who are not expected to contest the trophy in Portugal. Perhaps the first statement is not entirely true, as it is easier to make a case for NaVi as one of the underdogs rather than the favourites.

Natus Vincere's results this season include:

BLAST Bounty Spring 2025 – 3rd-4th-place
Intel Extreme Masters 2025 – 3rd-4th
ESL Pro League Season 21 – 5th-8th

Not a terrible run by any means, with two semifinal appearances in Big Events. Both runs, however, ended with 0-2 losses against Team Spirit, so it is not easy to believe NaVi can make it past the Russian outfit if they end up meeting in Lisbon.

More concerning is NaVi's recent showing at ESL Pro League, which includes a loss to SAW (1-2), a very close victory against TYLOO (2-1), and a quarterfinal elimination at the hands of The MongolZ (0-2).

Playoffs should be the minimum goal for Natus Vincere and their BLAST Open Spring 2025 campaign. Anything beyond that does not seem likely.

G2 Esports and The MongolZ are two other teams worth mentioning as dark horses to surprise in BLAST Open Spring 2025.

Much like Natus Vincere, neither have proven they can dance with the best, but both teams have done well enough in previous Big Events to warrant some respect.

With a semifinal run at BLAST Bounty Spring 2025 and a quarterfinal appearance at ESL Pro League Season 21 for G2, and two top-four finishes at IEM Katowice and ESL Pro League for MongolZ.

What about Astralis? The former most dominant team in the world and still the most decorated Counter-Strike team in the world with four Major titles, have fallen on hard times and are only a shadow of their former selves. Well, they have been since 2019.

Nevertheless, Astralis showed some signs of life earlier this season, with a third-place finish at PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025. A minor success but a sign that Astralis are moving in the right direction.

It is fair to argue that Astralis are not quite at 100%, or even close, so we can expect them to struggle to compete with the top teams attending BLAST Open Spring 2025, but they need a good run to book their tickets for BLAST Austin Major, and we know Astralis have the tools to surprise.

Verdict

BLAST Open Spring 2025

If you're looking to back a firm favourite, Team Vitality are hard to look past. Even at 3.50, they are an appealing bet purely off the fact that they've been unstoppable since IEM Katowice 2025, and they've yet to show any signs of slowing down.

Fatigue could set in at one point, but with a lineup of experienced and elite-tier players, it is hard to believe this will affect them too much on their quest to add another trophy to their resume.

Among the outsiders, MOUZ are a clear choice in my book. Priced at 11.00, MOUZ are considered the seventh-most-likely team to win the event, despite placing 1-2 in the last two S-Tier tournaments. While they do not have the results of Spirit and Vitality or the star names of some other teams, MOUZ have proven doubters wrong before, and they can do it again.

Team Vitality To Win

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MOUZ To Reach Finals

To Reach The Final

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