BLAST Pro Series Madrid: preview
The event starts on May 10th!
From May 10 to 11, 
NAVI.GG.BET will play at BLAST сhampionship, which will be held in Madrid this time. Let's see what we should expect from BLAST Pro Series Madrid.
A distinctive feature of BLAST tournaments is that their organizers are constantly experimenting with venues for competitions. So, twice BLAST made a stop in Copenhagen, in other cases the games were held in Istanbul, Miami, Sao Paulo and Lisbon. Madrid and Los Angeles are waiting for their turn.
The venue for the BLAST Pro Series Madrid will be the multifunctional complex Madrid Arena, which was opened in July 2002. The capacity of the arena is about 12,000 spectators.
Unlike the previous tournaments of the series, the winner of the Iberian Play-in qualifying stage will perform in Madrid — 
Movistar Riders and 
Giants Gaming will contest the ticket. In addition, NAVI, 
NiP, 
Cloud9, 
Astralis and 
ENCE received a direct invite. The prize fund of the competition will be $ 250,000.
Let's recall the format of the BLAST tournaments. In the group stage of the championship we will see Round-Robin: each team will play one game with the rest. At the end of the group stage, the two best teams will make it into the grand finals, which will be a Bo3.
In addition, a special show match will be held at the BLAST Pro Series Madrid with an additional $ 20,000 prize. The team that takes the third place in the group will choose an opponent from the three remaining teams. The format of the meeting will include five duels 1 vs 1.
Now let's take a look at the group stage of the tournament and the rivals of our team. On the first game day NAVI has two matches - with ENCE and Cloud9. The starting match promises to be interesting: the Finnish five is definitely the discovery of 2019 and one of the main contenders for the championship title in Madrid. The latest LAN-tournament for ENCE was StarSeries S7, where the Finns reached the quarter-finals and lost to our guys with a score of 1:2. It will be interesting to see whether ENCE benefited from a break - a month without LAN tournaments.
| Teams | Match start time (CEST) | Match page |
|---|---|---|
| May 10th | ||
| NAVI.GG.BET00 ENCE |
20:45 | |
| NAVI.GG.BET00Cloud9 |
22:15 | |
| May 11th | ||
| NAVI.GG.BET00Astralis |
15:00 | |
| NAVI.GG.BET00Movistar / Giants |
16:20 | Watch |
| NAVI.GG.BET00NiP |
17:40 | |
The final meeting of the day will be with Cloud9. The first test for the new “cloud” team was the BLAST Pro Series Miami, and the guys did not deal with it well: they took the last place and did not earn any points. In addition, Cloud9 ers did not use the chance to reach the final part of the ECS S7, losing to 
INTZ (0: 2). Thus, Cloud9 has the last opportunity to realize its plans. At ESL Pro League S9, things also went wrong, and in the near future, “clouds” will try to get the coveted ticket to the LAN in the second qualifying round.
As for BLAST Pro Series Madrid, on the second game day, the teams will move to the arena and perform in front of an army of thousands of fans! Potentially, besides the three remaining matches of the group stage, NAVI could have the final Bo3 on the same day.
The first rival will be the best team in the world — Astralis. The failed performance of the Danes in Miami, where they finished fourth (they earned six points on the first day, zero points on the second), did not prevent them from successfully playing ESL Pro League S9 Europe and making it to the LAN tournament, finishing first in Group D. But, Astralis their winning streak on Inferno - nineteen matches (the best series in the history of the map). On the other hand, the Danish team remained undefeated on Nuke, as their streak hits 30.
The next opponent of the yellow-black will be the winner of the Iberian Play-in - Movistar Riders or Giants Gaming. The group stage will conclude with the match of NAVI and NiP. After Dennis returned to the main squad, it took them a while to reach a good level of play. As a result, the Swedish team had a bad run at ESL Pro League S9 Europe: it took the last place in Group B, which puts it on the line — they will have to fight to retain their place in the upper league. However, a ray of hope appeared on the horizon during IEM Sydney, where NiP reached the quarterfinals and lost to fnatic in a dramatic derby (1: 2). We’ll see if the Ninjas will keep the momentum in Madrid.
We hope that NAVI productively used the bootcamp in Spain and adequately prepared for the competitions in May - BLAST Pro Series Madrid and the second round of ESL Pro League S9 Europe. We believe Natus Vincere will fight for the championship in Madrid, and make it into the LAN finals of ESL Pro League! #NAVINATION
