The BLAST.tv Austin Major is underway, with teams competing for a spot in Stage 3. So far, Legacy and Virtus.pro are the only teams to qualify, both with unbeaten records. Meanwhile, BetBoom and OG Esports, each with three losses, have been eliminated from the tournament.

In a match, the Falcons faced OG. Falcons led 9-3 on Dust II, but OG made a comeback and won 13-11. On Nuke, Falcons edged out OG 13-10. The final map, Mirage, saw the Falcons lead 8-4 at halftime and then win 13-6.

This result keeps Falcons in the fight for a new chance to qualify, but they still need another strong performance to reach Stage 3. Meanwhile, MIBR advanced by beating BetBoom 13-11 on Train and Anubis, eliminating BetBoom from the tournament. Only Legacy and Virtus.pro have secured their spots so far.

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B8 Esports won’t take part in the FISSURE Playground #1 Counter-Strike 2 tournament. The Ukrainian team backed out after a fan poll and concerns over the event’s links to Russian firms. One issue was BetBoom, a Russian betting company that works in Crimea. They also questioned the organiser, FISSURE, a Serbian company. As a Ukrainian team, B8 couldn’t participate while the war with Russia continued. 

Before deciding, B8 ran a fan poll on Telegram. About 52% voted to play, 33% voted no, and 15% were neutral. Still, the team chose to withdraw. Many fans criticised them for not following the results.

B8 admitted that skipping the event would cost them points in the Valve Ranking System (VRS), and other teams would gain them instead. The team will also miss a share of the $450,000 prize pool.

B8 wrote, ‘As a result, we will lose direct invites to the next tier-1 events, and therefore, we will lose all our achievements over the past six months.�/p>

B8 now focuses on the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025. They’ve beaten Team Falcons and HEROIC but lost to Virtus.pro. The Austin Major has a $1.25 million prize pool, almost three times more than FISSURE.

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