Winstrike to host CIS qualifier for BLAST Spring Showdown; invites announced

Spirit, EXTREMUM, Nemiga, and Winstrike were handed spots at the tournament which will take place on March 19-21.

Following the announcement of regional qualifiers for North America, Latin America, and Western Europe, details regarding the CIS-based tournament, which will give out an invite to BLAST Premier Spring Showdown, have been unveiled.

The tournament is run by Winstrike, who cooperated with BLAST on the 2020 CIS Cup and BLAST Pro Series Moscow 2019. Among invited teams is Winstrike's CS:GO roster, ranked 22nd in the world, as well as the Australian side EXTREMUM, whose organization is based in Russia.

The Australians will be fighting CIS sides for a spot in the Showdown

The final two invited teams are Nemiga, the Belarussian side that peaked at No.21 in the rankings late in 2020, and Spirit, who entered the top 10 of the world rankings after impressing in DreamHack Open January and IEM Katowice earlier this year.

Four additional teams will earn their spots in the Winstrike CIS Spring Cup, scheduled for March 19-21, through an open qualifier taking place on Friday, March 12.

The team list for Winstrike CIS Cup is as follows:

Spirit
EXTREMUM
Unknown flag cis Open Qualifier
Unknown flag cis Open Qualifier Winstrike
Nemiga
Unknown flag cis Open Qualifier
Unknown flag cis Open Qualifier

The winner of the Winstrike CIS Spring Cup will earn $25,000 and a spot in the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown, in which squads such as Astralis and Vitality await.

Spirit #8 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovNikolay 'mir' BityukovViktor 'sdy' OrudzhevAbdul 'degster' GasanovBoris 'magixx' Vorobiev Vitality #5 Richard 'shox' PapillonCédric 'RpK' GuipouyDan 'apEX' MadesclaireMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautKévin 'misutaaa' Rabier EXTREMUM #33 Hansel 'BnTeT' FerdinandAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiJay 'Liazz' Tregillgas Winstrike #22 Aleksei 'NickelBack' TrofimovVladislav 'Krad' KravchenkoViktor 'Lack1' BoldyrevAleksei 'El1an' GusevIgor 'Forester' Bezotecheskiy Astralis #1 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif Nemiga #28 Aleksandr 'mds' RubetsRassim 'Jyo' ValijevAnton 'speed4k' TitovAnton 'boX' BurkoIgor 'lollipop21k' Solodkov