Kassad believes that BLAST Bounty Summer 2026 was not a priority for tier-1 teams

Counter-Strike 2 analyst Alexander kassad Trifunovic spoke about the results of the qualifying stage of BLAST Bounty Summer 2026. In a video clip published on YouTube, Trifunovic said that the tier-1 teams did not take the first tournament of the new season seriously.

If you think about it, most top teams don't take the first tournaments of the season too seriously. Even if it’s a VRS tournament or just a good event for tier-1 teams, they don’t perceive it that way. For them, this is more of a test of what they have developed at the bootcamp. That's why we saw such crazy results. Falcons did not advance further, losing to 100 Thieves, who then received a full blow from Spirit. NAVI didn’t show up at all, Vitality and FURIA lost. These are all teams from the current top. I wouldn't say they didn't care about the tournament, but they clearly showed a lack of seriousness and priority - call it what you want. And it’s a little sad, because it would seem that you want to start the season strong. But sometimes it happens: some teams have a very difficult season, and they want to get extra days of preparation for what comes next. And then - IEM, StarLadder, huge tournaments with big prize money, and ultimately - PGL Major Singapore 2026.

Team Falcons lost to 100 Thieves, Team Vitality lost to Team Liquid, and FURIA Esports turned out to be weaker than DENDELE in the first matches after the summer break. Due to the defeats, the teams were eliminated from the qualifiers for BLAST Bounty Summer 2026 and will not perform at the LAN.

Closed qualification for BLAST Bounty Summer 2026 took place from July 21 to 26. The teams fought for eight quotas on the LAN. You can see the results of the qualifying rounds in the report.