Winstrike CIS Spring Cup groups revealed

The winner will earn $25,000 and qualify for the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown.

Winstrike has revealed the groups for its upcoming Spring Cup, the CIS-based qualifier for the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown. The participating teams have been split into two groups of four for the initial stage, which will be played in a double-elimination, best-of-one format.

Spirit, Nemiga, Winstrike, and EXTREMUM were all invited to the tournament, while FORZE, K23, 1WIN, and beznadejdi earned spots through the open qualifier. They'll be competing for $25,000 plus a spot in the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown, in which teams such as Astralis, Liquid, and Gambit await.

Spirit are the highest-ranked team of the online cup

Spirit have been placed in Group A alongside Winstrike, K23, and 1WIN. Nemiga are the only team currently inside the top 30 in Group B, but they'll have to fend off the threat of two big names in FORZE and EXTREMUM, plus Ukrainian team beznadejdi.

The Winstrike CIS Spring Cup groups are:

Group A
Spirit
Winstrike
K23
1WIN Group B
Nemiga
FORZE
EXTREMUM
beznadejdi

The top two teams of each group will advance to the single-elimination, best-of-three playoffs. The tournament schedule looks as follows:

Friday, March 19:

11:00 Spirit vs. 1WIN (BO1)
12:00 EXTREMUM vs. beznadejdi (BO1)
13:00 K23 vs. Winstrike (BO1)
14:00 Nemiga vs. FORZE (BO1)
15:00 Group A winners' match (BO1)
16:00 Group B winners' match (BO1)

Saturday, March 20:

13:00 Group A elimination match (BO1)
14:00 Group B elimination match (BO1)
15:00 Group A decider match (BO1)
16:00 Group B decider match (BO1)

Sunday, March 21:

10:00 Semi-final #1 (BO3)
13:00 Semi-final #2 (BO3)
17:00 Grand final (BO3)

Spirit #7 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovNikolay 'mir' BityukovViktor 'sdy' OrudzhevAbdul 'degster' GasanovBoris 'magixx' Vorobiev K23 #58 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevRustem 'mou' TelepovSanzhar 'neaLaN' IskhakovDavid 'n0rb3r7' DanielyanPetr 'fame' Bolyshev Gambit #5 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovTimofey 'interz' YakushinSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov EXTREMUM #38 Hansel 'BnTeT' FerdinandAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiJay 'Liazz' Tregillgas 1WIN #95 Vadim 'DavCost' VasilyevDmitriy 'propleh' SenigovVadim 'Polt' TsyrovAleksandr 'TRAVIS' TimkivDenis 'deko' Zhukov Winstrike #22 Aleksei 'NickelBack' TrofimovVladislav 'Krad' KravchenkoViktor 'Lack1' BoldyrevAleksei 'El1an' GusevIgor 'Forester' Bezotecheskiy Astralis #2 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif Nemiga #29 Aleksandr 'mds' RubetsRassim 'Jyo' ValijevAnton 'speed4k' TitovAnton 'boX' BurkoIgor 'lollipop21k' Solodkov beznadejdi #71 Dmitry 'rAge' BolotovOleksii 'Topa' TopchiienkoIvan 'kapacho' KoplenkoSergiy 'DemQQ' DemchenkoYevhen 'j3kie' Serhachov Time is adjusted to your selected timezone Liquid #4 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipMichael 'Grim' Wince FORZE #35 Almaz 'almazer' AsadullinEvgenii 'FL1T' LebedevAndrey 'Jerry' MekhryakovAleksandr 'zorte' ZagodyrenkoAleksandr 'KENSI' Gurkin