MAD Lions, Tricked replace Anonymo, Sprout in BLAST Rising

Anonymo and Sprout opted out of the competition due to tight schedules.

BLAST and Fantasyexpo have announced that Anonymo and Sprout have withdrawn from BLAST Rising following their recent qualification for Flashpoint 3, the first European Regional Major Ranking tournament, which will partly collide with the latter stages of the $30,000 event.

The new international MAD Lions side, who added Teodor "⁠SPELLAN⁠" Nikolov to the six-man roster last month, has taken the Polish team's spot in Group C, also featuring ALTERNATE aTTaX, Spirit Academy, and the Bulgarian in-game leader's former team, SKADE.

MAD Lions' newest addition could face his former team in Group C

Meanwhile, Tricked have replaced Sprout in Group B, is set to be played on May 5-6, where they will lock horns with Galaxy Racer, Astralis Talent, and AGO. The first round of the GSL format will have the Danish side around Mads "⁠zypztw⁠" Hermansen go up against the Swedes.

The 24-team BLAST Rising tournament is set to start on Monday with the group stage, which will see 12 teams advance to the single-elimination playoffs directly and four more through two additional play-in stages reserved for the third-placed teams. The bracket stage will follow on May 19 and culminate with the grand final on May 23.

ALTERNATE aTTaX #75 Kevin 'kRYSTAL' AmendRobin 'ScrunK' RöpkeMax 'PANIX' HangebruchDavid 'prosus' HesseKarim 'Krimbo' Moussa Tricked #44 Andreas 'kiR' KirsteinOliver 'kwezz' RasmussenPhilip 'Lucky' EwaldMads 'zypztw' HermansenMathias 'PR1mE' Carlsen Teodor 'SPELLAN' Nikolov Age: 23 Team: MAD Lions Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 1377 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.66 MAD Lions #69 Thomas 'TMB' BundsbækFilip 'tudsoN' TudevVolodymyr 'Woro2k' VeletniukPere 'sausol' Solsona SaumellJustinas 'jL' Lekavicius Sprout #30 Timo 'Spiidi' RichterDenis 'denis' HowellMarko 'kressy' ĐorđevićJosef 'faveN' BaumannFritz 'slaxz-' Dietrich AGO #28 Karol 'rallen' RodowiczPaweł 'reatz' JańczakDamian 'Furlan' KislowskiMichał 'snatchie' RudzkiMaciej 'F1KU' Miklas Galaxy Racer #59 Joakim 'disco doplan' GidetunNiclas 'PlesseN' PlessenAdam 'dezon' WahlqvistHugo 'chawzyyy' GüntherJoel 'joel' Holmlund Spirit Academy #119 Pavel 'S1ren' OgloblinRobert 'Patsi' IsyanovAlexey 'znxxX' ZlotkovskiyKirill 'T4RG3T' KovalyovMyroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia Anonymo #47 Janusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiPaweł 'innocent' MocekWiktor 'mynio' KrukKamil 'KEi' PietkunKacper 'Kylar' Walukiewicz Mads 'zypztw' Hermansen Age: 22 Team: Tricked Rating 1.0: 0.85 Maps played: 148 KPR: 0.58 DPR: 0.71 Astralis Talent #163 Mads 'vester' VestergaardAlexander 'Altekz' GivskovAndreas 'Void' DietrichsenVictor 'vigg0' Bisgaard SKADE #23 Georgi 'SHiPZ' GrigorovDenislav 'dennyslaw' DimitrovViktor 'Duplicate' MitevAleks 'Rainwaker' PetrovBlagoi 'oxygeN' Dimitrov