BLAST Bounty S2 Stage 2 draft locks in eight LAN qualifier matchups

Eight teams, eight choices, one weekend to prove it

The BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2 Stage 2 draft went live on July 24, and the results were exactly the kind of appointment television that Counter-Strike drafts are built to deliver. Eight of the lowest seeds got to choose their opponents for the online qualification matches, with the winners of all eight clashes earning a ticket to the LAN finals in Malta. The picks were made on broadcast, with players stepping up to explain their reasoning, their rivalries, and in at least one case, their ongoing personal mission.

Ninjas in Pyjamas opened the draft by selecting paiN as their opponents, setting the tone for a weekend that runs across Saturday and Sunday. As reported by HLTV, the full bracket is now set.

The picks, the quotes, and the grudges

FOKUS selecting MOUZ was probably the most entertaining moment of the draft, at least in terms of player commentary. Erik “ztr” Gustafsson, who has apparently made it his personal project to eliminate former teammates, put it plainly on the broadcast. “ash is checked off, GamerLegion is checked off, not by me, so just PR is left,” he said, according to HLTV. The joke lands a little harder when you consider that someone is presumably keeping a mental scoreboard of all this.

3DMAX went for FUT, and Damien “wasiNk” Dufour gave a clean rationale. “In the past we beat them twice. It’s a good veto for us, and we like to play them,” he told the broadcast. Familiarity and confidence in the map pool. Sensible.

HOTU chose Astralis, and David “n0rb3r7” Danielyan did not exactly soften his assessment of the opponent. “They are not in good shape I would say,” he said, per HLTV. He also noted that The MongolZ would have been HOTU’s first choice if they had still been available, which tells you something about how the team weighed the field.

Team Liquid, fresh off an earlier win over Vitality, landed a match against G2. Viktor “flashie” Tamás Bea spoke to the team’s mindset after that Stage 1 result. “We now know we can do it, we just need to consistently show up now,” he said on the broadcast. He also mentioned that the team had expected MOUZ and Spirit to both be available at that point in the draft, which suggests Liquid’s preparation had a Plan B ready.

The bracket and what Stage 1 left behind

The full Stage 2 schedule across July 25 and 26 is as follows, per HLTV:

• DENDELE vs. FaZe (July 25, 12:00)
• Liquid vs. G2 (July 25, 14:30)
• HOTU vs. Astralis (July 25, 17:00)
• FOKUS vs. MOUZ (July 25, 19:30)
• Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. paiN (July 26, 12:00)
• 3DMAX vs. FUT (July 26, 14:30)
• Wildcard vs. The MongolZ (July 26, 17:00)
• 100 Thieves vs. Spirit (July 26, 19:30)

The reason so many recognizable names are available to be picked is that Stage 1 ran wild with upsets. According to HLTV, Falcons, Vitality, FURIA, and Aurora were all eliminated before Stage 2 even began. That kind of carnage reshapes the whole conversation around who counts as a dangerous opponent and who counts as a safe pick.

100 Thieves, picking last, drew Spirit. Graham “messioso” Pitt’s reaction on broadcast was measured. “It’s exactly what we expected,” he said. Whether that means they had already prepared for Spirit specifically, or simply that no soft landing was ever coming, is a question the match itself will answer on Sunday evening.