The second round of the online stage for BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 1 has been drawn, setting up 16 teams to fight for eight places at the LAN finals.
Teams were split into two pots according to their VRS ranking: Pot 1 contained the top 50 percent of seeded teams and Pot 2 the bottom 50 percent. Teams from Pot 2 then selected their opponents from Pot 1 in a live draft to determine the Stage 2 fixtures.
As expected, HEROIC, Astralis and Liquid were among the first picks taken from Pot 1. With the remaining options narrower, GamerLegion opted to pick Aurora — a side they will also meet later this month in Kraków.
FUT chose to face FURIA, a pairing that András 'coolio' Fercsák described as a potentially favourable matchup for his squad. EYEBALLERS, who eliminated FaZe in the opening round, selected Vitality next.
That EYEBALLERS–Vitality tie will reunite veteran players Jesper 'JW' Wecksell and Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire; JW said he expects the encounter to be 'a battle of the trash talk'. It will be the first time the two have met in competition since DreamHack Open Fall 2020.
Inner Circle revealed they picked Spirit 'because of the veto', according to Viktor 'onic' Babii, which in turn left Monte to be drawn against Falcons.
Stage 2 schedule (local times): on 17 January 2026 — paiN vs HEROIC at 12:00; Gentle Mates vs Liquid at 14:30; GamerLegion vs Aurora at 17:00; Monte vs Falcons at 19:30.
On 18 January 2026 — PARIVISION vs Astralis at 12:00; Inner Circle vs Spirit at 14:30; EYEBALLERS vs Vitality at 17:00; FUT vs FURIA at 19:30.
The eight winners from this online round will advance to the LAN portion of BLAST Bounty, which is scheduled to take place from 22 to 25 January 2026 in Malta.