BLAST Bounty Season 2 Malta Bracket: Who Picked Whom and Why
The BLAST Bounty Season 2 Finals bracket is locked, with all four quarter-final matchups confirmed via a live draft-selection format at the Malta LAN – Aurora Gaming vs The MongolZ, Virtus.pro vs Team Spirit, Astralis vs MOUZ, and Vitality vs Liquid set across two days of single-elimination BO3s starting August 14.
How the Bracket Was Built
The four lowest-seeded teams – Aurora Gaming, Astralis, Virtus.pro, and Liquid – each selected their own opponent from the remaining pool in seeding order. There is no lower bracket. Lose once and you’re out, with the winner claiming 50% of the eliminated team’s prize bounty and carrying the rest forward. As detailed in the BLAST Bounty Stage 2 bracket draft breakdown, opponent selection here is a genuine strategic lever, not a formality.
Aurora drew first and picked The MongolZ. Engin ‘MAJ3R’ Küpeli framed it as a stylistic match: “It’s a really great team. We like their style, a little bit like us, so it’s going to be a spicy match.” Virtus.pro followed by targeting Spirit, with Ivan ‘F_1N’ Kochugov explaining the logic – having already run into Vitality and MOUZ in recent events, Spirit was the unplayed variable. Astralis went for MOUZ, with Casper ‘ruggah’ Due pointing to a string of close prior meetings as the basis for confidence. That left Liquid paired with top seed Vitality by elimination.
Quarter-Final Schedule – Malta BLAST Arena Studios
August 14
- 16:00 – Astralis vs MOUZ
- 19:00 – The MongolZ vs Aurora Gaming
August 15
- 16:00 – Vitality vs Liquid
- 19:00 – Spirit vs Virtus.pro
Matchup Breakdown
Aurora vs The MongolZ is the headline pick for upset potential. Aurora chose this matchup deliberately, which signals confidence, but MongolZ are not a team any lower seed should feel comfortable targeting – their aggression and individual ceiling make them dangerous regardless of playstyle symmetry.
Virtus.pro vs Spirit is the most tactically loaded pairing. F_1N’s framing – that VP have already mapped MOUZ and Vitality but lack recent data on Spirit – reads as legitimate preparation logic, not spin. Spirit will enter as the heavier favourite, but VP’s IGL-driven structure gives them a credible map-pool angle.
Astralis vs MOUZ hinges on how much weight to put on historical proximity. Ruggah’s confidence is grounded in something real – their prior meetings have been competitive – but MOUZ’s ceiling in a best-of-three, particularly with their veto flexibility, makes this closer to a coin flip than the seeding implies. Coverage of MOUZ’s path to the Malta Finals underlines why they arrived as a legitimate top-four contender.
Vitality vs Liquid is the most lopsided matchup on paper. Kamil ‘siuhy’ Szkaradek framed it as a benchmark match for Liquid’s consistency project rather than a realistic title shot – an honest read. Vitality are the top seed for a reason, and Liquid’s form heading into Malta has not suggested they’re operating at a level that threatens the Frenchmen in a BO3.
Verdict
The bracket drama centres on whether any of the lower seeds justified their picks. Aurora’s selection of MongolZ is the boldest call and the one with the most realistic upset ceiling given MAJ3R’s read on the stylistic matchup. Virtus.pro vs Spirit is the draw to watch for pure CS2 quality. Vitality advance from their half without serious difficulty – the operative question is which of MOUZ or Spirit meets them in the final.
