Director of Operations at BLAST spoke to Yalla about the upcoming world finals event taking place in Abu Dhabi this weekend
BOOM! Gamers, do you wanna have a BLAST in the ultimate way? BLAST continues its partnership with ADGaming to bring its prestigious USD $1 million year-ending tournament to Yas Island’s Etihad Arena on 16 and 17 December in one of the events of the year in Abu Dhabi.
It is the second consecutive year that the prestigious esports event will be staged in the capital after last year’s event, which was the biggest esports event to be hosted in the UAE.
Here, in the run up to the highly-anticipated event, Yalla spoke to Andrew Haworth, Director of Operations at BLAST Premier World Final, who provided an insight into the event and all it entails.
Can you tell us more about the BLAST Premier World Final?
The BLAST Premier World Final is a global Counter-Strike tournament series, which sees the world’s best teams end the year in Abu Dhabi, all competing for a total prize pool of $1million and the chance to finish the season as the best team in Counter-Strike.
Abu Dhabi is the host city for the second consecutive year, after 6,000 packed into the Etihad Arena for two days of world-class esports entertainment last December.
What can people expect from attending the event in Abu Dhabi?
View this post on Instagram
Fans can expect next level entertainment! BLAST is famous for its unparalleled production quality and game changing fan-first moments. Our events travel the world, attracting tens-of-thousands of fans to our crazy-big-adrenaline-pumped live events in big arenas from London and Copenhagen to Miami and Sao Paulo.
Fans will get the chance to witness the best teams and biggest superstars compete in the flesh for a million dollar prize pool. Besides the tier one esports tournament taking place inside the arena, fans will also get the chance to immerse themselves in a gaming festival in the concourse.
The BLAST Zone will provide fans with a gaming experience and deeper understanding of its benefits along with giving fans the chance to meet local esports and gaming heroes. The BLAST Zone will be a one-stop-shop for everything a gamer or esports fan could dream of – even giving fans the chance to compete against each other for prizes with the value of up to $10,000!
You might also like: We have two pairs of tickets up for grabs
Why decide to host the tournament in Abu Dhabi?
View this post on Instagram
Abu Dhabi is the ideal location to host this year’s World Final. With an engaged and constantly growing esports community and a world-leading venue in the Etihad Arena, we’re excited to bring our biggest event of 2023 and second consecutive World Final back to Abu Dhabi.
The work that AD Gaming and the UAE is doing overall in terms of opportunities perfectly aligns with our vision of growing the esports landscape worldwide. It is a place that has a bright future with the infrastructure and facilities being available to support this gaming and esports growth and we want to be part of that journey.
With this growth and a hyper-engaged esports community in the UAE comes a number of exciting opportunities in the form of more world-class events with increased career openings and more organisations opening their horizons to the power of esports than ever before.
We are proud to play a role in growing and developing the esports and gaming community in the UAE and look forward to watching the legacy that tier one esports events like the World Final will leave on local fans and players in the future.
Can you tell us more about your career and your role in this year’s World Final?
Before joining BLAST I spent eight years working with Live Nation UK, running festivals across the UK, including creating and delivering the London wide live sites for the 2012 Olympics, which attracted over 1.2 million people. I as a part of the team that recommissioned the Olympic Park and Stadium as an event space in 2023 and worked on the BBC Radio 1 Big Weekends.
I have been in the world of esports and BLAST for the last five years where I have been playing a pivotal role on an operational and production level, supporting our global events that reach millions of people around the world while visiting exciting locations along the way.
I play a key role in deciding which locations, facilities and opportunities best suit our BLAST Premier events and then help bring them to life as we have seen with last year’s first ever World Final in Abu Dhabi, where we look forward to elevating the experience further for fans to enjoy this year’s instalment.
Competition Time
If you would like to attend this event at the weekend then hurry, as you still have some time to enter a competition to win tickets!
For further information about the BLAST Counter-Stroke Finals, visit etihadarena.ae
For further information about events in Abu Dhabi and beyond, visit Yalla Abu Dhabi Life
