ATK announced as Sharks replacement for BLAST Showdown
International squad ATK have been announced as the replacement team for Sharks in the North American BLAST Premier Spring Showdown, confirming an earlier report from Dust2.us. The latter squad was rendered unable to attend the event due to problems with the flights that BLAST's travel affiliate purchased for the team.
Late yesterday, it was revealed that Sharks' ability to compete in the upcoming BLAST Premier Spring Showdown was in jeopardy. This issue arose from incorrectly purchased airfare that was purchased for the team by BLAST's travel affiliate. This blunder resulted in Sharks being unable to fly from Brazil to Mexico.
The situation yesterday left some ambiguity as to if Sharks would find some last-minute way to still be able to participate in the event, though sources indicated to Dust2.us that it was highly unlikely this would be the case.
ATK receive the call up to the North American BLAST Premier Spring Showdown after a second-place finish in the ACE Masters, the event that served as a North American qualifier for the BLAST Showdown. Although it would have been preferable for a replacement to have been taken from the FiReLEAGUE Latin Power Spring 2022, the South American qualifier for the event, Imperial, the runner-up squad, are embarking on a bootcamp in Europe and would be unavailable for the event. With ATK based in Mexico, travel issues are not a concern for the squad's participation in the event.
In a statement, BLAST said;
Due to travel complications, Sharks Esports are unable to compete in the Americas BLAST Premier Spring Showdown. ATK will instead take their place and face FURIA in tomorrow’s match.
ATK who finished second in the Ace North American Masters, are the best placed runners up in the Americas qualifiers to take the spot at short notice and will fill in for Sharks.
Sharks will instead compete in October's Fall Showdown, we look forward to having them involved in our Fall season.
Although ATK will be glad to have received the invitation to the event, they have a daunting task ahead of them. The BLAST Premier Spring Showdown is a BO3 single-elimination bracket with only a single spot in the BLAST Premier Spring Finals up for grabs, meaning that there is little room for error. Not only that, but the squad is set to play FURIA in their opening match, a team that is red-hot after their dominant showing in the Americas RMR.
ATK's North American BLAST Premier Spring Showdown campaign kicks off tomorrow at 04:30PM, where the squad will be looking to make a statement in their game against FURIA to keep their hopes of a BLAST Premier Spring Finals spot alive.
