BLAST Bounty Season 2 Finals bracket set after Malta draft

A Draft in Malta Sets the Stage

The bracket for BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2 Finals is official. Following a live draft show in Malta on July 29, the eight competing teams now know exactly who stands between them and the next round. The format gave the four lowest-seeded squads first pick of their opponents among the top seeds, and the choices made were, as HLTV described it, largely predictable.

paiN had the first selection and went with Astralis. In-game leader Rodrigo “biguzera” Bittencourt acknowledged that his team has slipped to 29th in the Global Standings and that VRS points are very much on his mind. Still, he liked the matchup. “The first thing about Astralis is that their map pick is Ancient, and we don’t play Ancient,” he said, per HLTV. “We have a lot of maps in common that I would like to play, and the last time we faced, we beat them.” He was careful to caveat it, adding that Counter-Strike can play out like football sometimes. Fair point.

FaZe selected The MongolZ, with Niclas “enkay J” Krumhorn noting the extra day of prep time the matchup affords and the relevance of VRS points given the teams sit close together in the standings. Notably, enkay J said the absence of The MongolZ’s maaRaa was not a factor in the pick. The MongolZ’s Sodbayar “Techno” Munkhbold offered an interesting counterpoint from his side, suggesting that their newer players might actually benefit from reduced pressure.

3DMAX, given the choice between MOUZ and tournament favorites Spirit, went with MOUZ. Damien “wasiNk” Dufour was candid about the reasoning. “We could fancy our chances against Spirit,” he told HLTV, “but I thought about the map pool. And since the first day, I wanted to pick MOUZ, to be honest.” He framed it as the moment finally arriving after circumstances had pushed the matchup off the table in prior drafts.

Liquid Gets the Hardest Road

That left Team Liquid with Spirit, which, as Viktor “flashie” Tamás Bea admitted to HLTV, came as no surprise. It is a brutal draw on paper. Liquid arrive in Malta with JT taking over as in-game leader and Georgi “Jorko” Mitev filling the AWP role despite limited top-level experience. By any conventional measure, they are the underdogs.

But Liquid did something worth paying attention to in the online stage: they beat both Vitality and G2 to reach Malta. Spirit’s magixx was asked about that run and gave a response that balanced respect with a little realism. “Yeah, I feel like they definitely earned some respect because they’ve beaten Vitality,” he said, per HLTV. “Of course, everyone can say it was the warmup game after the break, but… we also could have lost earlier.” He paused, smiled, and noted he had seen that kind of stumble twice before.

That quote lands differently when you consider Spirit are considered among the favorites here. Liquid have already defied expectations once.

Schedule for the Quarter-Finals

The four matches are spread across two days in Malta. Liquid and Spirit kick things off on July 30 at 15:00, followed by 3DMAX versus MOUZ at 18:00. On July 31, FaZe meet The MongolZ at 14:30, with paiN and Astralis closing out the quarter-final slate at 17:30.

The tournament lands at a fascinating moment for several of these rosters. Liquid are testing a new leadership structure under fire. The MongolZ are operating shorthanded. paiN are grinding for ranking points from a position of relative decline. Whatever the outcomes, the quarter-finals alone carry enough subplot to make the next two days worth watching closely.