New dates for BLAST Pro Series Istanbul announced

Due to an overlap with the Turkish presidential elections, the dates of BLAST Pro Series Istanbul will be changed, with the tournament now taking place on September 28-29.

The second stop of the BLAST Pro Series was announced for Istanbul back in February, with the initial dates for the tournament being June 22-23. Due to an overlap with a big number of university exams, the organizer adjusted the schedule accordingly, moving it one day forward to June 23-24.

The tournament will take place after the summer break

However, in April, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called a snap election and dated it on June 24, which once again put the tournament in a tough situation. At the time, RFRSH, the company behind the BLAST Pro Series, commented that they were evaluating their alternatives, and have now presented their solution.

BLAST Pro Series Istanbul will be moved to a date after the player break, September 28-29. However, those dates overlap with another big tournament, ESL One New York, which will result in some of the teams previously confirmed for the event no longer being on the team list.

Cloud9, FaZe and SK were originally amongst the confirmed teams, but are currently not on the team list that RFRSH revealed. Cloud9 and FaZe have already been confirmed at ESL One New York, which means they would be forced to pull out of the event in the United States to play at BLAST.

Meanwhile, RFRSH added Virtus.pro to the team list, with the last two teams currently not confirmed. In the announcement, one team is noted as "Reserved slot (TBA)", while the other is referred to as a "New international top team with a yet-to-be-announced line-up".

The team list looks as follows:

Astralis	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Virtus.pro	Space Soldiers
Invite	Invite

Virtus.pro #15 Filip 'NEO' KubskiJarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskiJanusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiPaweł 'byali' BielińskiMichał 'MICHU' Müller Astralis #1 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif SK #8 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaRicardo 'boltz' PrassJake 'Stewie2K' YipMarcelo 'coldzera' David FaZe #2 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenRichard 'Xizt' LandströmLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard Cloud9 #6 Pujan 'FNS' MehtaTyler 'Skadoodle' LathamWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaTarik 'tarik' CelikTimothy 'autimatic' Ta Space Soldiers #17 Engin 'MAJ3R' KüpeliIsmailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşBuğra 'Calyx' ArkınAhmet 'paz' KarahocaEngin 'ngiN' Kor Ninjas in Pyjamas #7 Patrik 'f0rest' LindbergChristopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundDennis 'dennis' EdmanWilliam 'draken' SundinFredrik 'REZ' Sterner