BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Preview - Europe

As we build into the kick-off of the last major, let’s look at all the teams that qualified through the European RMR events. While teams like NaVi and Heroic eased their way into a Legends spot, FaZe had to use every tournament life they were given to squeeze in through the LCQ. Will the BLAST.tv Paris Major champion emerge from the EU region once again?

Legends

• Natus Vincere

• Fnatic

• Into The Breach

• Bad News Eagles

• Heroic

• 9INE

• Vitality

Challengers

• Gamerlegion

• G2

• Monte

• OG

• MOUZ

• Ninjas In Pyjamas

• ENCE

• Apeks

• FORZE

• FaZe

Natus Vincere

Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyljev
Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov
Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy
Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy
Andrii "⁠npl⁠" Kukharskyi
Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy (coach)

Natus Vincere (Na'Vi) secured their spot in the Legends Stage of the BLAST.tv Paris Major going 3-0 in the EU RMR A. The Ukrainian-majority team had a shaky start against Into The Breach but beat Falcons and Intel Grand Slam Season 4 winners FaZe in the second and third rounds, respectively.

Na'Vi's Major debutant Andrii "npl" Kukharskyi played a crucial role in the team's success, averaging a 1.34 rating across the four maps they played. This significantly improved from his previous record with the team, where his average rating was 0.90.

This will be npl's first Major appearance, and Na'Vi's 19th Major appearance overall, ensuring their record of attending all CS:GO Majors remains intact for eternity. Despite their struggles in 2023, the team looks to be coming into their own as npl has finally started to look like a team member. At the Major, they may not be a clear-cut favourite, but with their immense firepower, they will always be a contender to win the whole thing.

Fnatic

Nico "⁠nicoodoz⁠" Tamjidi
Fredrik "⁠roeJ⁠" Jørgensen
William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman
Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson
Dion "⁠FASHR⁠" Derksen
Jamie "⁠keita⁠" Hall (coach)

Fnatic secured their spot in the BLAST.tv Paris Major Legends Stage after a 3-0 sweep in the European RMR, which included wins against 1WIN, Viperio, and B8. Despite criticism from some about the quality of their opponents, William "mezii" Merriman and his team managed to secure their place in the Major as Legends.

This marks KRIMZ's 16th CS:GO Major appearance, going back to the first-ever Major in 2013, where he played under the LGB banner. And unlike many of his peers from that era who have transitioned into veteran low-fragging roles, KRIMZ continues to be a pillar of consistency for Fnatic, including in their qualifying series against B8.

Making the last major is a solid accomplishment for the legendary organization. While their roster isn’t exciting by any means, with the lack of stable top teams, Fnatic will be looking at repeating their Rio success and making the playoffs.

Into The Breach

Karol "⁠rallen⁠" Rodowicz
Joey "⁠CRUC1AL⁠" Steusel
Thomas "⁠Thomas⁠" Utting
Sebastian "⁠volt⁠" Malos
Cai "⁠CYPHER⁠" Watson
Gustavo "⁠Juve⁠" Alexandre (coach)

Into the Breach, led by Thomas "Thomas" Utting, is the first UK-majority roster to qualify for a Valve-sponsored event in CS:GO after securing their place in the BLAST.tv Paris Major. The British team posted a 3-1 record en route to the competition, including a close 16-13 win against the Major Champions Virtus.pro.

In their qualifying series, they played B8. The series went the distance, especially on Mirage, where the teams played 42 rounds. But the final map was a blowout, with ITB picking up the ticket to Paris. They have been given the luxury of skipping the Challengers stage, but nothing short of an absolute miracle will get them into the Top 8. Getting a couple of victories would be an amazing showcase for the UK squad.

Bad News Eagles

Rigon "⁠rigoN⁠" Gashi
Flatron "⁠juanflatroo⁠" Halimi
Genc "⁠gxx-⁠" Kolgeci
Dionis "⁠sinnopsyy⁠" Budeci
Sener "⁠SENER1⁠" Mahmuti
Jonatan "⁠Devilwalk⁠" Lundberg (coach)

Bad News Eagles secured a place at the BLAST.TV Paris Major after defeating FaZe in a repeat of their IEM Rio success. The Kosovar roster bounced back from an opening-round loss to 1WIN to clinch victories over Viperio, Apeks, and FaZe, earning a spot at CS:GO's last-ever Valve-sponsored competition.

BNE coach Jonatan "Devilwalk" Lundberg will be the only member of the first Major winning Fnatic roster in attendance at the last major. For the Kosovar squad, their third Major in a row will bring in a fresh wave of sticker earnings that will allow the squad to continue playing together for a while longer despite the lack of organizational support. Qualifying as Legends over GL is a nice bonus, but the raw firepower of BNE can only get them so far, if they manage to fight their way into the Playoffs, it will be a historic moment for CSGO and Kosovo

Heroic

Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard
Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund
Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller
René "⁠TeSeS⁠" Madsen
Rasmus "⁠sjuush⁠" Beck
Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström (coach)

Heroic was the first team to qualify for the Legends Stage of the BLAST.tv Paris Major Europe RMR B competition, with a flawless 3-0 record. Their run included best-of-one victories over 500 and Aurora and a final 2-0 bout against Monte. Heroic’s top performer from the Rio Major, Jabbi, continued to perform well posting a 1.26 rating in the event but still fell short of his teammate Sjuush. The anchor dropped a massive 1.45 rating in an event with Zywoo.

While the competition may not have been of the highest level, Heroic smashed through them without a problem. At Paris, they will be looking to take the whole thing after falling just shy of the trophy at Rio.

9INE

Olek "⁠hades⁠" Miskiewicz
Kamil "⁠KEi⁠" Pietkun
Kacper "⁠Kylar⁠" Walukiewicz
Krzysiek "⁠Goofy⁠" Gorski
Wiktor "⁠mynio⁠" Kruk
Piotr "⁠nawrot⁠" Nawrocki (coach)

9INE have secured their place at the BLAST.tv Paris Major Legends Stage, becoming the first Polish team to attend a Major since Virtus.pro in 2018. They also bypass the opening Challengers Stage despite being the fourth-lowest-rated team at the RMR. They picked up hard-fought victories over G2 and BIG to reach the best-of-three match against Vitality. 9INE’s victory over Vitality was the biggest head turner. The Polish AWPer hades out fragged Zywoo with a 1.33 rating in the series and 32 AWP frags.

The Poles are ranked 35th in the world, but they have shown they can compete at the highest level. They have already made waves for Polish CS, but can they go further and make the top 8? All odds are against them, but they haven’t wavered so far.

Vitality

Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut
Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi
Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif
Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen
Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire
Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen (coach)

Vitality had a lot of pressure on their shoulders to perform at the RMR. With Falcons and HEET being far from the status of contenders, the French duo of Zywoo and apEX was the best shot for France to have representatives at their home major. After two BO1 wins over NIP and Astralis, Vitality suffered a massive loss to 9INE. A victory over BIG secured them a spot at the Major nonetheless, and they showed their potential to perform on the big stage as they stomped G2 out of the server.

As Legends, they are just one step away from making it to the Accor Arena and with the support of an entire country behind them, they will be giving it their all. And who knows, in a world where fans are clamouring for NiKo’s major, Zywoo can steal away the glory, and Dupreeh can end CS:GO as the player with the most majors at 5.

GamerLegion

Mihai "⁠iM⁠" Ivan
Frederik "⁠acoR⁠" Gyldstrand
Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek
Isak "⁠isak⁠" Fahlén
Nicolas "⁠Keoz⁠" Dgus
Ashley "⁠ash⁠" Battye (coach)

GamerLegion secured a spot in the BLAST.tv Paris Major putting up a 3-1 record en route to the Valve-sponsored event in France. GL suffered an opening-round loss to Apeks before stabilizing with a comfortable victory over OG and an overtime win over 1WIN to be one best-of-three away from a place at CS:GO's last-ever Major.

The qualifying series versus Falcons was a relatively hard-fought battle, and the two teams traded each other's map picks to force a Mirage decider. However, it was all GamerLegion on the third map as the European troupe laid down the law with a dominant 10-round CT-side before wrapping up the series without breaking a sweat.

Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek and company previously dispatched G2 from the Road to Rio, and they repeated their success against veterans of the game like KennyS and NBK-, denying the Frenchmen the chance to represent their country on home soil. Their loss to BNE denied them a direct Legends spot, but they never should’ve been in that position if BLAST had used the Buchholz system properly. Nonetheless, GL will aim to crack that Top 16 as their goal for the Major.

Monte

Volodymyr "⁠Woro2k⁠" Veletniuk
Mohammad "⁠BOROS⁠" Malhas
Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev
Szymon "⁠kRaSnaL⁠" Mrozek
Sergiy "⁠DemQQ⁠" Demchenko
Sergey "⁠lmbt⁠" Bezhanov (coach)
Michał "⁠MICHU⁠" Müller (substitute)

The Ukrainian squad of Monte put up an impressive 3-1 record to secure a spot at the final CS:GO Major. Led by Volodymyr "Woro2k" Veletniuk, the team defeated top 10 teams ENCE and Cloud9 in best-of-one matches to immediately announce their presence at the RMR. They took a loss in a best-of-three series against Heroic before taking down FORZE in a two-map series.

Mohammad "BOROS" Malhas was impressive, earning a 1.31 rating across 8 maps. Despite the loss to Vitality in the Legends stage decider, Monte has proven their capability to hang with the best teams in the world. In the Challengers stage, they will be one of the contenders to sneak away a top 16 spot with a couple of upsets.

G2

Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač
Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov
Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage
Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač
Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen
Jan "⁠Swani⁠" Müller (coach)

G2 had a rocky start to their RMR campaign at the BLAST.tv Paris Major Europe RMR B, with a loss to 9INE in their opening match, but they quickly stabilized and won their next two best-of-one games. They sealed their spot in the Major with a dominant 2-0 win over Cloud9, where Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov's head-to-head win over sh1ro helped G2 take down their CIS rivals. A loss to the Zywoo-powered Vitality pushes them down to the Challengers stage, but they are one of the biggest favorites for this Major. Can NiKo manage to get his missing ring 5 years after the Boston Disaster or will he go into CS2 empty handed?

OG

Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov
Nikolaj "⁠niko⁠" Kristensen
Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan
Maciej "⁠F1KU⁠" Miklas
Adam "⁠NEOFRAG⁠" Zouhar
Casper "⁠ruggah⁠" Due (coach)

OG secured their spot at the BLAST.tv Paris Major, making it their second consecutive Major appearance. The European team had a difficult start to their RMR campaign, with losses to FaZe and GamerLegion on the first day, putting them at a 0-2 record. However, they turned things around in the best-of-three series and eventually eliminated SAW and 1WIN.

Their final bout against Falcons was a show of OG’s individual prowess. Despite Mirage being a close affair, OG was in control throughout, with flameZ, degster and F1KU all putting up solid performances to deny KennyS and NBK- a ticket to Paris.

OG will be a team to watch at the upcoming Major, as they have now qualified for back-to-back Majors and have shown resilience and determination to fight their way back from an early setback. Without their original IGL, they will struggle to make a massive impact, but with pure headshots, they have a good shot at making it to the Legends stage.

MOUZ

David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský
Ádám "⁠torzsi⁠" Torzsás
Dorian "⁠xertioN⁠" Berman
Jon "⁠JDC⁠" de Castro
Christopher "⁠dexter⁠" Nong
Dennis "⁠sycrone⁠" Nielsen (coach)

MOUZ secured their place in the BLAST.tv Paris Major with a 3-2 record in the RMR A tournament, thanks to a three-map victory over FaZe. Despite losing their opening match to B8, MOUZ managed to bounce back with wins against SAW and Virtus.pro. They then faced FaZe in the decisive match, where they won on Nuke and Inferno in a closely contested overtime affair.

Dorian "xertioN" Berman was the standout performer for MOUZ, finishing the series with 80 kills, 96 ADR, and a 1.43 rating. That series against FaZe is a massive feather in the cap of the dexter-led squad. They made the top 4 at the last Major and will look to make the Playoffs again in Paris.

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Daniil "⁠headtr1ck⁠" Valitov
Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner
Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin
Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke
Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen
Daniel "⁠djL⁠" Narancic (coach)
Max "⁠maxster⁠" Jansson (substitute)

Ninjas in Pyjamas secured their spot in the Challengers Stage of the Paris Major after a strong performance in the Europe RMR. REZ and headtr1ck were standout players in NIP's victory over BIG, and their form will be crucial for the team's success at the Major. The team's qualification run saw them take losses to Vitality and FORZE, followed by a dismantling of Astralis and a close 2-0 win over BIG.

The organization boasts a wealth of experience at Majors, having appeared in 17 out of the 19 events since the inception of Global Offensive. Despite a poor showing at IEM Rio 2022, where they went 0-3 in the Legends Stage, NIP will look to bounce back and put on a better performance in Paris.

ENCE

Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz
Alvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" Garcia
Paweł "⁠dycha⁠" Dycha
Pavle "⁠Maden⁠" Bošković
Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer
Eetu 'sAw' Saha

ENCE secured the final spot at the BLAST.tv Paris Major after a hard-fought 2-0 victory over Cloud9 in the Europe RMR B tournament. The team made a remarkable comeback after a 0-2 start to the tournament, securing wins against iNation, 500, and Cloud9 in consecutive 2-0 matches to qualify for the Major. NertZ proved to be a crucial signing for the team after replacing Valde in February, with a remarkable performance at the Europe RMR, averaging a 1.40 rating across eight maps played.

Nertz will be making their first-ever Major appearance in Paris, a remarkable achievement for the Israeli player. The team will be looking to carry their momentum from the qualification into the Major, and with the form that NertZ is currently in, ENCE could potentially surprise some teams in Paris.

FORZE

Aleksandr "⁠shalfey⁠" Marenov
Aleksandr "⁠zorte⁠" Zagodyrenko
Evgeny "⁠r3salt⁠" Frolov
Andrey "⁠Jerry⁠" Mekhryakov
Vladislav "⁠Krad⁠" Kravchenko
Artem "⁠Fierce⁠" Ivanov (coach)

FORZE's qualifying campaign for the BLAST.tv Paris Major was led by their star AWPer, Aleksandr "zorte" Zagodyrenko. He consistently delivered big performances throughout the European RMR B tournament, averaging a rating of 1.22 across seven maps played. His stellar play helped the Russian team secure their spot at the Major after narrowly missing out on qualifying for IEM Rio.

FORZE will attend their third Major with Andrey "Jerry" Mekhryakov leading the charge. After making it to the playoffs at ESL Pro League Season 17 and placing second at BetBoom Playlist Urbanistic, FORZE will be looking to continue their strong form on the Major stage. With zorte's impressive performances and recent success, they could be a team to watch out for at the BLAST.tv Paris Major.

Apeks

Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius
Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad
Tim "⁠nawwk⁠" Jonasson
Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski
Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk
Jakub "⁠kuben⁠" Gurczynski (coach)

Apeks are set to make their first Major appearance after defeating B8 in the Challengers Stage of the BLAST.tv Paris Major qualifier. The Norwegian team had a rocky start to their journey, withdrawing from ESEA Advanced in 2022 and then struggling to perform online and at events like Fragadelphia. However, adding Damjan "kyxsan" Stoilkovski as their fifth player proved to be the catalyst for a dramatic upswing in their fortunes.

Apeks' qualification campaign was not without controversy, as they had a relatively easy run of games against teams ranked outside the top 30. Nonetheless, the team will be determined to prove their critics wrong and show they belong on the big stage. With veterans like Martin "STYKO" Styk and Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad returning to Major competition after a period of absence, Apeks will draw on their experience and talent to make an impact in Paris.

FaZe Clan

Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken
Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants
Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool
Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard
Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen
Robert "⁠RobbaN⁠" Dahlström (coach)

FaZe had a shaky run in the RMR, with close wins over OG and Apeks before being soundly defeated by NaVi and Bad News Eagles. Their most painful loss came at the end of the RMR, with MOUZ defeating them in overtime and sending them down to the Last Chance Qualifier. Despite their shaky form, FaZe emerged victorious over Aurora and Cloud9 in the LCQ and will be looking to make a strong showing at the Major, with veteran player karrigan hoping to potentially become the oldest Major winner.

Despite their struggles in the RMR, FaZe's experience makes them a favourite for the event. However, their shaky form showing up as burnout from the hype of the Intel Grand Slam run raises questions about their ability to perform at the highest level. Nonetheless, with karrigan leading the team, FaZe will be looking to prove the doubters wrong and make a deep run in the tournament.

With 17 teams qualifying for the major from EU, there are a lot of massive names in this list. And with the dire straits Liquid and Furia are in, it is extremely likely one of these European teams will be the last CSGO Major Champion.