BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Preview - Americas

Two NA squads join three from the South to comprise the 5 teams qualified for the Americas RMR to the BLAST.tv Paris Major. Liquid and Furia are the big contenders, but the underdogs in paiN, Fluxo and Complexity have shown their ability to cause upsets and make runs. With a weakened top tier, any of these teams could look to make a surprise run at Paris.

-paiN
-Furia
-Complexity
-Fluxo
-Team Liquid

paiN

- Gabriel "⁠NEKIZ⁠" Schenato
- Wesley "⁠hardzao⁠" Lopes
- Rodrigo "⁠biguzera⁠" Bittencourt
- Felipe "⁠skullz⁠" Medeiros
- Romeu "⁠zevy⁠" Rocco
- Henrique "⁠rikz⁠" Waku (coach)

paiN showed their prowess on the world stage with their playoff run at the recent ESL Pro League. The team defeated OG, Grayhounds, and Team Liquid at the Maltese event before bowing out in a close loss to MOUZ. At the RMR they started off by brushing off yel and nython’s Paquetá 16-2. Following that up with a win over Complexity set them up for a qualification match against Fluxo. Fluxo was absolutely annihilated, with every paiN player dropping a 1.19+ rating as Biguzera’s squad secured a ticket to Paris.

Ultimately they lost the Legends stage qualifying match to Furia but proceed to the Challengers stage at the BLAST.TV major. paiN will be confident coming into the event from their recent international bouts. While they might still be outclassed by the best EU teams, they have the potential to cause upsets and make it into the Top 16 of the Major.

Furia

- Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan
- Yuri "⁠yuurih⁠" Santos
- Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato
- Rafael "⁠saffee⁠" Costa
- André "⁠drop⁠" Abreu
- Nicholas "⁠guerri⁠" Nogueira (coach)

Furia has struggled to make a sizeable impact in 2023. They were eliminated from Katowice early by IHC and EG’s academy team EG Black in the BLAST Spring Showdown. At the RMR, they almost handed Evil Geniuses another win before pulling the match across the finish line. Their big win came over Liquid in a 2-1 series that included a 16-4 stomp on Mirage to close the series out, punching in their ticket to Paris.

In a 3-map bout against the other 3-0 team, paiN upgraded them to the Legends Stage, ensuring a top 16 for them. With yuurih finding some form again and KSCERATO being at his usual superstar level, they will be a force to reckon with. Anything less than a playoff appearance will be a failure, but with arT’s inconsistencies, they are still short of being a true title contender.

Complexity

- Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou
- Ricky "⁠floppy⁠" Kemery
- Håkon "⁠hallzerk⁠" Fjærli
- Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince
- Justin "⁠FaNg⁠" Coakley
- Tiaan "⁠T.c⁠" Coertzen (coach)

After their catastrophic failure at the IEM Road to Rio RMR. Complexity had mixed results at IEM Katowice and ESL Pro League. While at Katowice, they made a run to the Top 8, and they followed it up by bombing out in 2nd to last place at EPL. Still, they were a frontrunner to secure a Major spot through the NA RMR. And with wins over Team Solid and MIBR and revenge for the Rio loss over Imperial, they managed to qualify to the BLAST.TV Paris Major with relative ease. Their only setback came in a close best-of-one loss to paiN, something they will look to improve on going into the Major.

Expecting Complexity to perform at big events always leads to major disappointment. They have the potential, as demonstrated at IEM Katowice, but will they live up to it?

Fluxo

- João "⁠felps⁠" Vasconcellos
- Adriano "⁠WOOD7⁠" Cerato
- Vinicius "⁠vsm⁠" Moreira
- Lucas "⁠Lucaozy⁠" Neves
- Allan "⁠history⁠" Lawrenz
- Wilton "⁠zews⁠" Prado (coach)

Fluxo has been one of the most exciting projects in the Americas region over the last year. The team was assembled with some of the most exciting pieces in Brazil, like lucaozy, vsm, and the former SK veteran felps. After some mixed results, notably absent from the IEM Rio Major, the team brought history to replace lux at the start of the year. They were also joined by Brazilian legend and two-time major-winning coach, Zews.

In the Americas RMR, Fluxo picked up two close best-of-ones before taking a rough loss to paiN in the qualifying match. Their next opponent was Paquetá, where the WOOD7-led squad made short work of their rivals. This secured them the penultimate spot at the Paris major, marking felps’ first major appearance since Katowice 2019.

Team Liquid

- Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella
- Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic
- Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski
- Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm
- Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis
- Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele (coach)

Team Liquid successfully qualified for the BLAST.tv Paris Major after a nail-biting series against Nouns in the Americas RMR. Despite a shaky start to the RMR with a loss to FURIA, Liquid bounced back with victories over 00NATION and Flamengo to set up their second attempt to qualify for the Major.

Facing a less experienced North American team in Nouns, Liquid found themselves in a closer series than expected, especially with their risky Ancient pick backfiring. However, the team's experience prevailed, and they closed out the series to join other top teams on the list of Paris Major attendees.

Not getting the direct Legends stage invite would disappoint the squad, but with their shaky form of late, they will be happy that they did not fumble the major. Their talent dictates that anything less than the top 4 will be a failure, but they really need to get back into form, especially because they skipped IEM Rio to give themselves more time to prepare for the Major.