Heroic and Team Vitality advanced to the semifinals of the Champions Stage with victories on Thursday at the Blast.tv Paris Major 2023 in France.
Heroic beat FaZe Clan 2-1 and Vitality swept Into The Breach in quarterfinal action at the $1.25 million Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament.
Heroic sandwiched a 16-14 win on Nuke and a 16-6 decision on Mirage around a 16-12 setback on Overpass. Martin “stavn” Lund and Casper “cadiaN” Moller each tallied 61 kills for the all-Norwegian lineup, while cadiaN led the way with a plus-10 kills-to-deaths differential.
Vitality eliminated ITB with a 16-11 win on Vertigo and a 16-12 victory on Anubis. France’s Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut recorded a team-high 46 kills and a plus-20 K-D differential to lead Vitality.
FaZe Clan and ITB each took home $45,000 and 1,050 BLAST Premier points for finishing in fifth-eighth place.
The BLAST.tv Paris Major began on May 8 with 24 teams playing offline in Paris. The champion will earn not only a $500,000 payday and 3,500 BLAST Premier points, but also automatic qualification into both IEM Cologne 2023 and the BLAST Premier World Final.
The Challengers and Legends Stages used the Swiss System format, in which teams are divided after opening-match results into “high” and “low” matches. Elimination and advancement matches were best-of-three, and all other matches were best-of-one. The top eight teams in the Legends Stage advanced; the bottom eight were eliminated.
The Champions Stage is a single-elimination bracket with all matches best-of-three. The final is set for Sunday.
The Champions Stage quarterfinals continue on Friday:
–GamerLegion vs. Monte
–Team Liquid vs. Apeks
BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 standings, prize pool, BLAST Premier points
1. $500,000, 3,500 points, IEM Cologne and BLAST Premier World Final
2. $170,000, 2,750 points
3-4. $80,000, 1,775 points
5-8. $45,000, 1,050 points — FaZe Clan, Into The Breach
9-11. $20,000, no points — Natus Vincere, Fnatic, Ninjas in Pyjamas
12-14. $20,000, no points — ENCE, Bad News Eagles, G2 Esports
15-16. $20,000, no points — 9INE, FURIA Esports
17-19. $10,000, no points — FORZE Esports, Grayhound Gaming, paiN Gaming
20-22. $10,000, no points — Complexity Gaming, The MongolZ, OG
23-24. $10,000, no points — MOUZ, Fluxo
–Field Level Media
