The BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, also known as BLAST.tv Major 2023 or Paris 2023, was the nineteenth and final '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' Major Championship. It was held in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

at the

Accor Arena Accor Arena (originally known as the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy), also known as Bercy Arena, is an indoor sports arena and List of concert halls, concert hall in the neighbourhood of Bercy, on the Boulevard de Bercy, in the 12th arrondisse ...

from May 8 to 21, 2023. Twenty-four teams qualified for the event, which featured a prize pool, via regional major rankings. It is the first Major Championship tournament hosted by BLAST.

Team Vitality Team Vitality, or simply Vitality, is a French esport club founded in 2013 by Fabien "Neo" Devide, Nicolas Maurer, Corentin "Gotaga" Houssein, and Kevin "BrokyBrawks" Georges. Team Vitality has teams in eleven PC/console esports titles (''Leagu ...

won the major, defeating GamerLegion in the grand final 2–0.

Background

''Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' (CS:GO) is a

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...

video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and

Valve Corporation Valve Corporation, also known as Valve Software, is an American video game developer, video game publisher, publisher, and digital distribution company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. It is the developer of the software distribution pl ...

. It is the fourth game in the ''Counter-Strike'' series. In professional CS:GO, the Valve-sponsored Majors are the most prestigious tournaments. The defending Major champions were

Virtus.pro Virtus.pro (VP) is an international esports organization founded in 2003 in Russia and acquired by Armenian investors in 2022. The organization has players competing in such games as ''Counter-Strike 2'', ''Dota 2'', ''Rainbow Six Siege'', ''War ...

, who won their second Major championship at IEM Rio Major 2022. Virtus.pro were eliminated by

MOUZ Mouz (stylized as MOUZ), formerly mousesports, is a professional esports organisation based in Germany. It fields teams in several games but is particularly known for its '' CS2'' team. MOUZ was one of the founding members of the G7 Teams. H ...

during the European Major qualifiers, making them the first defending Major champions to fail to qualify for the following Major. This event was the final ''Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' Major tournament, with the game to be succeeded by ''

Counter-Strike 2 ''Counter-Strike 2'' is a 2023 free-to-play Tactical shooter, tactical first-person shooter video game, game developed and published by Valve Corporation, Valve. It is the fifth entry in the ''Counter-Strike'' series, developed as an updated v ...

'', and that game's first Major tournament set to be held in March 2024.

Format

Twenty-four teams qualified for the tournament. Sixteen teams qualified for the Challengers Stage, while eight teams received a bye to the Legends Stage. In the Challengers Stage, 16 teams participated in a Swiss bracket. The top eight teams advanced and joined the eight teams that received a bye in the Legends stage. The top eight teams from the Legends stage advanced to the Champions stage. The Champions stage was a single-elimination tournament, where each match was a best-of-3. ;Map pool * Anubis *

Mirage A mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays bend via refraction to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French ''(se) mirer'', from the Latin ''mirari'', mean ...

* Inferno * Nuke * Ancient * Overpass * Vertigo

Teams

; Legends *

Natus Vincere Natus Vincere (Latin for "born to win"), commonly referred as abbreviated name NAVI (formerly Na`Vi), is a Ukrainian esports organization based in Kyiv. Founded in 2009, the organization has teams and players competing in various games, such as ...

* 9INE * Furia Esports *

Fnatic Fnatic (pronounced "fanatic"; also stylised as fnatic or FNATIC) is a professional esports organisation headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Founded on 23 July 2004, it has players from around the world competing in several games. Fnatic' ...

* Heroic * Into The Breach * Bad News Eagles *

; Challengers * paiN Gaming * GamerLegion * Apeks * OG *

G2 Esports G2 Esports (or simply G2) is a European esports organization headquartered in Berlin, Germany, with players competing in ''League of Legends'', ''Valorant'', ''Counter-Strike 2'', ''Hearthstone (video game), Hearthstone'', ''Rocket League'', '' ...

* FORZE *

Ninjas in Pyjamas Ninjas in Pyjamas (often abbreviated to NIP and NiP) is a professional esports organisation based in Sweden that is best known for its '' Counter-Strike'' teams. In 2012, the team reformed with a '' Counter Strike: Global Offensive'' lineup upo ...

* Monte ; Contenders *

Team Liquid Team Liquid is a multi-regional professional esports organization based in the Netherlands that was founded in 2000. They signed their first professional players with the release of '' StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty''. In 2012, Team Liquid acq ...

* Grayhound Gaming * Complexity Gaming * The Mongolz * Fluxo * ENCE *

FaZe Clan FaZe Clan, or simply FaZe, is a professional esports and entertainment brand. Founded on May 30, 2010, as FaZe Sniping, the organization has professional players and content creators from around the world, across multiple games. In October 20 ...

Qualification

Qualification took place through 3 Regional Major Ranking (RMR) events to determine qualifications for the geographic regions. The 3 regions were Europe, the Americas and Asia. Each region received a certain number of places at the Major in Paris based on the performance of teams from the same region at the IEM Rio Major 2022. The RMR tournaments took place in the following cities: * European RMRs:

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

: April 6–9 (Group A) and April 11–15 (Group B) * American RMR:

Monterrey Monterrey (, , abbreviated as MtY) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León. It is the ninth-largest city and the second largest metropolitan area, after Greater Mexico City. Located at the foothills of th ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

: April 5–9 * Asian RMR:

Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities in Mongolia, most populous city of Mongolia. It has a population of 1.6 million, and it is the coldest capital city in the world by average yearly temperature. The municipa ...

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

: April 4–8

RMR Results

Source:

Challengers Stage

Legends Stage

Champions Stage

With eight teams remaining, the final stage of the Major was a single-elimination bracket, with all matches played as best-of-3 maps.

Bracket

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Grand Final

Final standings

The final placings are shown below. In addition, the prize distribution, seed for the next major, roster, and coaches are shown. Each team's in-game leader is shown first. Source:

Notes

References

{{Professional Counter-Strike competition Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Majors Esports competitions in France 2023 first-person shooter tournaments