Team Vitality became the champion of BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 – the last major in CS:GO
The final of the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 took place in Paris, marking the end of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major tournament era. The next major tournament will be held for Counter-Strike 2 in March 2024. The championship cup and the opportunity to etch their names in history were contested by Team Vitality, a French club, and GamerLegion, a German organization. Team Vitality emerged victorious with a 2-0 map score.
Team Vitality became the champion of BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023
Team Vitality is a highly accomplished team that entered this match as the favorite. As of May 15, the French team held the top spot in the HLTV rankings. After the qualifying RMR tournament, Team Vitality advanced directly to the “Legends” stage, cruising through the playoffs without a single defeat (3-0) by defeating G2, Ence, and Monte. In the quarterfinals, the French team eliminated Into The Breach, and in the semifinals, they faced off against Apeks. Interestingly, Team Vitality did not drop a single map throughout the tournament.
On the other hand, GamerLegion started the tournament as underdogs and had a challenging and arduous journey to the finals. After the RMR tournament, they entered the “Challengers” stage, where they secured their spot in the “Legends” stage with a 3-2 match score. In the quarterfinals, they advanced with a 3-1 score. Along the way, GamerLegion faced formidable opponents such as Fnatic, OG, Mouz, and even the Russian team Forze. In the quarterfinals, GamerLegion confidently defeated the Ukrainian team Monte, and in the semifinals, they surprisingly triumphed over the Danes from Heroic.
Today, the battle between GamerLegion and Team Vitality unfolded on the maps of Overpass (chosen by GL) and Nuke (chosen by Vitality), but they did not reach the decisive Inferno map. The first map concluded with a score of 16-6 in favor of Team Vitality, while the second map ended with a score of 16-13.
The tournament winner claimed the grand prize of $500,000, while the second-place team received $170,000. This victory marked the first championship for the winning team in a major tournament. However, among the players on the stage, there were already holders of championship titles. Dan “apEX” Madesclaire won a major as part of Team EnVyUs in 2015 and now became the player with the longest wait between major trophies.
Emil “Magisk” Reif and Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen previously won majors as part of Astralis. Reif won once, while Rasmussen won four times and participated in all CS:GO majors in history. As a result, dupreeh became the only person in history to win five majors, a distinction he will hold forever!
The match and tournament’s MVP (Most Valuable Player) was recognized as Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, who made a significant contribution to his team’s victory as a sniper. He secured 48 kills and achieved a rating of 1.54 (ADR – 97). Throughout the entire tournament, his rating stood at 1.39.
