CS:GO Paris Major 2023: FaZe, Apeks, and NiP reserve their berths on the bus to the Legends stage

The stage is set. On the penultimate day of the Challengers stage of the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, we saw three more teams join G2 and ENCE on the train to the Legends stage of the last-ever Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major. A total of seven best-of-three matches were played during the day, and when the dust (RIP Dust 2) had settled, we had five bands of CS players making their way to the next stage of the tournament.

Paris Major 2023 Challengers Stage - Day 3 - FaZe, NiP, and Apeks make the cut. paiN and Team Liquid left hanging

Things kicked off with Fluxo battling it out with Team Liquid, who are there at the Major with all the hopes and dreams of North American CS fans. Coming into this match, they were 1-2 down in their tally of wins, and things were looking bleak for them. But, they beat Fluxo 2-1 and evened out their score line. As it stands, Team Liquid sits at the cusp of qualification for the Legends stage.

The second match of the day saw Monte, who are yet to make the cut, face off against TheMongolz, who, after getting beaten 0-2 by the Ukrainian team, were given a ride to de_airport. Gamer Legion on the other hand, kept their qualification hopes alive by beating OG in their best-of-three match. Liquid also continued their run of form into their second match of the day when they beat their North American counterparts, Complexity, sending them back home.

FaZe rekindled the title dreams of their fans when they convincingly beat FORZE, who don’t seem to have found their footing as a roster. They have had their share of ups and downs and looked unsettled throughout the Challengers stage.

Might be the game's most crucial spray transfer, @vexite_ #BLASTTVMajor pic.twitter.com/36SheF4IiK

— BLAST.tv (@BLASTtv) May 10, 2023

The happiest surprise for the European CS fans was the qualification of Apeks. The team had had a great start to their Challengers stage journey but hit a couple of bumps on the way to the closing stages of this leg of the tournament. At the start of Day 3 of the Challengers stage of the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, they had two wins to their name in the three matches that they played. It all rested on their match against paiN, who were at the third spot in the table, with the same number of wins under their belt, by virtue of their superior round win-to-loss ratio.

Both teams duked it out in a three-map epic battle which saw the teams play on Ancient (won by Apeks, 16-11), Vertigo (won by paiN, 16-13), and Anubis (won by Apeks, 16-9). While it was all smiles for the Apeks players, the hopes of the fans and players of paiN, now is hanging by a string as they are set to face Monte, who have shown potential and could cast a dark shadow on the plans of paiN.

Ninjas in Pyjamas, in thier game of the day against Grayhound, beat the Aussie roster 2-0. And, at the end of it all, they were also handed their tickets to the Legends stage.

At the time of writing, the points table of the Challengers stage of the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 looks like this –

On the last day of the Challengers stage, with three spots to spare, it will be interesting to see which team gets entry into the Legends stage, and which one gets sent back home. Here’s a look at Day 4 of the Challengers stage –

To get all of our coverage of the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, check out this page. 

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