CS:GO Paris Major 2023: s1mple and his troops miss out on a playoffs berth; fnatic and NiP also fail to make the cut | Digit

It is that time at the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023. After almost two weeks of exciting battles between teams across the Challengers and Legends stage, we have our contenders for the playoffs. The best part? It wasn’t until the end of Day 4 of the Legends stage of the Paris Major 2023 that we knew which teams will be pitted against each other as they enter the playoffs. By the end of Day 3, things had cleared up, as a bunch of teams were eliminated from the tournament. Let’s take a dive into the matches held on Day 4, and what things look like for the playoffs.

CS:GO Paris Major 2023: Legends Stage – Day 4 – No s1mple or KRIMZ in the playoffs

The first match of the day had NAVI facing off against FaZe. Both the teams have won one Major each in the last two years and had their fates hanging by a silk thread as they headed into this match-up. And, the way these two teams played, their desperation to win shined through. On the first map of the series, Overpass, NAVI got the better of FaZe as they cruised home to a 16-13 win. However, on the second map, the tables turned, and FaZe thrashed the men in black and yellow, beating them 16-5 on Mirage. 

Congratulations to the teams advancing to the Champions Stage of the @BLASTtv Paris Major:@heroicgg (3-0)@TeamVitality (3-0)@GamerLegion (3-1)@TeamLiquid (3-1)@Monte_Esports (3-1)@apeksgg (3-2)@FaZeClan (3-2)@ITBesports (3-2)

— CS2 (@CounterStrike) May 16, 2023

It was on the series decider that the majority of the nail-biting action unfolded. Anubis saw both NAVI and FaZe battle it out into two overtimes. When the dust settled, it was FaZe who had managed to defeat the Ukrainian powerhouse that is NAVI, knocking them out of the tournament.

For the second match of the day, fnatic faced off against Into the Breach. fnatic had been looking in an awesome run of form and had sent G2 back home the other day. However, when push came to shove, they failed to hold their ground. After winning the first match of the series 16-12, they never came back to winning ways. On Overpass, they lost 16-8, and on Vertigo, they fared even worse. They lost 16-4, crashing out of the tournament in a very spectacular fashion.

In the last match of the day, it was Ninjas and Pyjamas playing against Apeks, fighting for the last place in the playoffs. The Ninjas were of no match to Apeks. They lost against the European underdogs by a 2-0 margin, as Apeks marched on into the quarter-finals.

Here’s a look at the final standings of the teams at the end of the Legends stage –

The last phase of the tournament begins on Thursday, May 18 and we will be seeing quite a few new entrants at the stages of the Major. Heroic will take on FaZe to start off the proceedings. I don’t know about you, but watching cadiaN’s energy on stage, especially given that this is the last CS:GO Major before we transition into Counter-Strike 2, is something that I am really looking forward to. As a fan of the eSport, two key things are on my mind – the melancholy of not having some of the biggest names of the game like s1mple and NiKo on the stage, and the joy of potentially seeing a new group of misfits getting their hands on the trophy.

Here’s what the schedule looks like for the playoffs of the Paris Major 2023 –

Anyways, the way things are looking right now, the stage is set for a proper send-off to our favourite person’s favourite first-person shooter game