Blast Paris 2023 Team Previews
a lot of more CS-watching people than I have written team previews, so this is just a quick region-by-region overview for the casual listener
first off, here’s the HLTV world rankings, with the regional qualifier results of each team. the qualifiers were super unexpected. Some really second-tier teams snuck in and even got into the Legends bracket (9ine, Apeks, Into the Breach) while big names (FaZe, Astralis, Cloud9, Virtus.pro) got knocked into the EU Decider Bracket, where only one team could qualify.
Asia Pacific
starting off with the weakest region that only received two qualifier slots. Asia is historically super weak at CS outside of China. The Chinese team TYLOO pioneered Chinese CS by beating top Brazilian sides in 2016 as a huge underdog, despite really poor fundamentals.
Grayhound from Australia is one of the weakest teams in the tournament and was my pick to go 0-3. They won their first game but just got literally 16-0’d by Apeks. The Aussie scene is very thin with the biggest name players jks and dexter playing on G2 and Mouz respectively. Grayhound won’t go through to the next stage
MongolZ is interesting, as the name suggests they are a Mongolian team and a great scrappy underdog story - they don’t have any organization behind them, they’re just some wandering pros who left their last org IHC after IHC’s partners were arrested for crypto money laundering. They are one of the weaker teams in the major, it’s just hard for them to compete with such a small scene, or even to bootcamp without traveling to other countries. Won’t advance
(I’m a little bummed to not see China’s Rare Atom as they have some very strong players like JamYoung. That’s what you get when you only have two slots in the major.)
Americas - North America
going to a scene that’s only a half step ahead of Asia. NA is a meme in CS because of how braggadocious, toxic, chokey, overrated and just straight-up bad our teams have historically been. there was the 2015 matchfixing scandal that got some of NA’s best players banned and permanently damaged the scene; the scene’s tendency to prioritize individual plays and stats over teamplay; declining player populations; and the fact that since 2020 a lot of the banned and ‘not good enough’ pros switched to Valorant, where they immediately started winning real money. The only reason the Americas had 5 qualifying spots is because the region is being carried by Brazil.
anyways the NA teams in Paris 2023 are Liquid and Complexity. I actually like both of these teams as teams.
Liquid, I’ve been rooting for them to unfuck themselves for years and they finally hit upon a roster that works a few years ago. ELiGE has been a Liquid player since 2015; from 2017 to 2019 he went from being a mild-mannered and studious teenager to a Top 5 player with godlike rifle aim, and he’s still only 25. YEKINDAR is the loaner Austrian whose aggro playstyle fits perfectly with ELiGE, and ever since Liquid got him in Aug 2022 they’ve hovered around the #3-4 ranking in the world. NAF is another solid rifler and long-time Liquid member.
Unfortunately nitr0 has a tendency to go missing (he actually tried to switch to Valorant before returning to Liquid in 2021) and their AWPer oSee is a very passive player in a role that Liquid has never been able to lock down. They should go through to the Legends stage but after that it’s all down to whether nitr0 and oSee can step up. (as I write this they are on the verge of 0-2 so I might eat my words)
Complexity’s post-2022 lineup is an easy team to root for (despite being owned by Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, hence why their current logo is a blue star). they have two loaner players from outside NA. hallzerk is apparently a meme for being a mullet-having Texan in every respect except for the fact he’s Danish. JT is the South African strat caller of the team. floppy is a meme because his stickers always make for good sticker crafts; another guy who tried Valorant before returning to CS. Grim is one of the up-and-comers of NA CS and widely known as a mechanically skilled player. last is FaNg, dunno don’t care. I don’t think they’ll advance, just not good enough, but I hope they do well anyway
Americas - Brazil
The Brazilian scene has been in a weird spot since the decline of their golden age. In 2016, the Brazilian Luminosity/SK lineup was seemingly untouchable. Their AWPer FalleN singlehandedly built an FPS scene from nothing, and star rifler coldzera was back-to-back #1 player in the whole world. Nowadays, those players have fallen off, but others have picked up the torch - a very strong second tier, and some top-tier teams as well. Basically everything NA is not.
Furia is Brazil’s best team. Their star KSCERATO was possibly the best rifler in the world this past year. However, their in-game leader arT is just failing at his job, and drop goes missing pretty frequently as well. We’ll see if they can be consistent against Euros in the Legend stage
The other two Brazilian teams to qualify are paiN and Fluxo. Fluxo was a popular 0-3 pick and are already 0-2. paiN is more interesting, they took 12 rounds off FaZe and I think they’ll win a game or two but won’t advance
Europe
so obviously Europe is the strongest region with the most qualified teams, I’ll break it up into tiers
Tier 1:
the best team in the world is Vitality. Vitality has world #1 ZywOo, and rifler Spinx has been on amazing form. They won the most recent major IEM Rio 2023 and have to be considered a favorite to win it all. At Rio, they defeated Heroic, another team to qualify straight into Legends stage.
Heroic has a very good all-around Danish roster and have been #1 or #2 in the world this whole year. Consistently strong performances, another tournament favorite
EU has a couple of superteams in FaZe and G2 that should make deep runs. Every player on FaZe is a strong player, but their superstar is probably Twistzz (a Canadian who left Liquid after winning a few tournaments). meanwhile G2 has NiKo, the Bosnian low-sensitivity aim god who’s consistently top 5 in the world, as well as the Russian teen PUG-star m0nesy. They are both in the Challengers stage for flukey reasons but should easily advance
moving on to other Tier 1 teams. Ukraine’s finest NAVI has s1mple, the flick shot legend and CSGO’s GOAT player. he’s backed up well by riflers b1t and electronic, both Top 20 players. unfortunately, they cut their last in-game leader, Boombl4, a russian whose wife allegedly supported the war. I don’t think the team has lived up to standards since then, but we’ll see in the Legends stage
ENCE was my pick to go 3-0, they’re apparently a strong side despite not having a clear world-class star. They’re already 2-0 in the Challengers stage, having handled both NiP and OG, and should easily advance. After that idk, I just don’t know them very well
Tier 2:
MOUZ is a very popular pick and crowd favorite, and it’s only partly because their stickers look lit in-game. they have a mixed EU lineup with only one Top 20 player but the gestalt works somehow. I have them advancing past the Challengers stage but probably not going beyond that.
OG - another tier 2 team I think will advance, albeit they’re currently playing MOUZ in the 0-1 bracket so one of those teams is going to be in trouble. NEOFRAG is known for bullying weaker teams but I don’t think there’s a lot of those in this tournament especially past Challengers stage
NiP - not even a majority Swedish team anymore, RIP Swedish CS. streaky team, currently 1-1, Brollan and k0nfig can be Top 20 players and Aleksib is pretty solid I hear. I say they will advance out of Challengers
Apeks is already making a strong run and is 2-0, having upset Liquid. That said they could easily become 2-2 since they play FaZe next and could have to face NiP or MOUZ. STYKO has a good youtube channel so I’m rooting for them, but I don’t know if they’ll advance
Monte is a Ukrainian squad that people seem to be high on and so do I, I just get the feeling they’ll surprise people with their playstyle, plus they have the Jordanian player BOROS which is something new for CS so I’m rooting for them. I have them advancing out of Challengers, after that idk
Fnatic has sort of a weird mixed lineup and I don’t really know what to make of them. They got #2 in their qualifier so we won’t see them until Legends stage. I don’t think they will advance past that but idk
FORZE is a russian lineup that I know literally nothing about. that being said I just like the sound of their names. Jerry, shalfey, r3salt, Krad, etc. They are currently in a very close 0-1 match against Liquid. idk i picked against them so i’ll stick with that
GamerLegion I really don’t think they’re very good and shouldn’t get past Challengers. again I’m biased against players i’ve never heard of
Tier “How did you get here”:
Into the Breach really shouldn’t be in the Legends stage and will not advance past that. They’re a UK team who got really fluky results to place #3 in their qualifier group. The UK has a poor quality scene so it’s no wonder their best player is the Polish rallen
Bad News Eagles is another team that fluked a #4 qualifier spot to get into Legends. That being said I am rooting for them. It’s not everyday you see a Kosovan team in CS, and they’re being coached by Devilwalk who was on Fnatic in 2014 when Fnatic ascended to the top of the CSGO world (beating a very strong NiP that won 87 games in a row on LAN). TL;DR an interesting pick that nevertheless will likely perish in Legends stage
9INE is a Polish squad that I really don’t know much about but somehow they qualified #1 to go into Legends stage. No Top 20 players, I am gonna pick against them at that point unless I learn something better, I just haven’t heard of any of these guys being particularly good on LAN
Excited to look like a fool and watch NA teams choke again. Day 1 action has already seen Liquid and Mouz put themselves in a really difficult situation by choking two bo1’s. I won’t be able to watch much tomorrow so we’ll see. meanwhile Apeks snatched two wins and just need to win a bo3 to advance.
. heroic in grand finals, vitality to win it all, ZywOo to cement his status as CSGO’s last ‘best player in the world’. half tempted to pick liquid all the way cuz NA homerism