BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Europe RMR AEurope RMR A in bullet points: Three things to know about each team
The first European RMR begins on Thursday with 16 teams coming from vastly different backgrounds fighting for eight Major spots. Here are three things to know about every one of them.
The final stage of qualifiers for the BLAST.tv Paris Major are nearly upon us. A total of 56 teams will be fighting for 24 spots at the Major across three regions and four tournaments, with the first three ready to kick off on Thursday, April 6.
Seen by many as the weaker of the two European RMRs, the A tournament boasts teams from all corners of competition. From Intel Grand Slam Season 4 winners FaZe and other tier-one heavyweights like Natus Vincere and Virtus.pro to 80th-ranked Viperio, here are some storylines, stats, curiosities, and fun facts about each one.
FaZe (HLTV Power Ranking: #1)
Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken
Helvijs "broky" Saukants
Robin "ropz" Kool
Håvard "rain" Nygaard
Finn "karrigan" Andersen
Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström (coach)
1. FaZe just won ESL Pro League and completed the Intel Grand Slam after over eight months of title drought.
2. ropz looks in his best shape after putting up his highest-rated event since he joined the team — 1.27 in his MVP-worthy performance at EPL — and is becoming a more aggressive lurker, making the star trio dangerous as ever.
3. FaZe haven't lost to anyone other than G2, Liquid, and Vitality since November.
Natus Vincere (#2)
Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev
Denis "electroNic" Sharipov
1. NAVI is the only organization to have attended all 18 Majors and is recovering from a tough period in time to make it to the 19th, with semi-final runs at IEM Katowice and ESL Pro League.
2. s1mple has just had his highest-rated event in six months, averaging 1.24 at ESL Pro League.
3. NAVI's map pool is getting deeper. Before ESL Pro League they picked Inferno in seven consecutive series, but during EPL they picked four different maps — Ancient, Anubis, Overpass, and Nuke.
Virtus.pro (#3)
Aleksei "Qikert" Golubev
1. The players who previously played under the neutral tag Outsiders are once again allowed to represent the storied organization after ESL and BLAST lifted their bans on it.
2. After an impressive debut at IEM Katowice the team's newest addition, KaiR0N-, dipped at ESL Pro League with a 0.95 rating over nine maps. Jame also went missing uncharacteristically in their losses to Cloud9 and NAVI.
3. If recent history is anything to go by, teams from the Russian-speaking region seem to be Virtus.pro's kryptonite, and there are three of them in this RMR group. They last beat one in a series nearly a year ago.
MOUZ (#4)
David "frozen" Čerňanský
Ádám "torzsi" Torzsás
Dorian "xertioN" Berman
Jon "JDC" de Castro
Christopher "dexter" Nong
1. MOUZ recovered from their poor start to the year at IEM Katowice with a playoffs finish at ESL Pro League, but still look shaky so far in 2023.
2. frozen is the fifth highest-rated player in matches among top 30 teams in 2023, above even the likes of s1mple and Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov, albeit in a substantially weaker sample size. He is also the second highest-rated player in pistol rounds.
3. torzsi has the most flash assists per round out of anyone.
fnatic (#5)
William "mezii" Merriman
Dion "FASHR" Derksen
1. fnatic's recent form suggests they could be in real danger at the RMR. They hold a 2-5 record in series and have suffered losses to three teams outside of the top 20 in Let us cook, 9INE, and GODSENT in the past month.
2. With an average age of 26.5 fnatic are the oldest of all 56 teams playing at the RMRs.
3. fnatic have played all seven maps this year, but have gone away from Inferno in the past month.
OG (#6)
Maciej "F1KU" Miklas
Adam "NEOFRAG" Zouhar
1. Since Nemanja "nexa" Isaković stepped down from the team in February OG have dropped from eighth to 19th in the HLTV ranking.
2. They could not have a tougher first matchup at the RMR in FaZe, which will make their campaign all the more difficult.
3. All eyes will be on degster and flameZ. The Russian AWPer has been by far OG's most consistent player, and the Israeli rifler's occasional high peaks make him their X factor.
Bad News Eagles (#7)
Rigon "rigoN" Gashi
Flatron "juanflatroo" Halimi
1. Despite being organization-less for over a year, Bad News Eagles made it to both Majors in 2022 and are chasing their third consecutive appearance.
2. In January Bad News Eagles brought in a new coach in Devilwalk, a two-time Major winner from DreamHack Winter 2013 as a player and ESL One Katowice 2015 as a coach. For the Major cycle they also have German veteran Kevin "kRYSTAL" Amend as an assistant coach.
3. Devilwalk had this to say about the team's up-and-down results as of late: "I think it's normal when you go through a big change like a coach change to take a few steps back! But we are confident in what we have worked on the last few weeks! I'd expect to shock some people."
GamerLegion (#8)
Mihai "iM" Ivan
Nicolas "Keoz" Dgus
1. GamerLegion were the surprise team of the last RMR cycle ahead of IEM Rio, most notably eliminating G2 on their way to a spot at the Major. This time, they've been tipped by the HLTV writers to squeak through.
2. acoR was in the spotlight in GamerLegion's successful Rio Major RMR campaign, but in 2023 iM has consistently outperformed the Danish AWPer with a mightily impressive 1.20 average rating and 1.25 impact rating.
3. They are one of the best T-side teams on the tier-two scene with nearly 54% of rounds won (fifth most) and getting the opening kill in 49% of their rounds on the offense (first).
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1WIN (#9)
1. This iteration of 1win has only played together for two months after they brought in three new players in mid-February, Forester, Boombl4, and NickelBack, along with a new coach in hooch.
2. The team features two in-game leaders, but it's NickelBack who has taken up the mantle as opposed to the more tier-one experienced and Stockholm Major winner Boombl4.
3. Despite their short time together 1win have already found decent success, currently sporting a 14-8 match record.
Apeks (#10)
Justinas "jL" Lekavicius
Damjan "kyxsan" Stoilkovski
1. Since they added kyxsan as their new in-game leader Apeks have been recovering from their 2022 freefall and have sat around the 35th position in the HLTV Ranking.
2. At 29 years old jkaem is one of Apeks' key performers. Out of players aged above 28 the Norwegian is the fourth highest-rated (1.14) and has the highest ADR (84.9) and impact rating (1.26) in matches between top 50 teams in 2023.
3. Apeks have had their fair share of struggles against other teams in this group. They recently lost series to GamerLegion — who are their first matchup in Copenhagen —, MOUZ, 1win, and Sprout.
Falcons (#11)
Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro
1. Falcons effectively re-created the 2017-2018 core of G2 with their latest three signings of NBK-, kennyS, and bodyy.
2. bodyy's acquisition from HEET has proven key for Falcons so far. The 26-year-old has been by far the team's highest-rated player (1.19) since he joined in January.
3. NBK- and kennyS are chasing their 15th Major appearances. It would be the first for Python.
Sprout (#12)
1. Sprout marks the return to action of AZR, who aside from a short stint in Australian side Encore hasn't been competing since the end of EXTREMUM in October 2021.
2. After being hailed as one of the most promising lineups in the latter half of 2022 and qualifying for the Rio Major, Sprout have had a rough 2023 so far. They've dropped from their peak 18th ranking in early January to 54th.
3. XELLOW, brought in as an AWPing upgrade for Fritz "slaxz-" Dietrich, has not proven to be that so far. Over 58 maps played for his new team the Romanian averages just a 0.94 rating, well under the level he boasted in domestic side Nexus (1.19 rating in 2022).
SAW (#13)
Michel "ewjerkz" Pinto
Omar "arki" Chakkor (coach)
1. SAW have one of the longest-standing cores currently competing. JUST, MUTiRiS, and roman have played together since early 2020 and prevously also played under the same banner in k1ck in 2015-2016.
2. Virtus.pro will be SAW's first opponent in Copenhagen. The cores of the two teams last met for a spot at PGL Major Antwerp and SAW missed out on a place at the Major by milliseconds after this play broke the Portuguese team's hearts.
3. SAW have the highest utility ADR on the Terrorist side in matches between top 30 teams in 2023.
B8 (#14)
1. When competing in the Europe RMR ahead of the IEM Rio Major, B8 missed out on a Major appearance by just three rounds despite being the lowest-ranked team in attendance — a similar position they are in now.
2. 18-year-old AWPer r1nkle has been touted as one of the biggest up-and-comers from the region. He averages a staggering 1.27 rating so far in 2023, albeit mostly from matches against teams outside of the top 50.
3. B8 signed OWNER from Spirit Academy in January and he has been delivering great performances since as the team's second star, with a 1.18 average rating in 2023.
Into the Breach (#15)
1. The oldest member of Into the Breach, rallen, is their best performer in 2023 (1.11 rating) and the only one to have attended Majors (DreamHack Winter 2014, ESL One Cologne 2015, DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015).
2. ex-Endpoint duo CRUC1AL and Thomas qualified for the RMR, while Endpoint couldn't make it past the open qualifiers after losing Guy "NertZ" Iluz to ENCE.
3. Into the Breach look capable of playing all seven maps. Though they have been moving away from Nuke in recent months, they have still floated it on occasion.
Viperio (#16)
Tom "arTisT" Clarke
1. Viperio's qualification for the Europe RMR was the biggest surprise of the closed qualifiers. They beat 1win, PGE Turow, and SAW to secure a spot in the Copenhagen tournament.
2. Only arTisT and Extinct have LAN experience from outside of the United Kingdom from their triumph at the SIGMA Esports Technologies Cup 2021.
3. Viperio are currently on a 13 series losing streak, which includes three losses to academy teams.
Opening matchups
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Europe RMR A | ||
| 06/04/2023 |
11:00
|
Match |
| 06/04/2023 |
11:00
|
Match |
| 06/04/2023 |
12:20
|
Match |
| 06/04/2023 |
12:20
|
Match |
| 06/04/2023 |
14:10
|
Match |
| 06/04/2023 |
14:10
|
Match |
| 06/04/2023 |
15:20
|
Match |
| 06/04/2023 |
15:30
|
Match |
Major slot distribution
1. Legends Stage (3-0 record)
2. Legends Stage (3-0)
3. Legends Stage (3-1)
4. Legends Stage (3-1)
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5. Challengers Stage (3-1)
6. Challengers Stage (3-2)
7. Challengers Stage (3-2)
8. Challengers Stage (3-2)
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9. Last Chance Qualifier (2-3)
10. Last Chance Qualifier (2-3)
11. Last Chance Qualifier (2-3)
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12. Eliminated (1-3)
13. Eliminated (1-3)
14. Eliminated (1-3)
15. Eliminated (0-3)
16. Eliminated (0-3)
Arseniy 'cptkurtka023' Derevinskiy
Euan 'sterling' Moore
Christopher 'MUTiRiS' Fernandes
Pavle 'Maden' Bošković
Eetu 'sAw' Saha
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
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