EU RMR A Day 1: As it happened

This was a live updated post with the latest happenings from day one of the European Major qualifiers.

The B stream can be found here.

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Goodnight
22:28 - NER0

With that win from Into the Breach, play has come to a close in Copenhagen. We'll see you tomorrow for another day of action.

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Top performers of day one
22:24 - NER0

1. Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool: 1.40 rating 2.0
2. Artem "⁠r1nkle⁠" Moroz: 1.33
3. Andrii "⁠npl⁠" Kukharskyi: 1.33
4. Genc "⁠gxx-⁠" Kolgeci: 1.31
5. Callum "⁠Girafffe⁠" Jones: 1.30

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Round three matchups
22:22 - NER0

Natus Vincere face FaZe in the headline act for day two, with B8 facing fnatic — two of those teams will be confirmed in the Legends stage for the Paris Major.

Elsewhere, OG face SAW and Viperio Sprout in the elimination matches.

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CRUC1AL steps up on match point
22:21 - NER0

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Into the Breach complete the win over Sprout
22:13 - NER0

Cai "⁠CYPHER⁠" Watson continued his rampage, ending the game with 148.4 ADR and a 2.24 rating.

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GamerLegion relegate OG to the elimination games
21:50 - NER0

OG's struggles continue with a loss against GamerLegion.

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CYPHER stars as ITB stretch their lead to 12-3
21:48 - NER0

After taking Natus Vincere so close earlier, Into the Breach are impressing once again — they have Sprout in real danger.

CYPHER has 24 kills in the first 15 rounds, and a whopping 190 ADR.

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GamerLegion on the cusp of sending OG to the 0-2 pool
21:37 - NER0

GamerLegion have reached 13 against OG with a healthy five-round lead.

Into the Breach are also going well with a 6-2 lead versus Sprout

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AZR: "It's been a whirlwind"
21:27 - NER0

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NEOFRAG saves the round for OG
21:23 - NER0

OG 7-8 GamerLegion
Sprout 1-4 Into the Breach

It's all getting a bit hectic here in Denmark.

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xertioN: "At least we won"
21:15 - NER0

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Into the last two games of the day
21:09 - NER0

OG are underway against GamerLegion in the eighth Ancient of the day, leading 6-3.

Date	Matches
BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Europe RMR A
06/04/2023	GamerLegion Finished 16:9 OG	Match
06/04/2023	Sprout Finished 7:16 Into the Breach	Match

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GamerLegion's iM reflects ahead of facing OG
21:04 - NER0

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MOUZ close it out against SAW
21:02 - NER0

David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský dropped 27 frags as MOUZ end day one with one win and one loss.

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Video: BNE defeat Viperio
20:57 - NER0

Tom "⁠arTisT⁠" Clarke promised there would be "roaring and shouting and screaming" and so there was.

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juanflatroo stars as BNE move to 1-1
20:49 - NER0

That 1on3 reflected a strong game from Flatron "⁠juanflatroo⁠" Halimi, ending it on 27 kills.

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Bad News Eagles overcome Viperio
20:42 - NER0

Bad News Eagles keep Viperio to single digits with a 16-9 win, in part thanks to a smart 1on3 from juanflatroo.

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Get to know B8 with r1nkle
20:31 - NER0

"I'm the AWPer, obviously, and sometimes I help the IGL with calls and mid-rounding. amster is the clutcher, he's a quiet guy and clutching in the game, but in real life he's not like this. alex666 is a monster, he likes to press 'W' and run and shoot. OWNER is a chill killer, I would say, and a chill IGL. He's always chilling. [laughs] cptkurtka023 is the guy who can run first and give kills, you can't stop him."

Read more

r1nkle: "We're feeling way better than we were at the last RMR"

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BNE in control as MOUZ tie the score vs SAW
20:20 - NER0

Bad News Eagles 10-7 Viperio
MOUZ 5-5 SAW

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And look what it means to them
20:07 - NER0

After two tough battles against Viperio and 1win, fnatic have the end of the war in sight.

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roeJ: Our T side "felt better than it looked"
20:00 - NER0

We caught up with Fredrik "⁠roeJ⁠" Jørgensen after fnatic squeezed out 1win:

"Even though the T side felt a bit scrappy, it felt way better than it looked. We lost a lot of close rounds and some 1on1s we definitely should have won. Definitely my 1on1 against Boombl4."

"But it didn't feel that bad to be honest. Compared to our last Overpass we've had where our T side has been really bad. But, our CT side is really really good"

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fnatic deny the 1WIN comeback
19:56 - NER0

From 13-2 to 14-12, and then to 16-12: fnatic stood tall when it mattered to move into the 2-0 pool over 1win.

The seeding means that they will face Natus Vincere there, with B8 penned in against FaZe.

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BNE and Viperio get the 0-1 pool games started
19:47 - NER0

After FaZe's win, we are into the loser's games here on day one. Viperio will be looking to match the level they showed against fnatic against Bad News Eagles.

arTisT has said on stream that fnatic loss "felt like a win" and that they have "shown that [they] can compete."

"BNE will be roaring and shouting and screaming, and we'll be roaring and shouting and screaming as hard as they can."

Later, MOUZ face SAW as they look to kick into gear.

Date	Matches
BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Europe RMR A
06/04/2023	Bad News Eagles Finished 16:9 Viperio	Match
06/04/2023	MOUZ Finished 16:12 SAW	Match

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fnatic ailing as they attempt to close Overpass
19:37 - NER0

If they were in cruise control earlier, they're stalling now.

fnatic have slumped from a 13-2 lead to 13-9, with 1win offering a brick wall of a defense so far.

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FaZe move to the 2-0 pool
19:29 - NER0

FaZe didn't have it easy, but eventually they did manage to close out Overpass against Apeks.

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fnatic in cruise control
19:07 - NER0

fnatic are up 11-0 on their home map of Overpass against 1win, while FaZe have now recovered to a 12-9 lead of their own against Apeks.

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The clips keep coming!
18:56 - NER0

A B hit threatened to turn dangerous for fnatic — but that was before William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman charged through the heaven smoke to deliver four kills in two seconds.

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Norwegian neighbours
18:46 - NER0

Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard hasn't played Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad since December 2019, where jkaem's 100 Thieves side won 2-1.

Despite the earlier ropz clutch Apeks are currently 9-4 up against FaZe, while fnatic versus 1win has kicked off with a 3-0 scoreline in favour of the international squad.

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Video: B8's winning moment against VP
18:46 - NER0

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ropz tries to jumpstart FaZe
18:42 - NER0

FaZe are struggling against Apeks, down 6-2 on the T side of Overpass. This ropz clutch, however, may flip that narrative.

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amster reflects on another upset for B8
18:38 - NER0

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Clip: B8 win the retake for match point
18:34 - NER0

r1nkle came up huge for B8 with 25 frags, none as important as this one in a 1on1 with Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali.

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B8 do it again!
18:31 - NER0

After falling from a 9-1 lead to 13-14 down, B8 rally to take down Virtus.pro. They have now taken down both the #1 seed (VP) and the #2 (MOUZ).

That also means that the first two teams into the 2-0 pool are both Ukrainian.

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VP and B8 head into crunch time
18:17 - NER0

Over on the other stream, Virtus.pro have recovered from their 1-9 deficit to come back to 13-11 up.

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Dominance from b1t
18:15 - NER0

Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy never let Falcons get into the game, posting 25 kills in 22 rounds.

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Back to business for NAVI
18:09 - NER0

Natus Vincere convincingly wrap up Ancient against Falcons. They are now one win away from Paris.

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VP struggling
16:45 - NER0

Virtus.pro, like MOUZ earlier, have been put to the sword by B8 early into proceedings on Ancient. The Ukrainians lead by 9 rounds to 1 — a scoreline that the T side converts into a win in regulation 85% of the time.

The Ukrainians of Natus Vincere are also enjoying Ancient, up 9-3 versus Falcons.

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Catch up: kennyS interview
16:39 - NER0

Read more

kennyS: "I feel like I never left"

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The best performers in round one
17:29 - NER0

1. Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius: 1.79 Rating 2.0
2. Aleksei "⁠NickelBack⁠" Trofimov: 1.60
3. Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro: 1.49
4. Callum "⁠Girafffe⁠" Jones: 1.45
5. Denis "⁠deko⁠" Zhukov: 1.42

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Summary: The day so far
17:25 - NER0

- MOUZ fall to B8 in the tournament's opener
- fnatic and Natus Vincere need double OT to beat Into the Breach and Viperio
- FaZe and Virtus.pro, 2022's Major winners, move to 1-0 pool
- Apeks, Falcons, and 1win also pick up wins

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Video: Apeks react to beating GamerLegion
17:08 - NER0

Their reward for that win is a bout with FaZe at 19:15

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Action resumes in 15 minutes
17:00 - NER0

Virtus.pro are first up once again, this time against B8. The Major winners haven't beaten a team from their region in a best of three since they beat FORZE in May of 2022.

That's a streak of seven series, though they did beat Spirit in a best of one during this timespan.

Date	Matches
BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Europe RMR A
06/04/2023	Virtus.pro Finished 14:16 B8	Match
06/04/2023	Natus Vincere Finished 16:6 Falcons	Match

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Catch up: arTisT interview
16:49 - NER0

Read more

arTisT: "Knowing that we can compete against the best is going to do wonders"

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Round 2 matchups announced
16:44 - NER0

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jL: "We never faced adversity"
16:38 - NER0

HLTV.org picked up jL for a quick post-game chat, where he was frank about Apeks' comfortable victory over GamerLegion:

"[I found it] pretty easy actually. We never faced adversity. The first loss we took was on 7-1, and we just took a timeout to make the opponent think we're changing the game. But we didn't, we just played our game. We just took a breather because of course, first RMR game, we start 7-0 up, the nerves were high."

"At LANs or any tournaments we're on a different level whenever the game matters for us. The frustrations go away. All the bad thoughts go away and we just play our game man. We play a solid and good game whenever we're not faced with negative thoughts."

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Round one ends as Apeks and FaZe pick up the opening wins
16:25 - Striker

Clean victories went the way of Apeks and FaZe in the opening round to close out the first round of play in the first European RMR. Here are the standings heading into round two:

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OG claw their way back to 7-8
16:00 - NER0

Apeks 11-4 GamerLegion
FaZe 8-7 OG

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How good is it to see these four back on LAN?
15:50 - NER0

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Apeks set the tempo early on
15:46 - NER0

Apeks are off to a good start, holding GamerLegion to just one T round so far and picking up eight themselves.

FaZe are also in the lead, up 7-2 with OG on an eco.

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The fourth set of games kick off
15:31 - NER0

FaZe, fresh off their Intel Grand Slam, start the RMR with a tricky match against OG.

Both teams suffer from low seeding after disappointment in the last Major cycle: FaZe, the #2 team in the world, are 7th thanks to their 0-3 record in Rio. OG, who went out in Challengers last time out, start the event seeded 10th.

Elsewhere, Apeks take on GamerLegion in Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk's first tier one LAN match since IEM Fall in October 2021. It's also jkaem's first match of this calibre post-pandemic.

Date	Matches
BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Europe RMR A
06/04/2023	FaZe Finished 16:10 OG	Match
06/04/2023	Apeks Finished 16:8 GamerLegion	Match

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Boombl4: "I feel good to be back"
15:15 - NER0

Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov gave a quick comment on stream after 1win secured a 1-0 start at the RMR:

"After 7-1 i think i felt the energy in my body, this crazy feeling to come back again. We had a really slow start, but after we got a really important pause from [Dmitry "⁠hooch⁠" Bogdanov] everything worked. After we take two or three rounds every player in our team started to feel the game and everything was fine"

"It's the first LAN tournament for our team. When you come to a tier-three team you have to play a lot of matches online, it's really awful. I feel good to be back here. It's a really important Major for us — it's the last Major.

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1Win and Falcons get off to a flyer
15:13 - NER0

1win won 15 of the last 17 rounds to beat Bad News Eagles in their RMR opener, with Falcons picking up a win of their own seconds later on the other stream.

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Half-time in Copenhagen
14:43 - NER0

Falcons 10-5 Sprout
1win 8-7 Bad News Eagles

Boombl4 has led 1win back from a 7-1 deficit to a 8-7 lead on Mirage against Bad News Eagles with 97 ADR so far; it's still all to play for in the second half.

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kennyS is back on LAN
14:13 - NER0

The next set of games are live now, with Falcons —the only French team left with a chance to attend the Paris Major — up 6-0 against Sprout.

kennyS hasn't played on LAN since IEM Winter 2021, and is 13 kills away from Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács's LAN AWP kill record.

Date	Matches
BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Europe RMR A
06/04/2023	Bad News Eagles Finished 9:16 1win	Match
06/04/2023	Sprout Finished 12:16 Falcons	Match

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Girafffe's monumental effort despite loss
14:13 - NER0

Girafffe, on his first LAN match against top 50 opposition, dropped 43 frags (1.02 KPR), 1.96 Impact, and 8 openers in Viperio's double OT loss to fnatic.

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Thomas: "We never had the momentum [in OT]"
14:03 - NER0

HLTV.org managed to get a quick word with Into the Breach's Thomas "⁠Thomas⁠" Utting after a nailbiting loss against Natus Vincere.

"I thought we had control of the game in the second half. We got unlucky on a couple [of rounds]. I think it was 14-13 — if we win that round I think we close out the game."

"To be honest we never had the momentum to get to match point to close it out. They were always fighting back and claiming match points so we were always fighting for the OTs."

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Heartbreak for the UK teams as NAVI and fnatic prevail
13:50 - Striker

After two double-overtime matches, the favorites narrowly escaped early losses. fnatic fended off Viperio despite being down 11-14 and up against two match points throughout the match, while Natus Vincere kept Into the Breach at bay after nearly throwing away a 12-4 lead on Inferno.

Promising signs from two out of the three lowest-ranked teams in attendance, but they might come to rue giving up opportunities to take down some of the biggest favorites.

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One overtime is not enough to separate teams in the second round of games
13:39 - Striker

Two double overtime games are happening simultaneously! fnatic battle to keep Viperio at bay while Natus Vincere are being pushed by Into the Breach.

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The UK fights back
13:08 - NER0

Viperio have clawed their way back into the game to take the lead 13-10 against fnatic. The Brits have won nine rounds in a row.

Into the Breach are also fighting back, up to 12-12 against Natus Vincere.

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electroNic aces Into the Breach
12:36 - NER0

It's smooth sailing for Natus Vincere so far, up 8-2 against Into the Breach.

Viperio are also under the cosh, down by the same scoreline against fnatic.

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B8's winning moment
12:25 - NER0

See the reaction from B8 after taking down MOUZ 16-9.

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Viperio and ITB's RMR journey set to start
12:11 - NER0

Rounding out the team list for Group A are Into the Breach and Viperio, meaning that there are seven British players here in Denmark.

Viperio's qualification was particularly impressive — they did so without their regular five, with AWPing IGL arTisT saying they were "playing as a mix".

Date	Matches
BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Europe RMR A
06/04/2023	fnatic Finished 22:20 Viperio	Match
06/04/2023	Natus Vincere Finished 22:19 Into the Breach	Match

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VP dispatch of SAW
12:07 - NER0

Virtus.pro had an easier time than MOUZ, beating SAW 16-9 in a controlled affair.

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B8 take down MOUZ in the first upset of the RMRs
11:57 - Striker

A slow start from MOUZ as the Ukrainians pick up Ancient with a convincing 16-9 scoreline. Arseniy "⁠cptkurtka023⁠" Derevinskiy's ace in a 3v5 proved key in keeping B8 ahead in the first half.

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B8 continue to impress
11:51 - NER0

B8 lost the second pistol, but have since extended their 9-3 lead to 14-9. MOUZ are on the edge of going down 0-1 one day one.

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The Studio
11:49 - NER0

Here's a look inside the European studio, with eight setups for the eight teams. Permanent setups mean the teams are unlikely to face each other.

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MOUZ in trouble?
11:28 - NER0

B8 have stormed to a 9-3 lead against MOUZ on the T side of Ancient, with the Europeans on a patchy buy in the next.

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The Format
11:24 - NER0

A lot of you will be familiar with CS:GO's version of Swiss by now, but for those unaware here is a refresher. This will be used in Europe as well as in the Americas.

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Asia RMR goes live again after server issues
11:11 - Striker

After an hour long delay the second match of the Asia RMR is live now between Rare Atom and VERTEX.

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EU: First matches go live
11:00 - NER0

Virtus.pro are ready to kick off against SAW, whose hearts they broke at the PGL Antwerp RMR twelve months ago.

The other early-starter features MOUZ — who have the 2nd seed thanks to their semi-final run in Rio — against B8, who went 2-3 in the IEM Rio RMR and have not played on LAN since.

Both games will be on Ancient.

Date	Matches
BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Europe RMR A
06/04/2023	Virtus.pro Finished 16:9 SAW	Match
06/04/2023	MOUZ Finished 9:16 B8	Match

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The easier group?
10:49 - NER0

Group A has four pretty big favourites in FaZe, Natus Vincere, MOUZ, and Virtus.pro. fnatic and OG are the other big names who should expect to qualify, but beyond that the group is wide open.

You can make an argument for nearly any of the next eight teams to qualify, all the way from Bad News Eagles down to SAW.

So who do you think will manage to qualify? Will any of the big names stumble? Put your power ranking in the comments below.

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Live from Copenhagen
10:30 - NER0

Hello and good morning from the European edition of the BLAST.tv Paris Major qualifiers. Day 1 of Swiss means we will see 16 best-of-ones, ending the day with 4 teams one win away from Paris and another 4 one loss away from elimination.

This group features the Major champions, allowed to play under the Virtus.pro tag once again after playing as Outsiders for the past year.

Read more

ESL and BLAST lift their bans on Virtus.pro

We also have FaZe, Natus Vincere, MOUZ, and plenty more. Competition, as ever, is expected to be fierce for the eight initial Major spots on offer.

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BLAST showcases a new HUD on the official broadcast
08:50 - Striker

Thoughts?

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Pre-match reading
08:00 - Striker

Roster turmoil
Every sub registered for the RMRs
Evil Geniuses replace Detonate at Americas RMR
Former IHC players revive TheMongolz ahead of RMR
peacemaker departs TeamOne after two months

Previews
Three things to know about each team in the Americas
Three things to know about each team in Europe A
Asia RMR viewer's guide

Go deeper
Lobanjica: "We don't expect to qualify, we didn't even practice"
Vexite: "Having two Australian teams is pretty insane"
Techno: "I think it will be tougher in this RMR"
Boombl4's bid to write a new chapter

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30 minutes to action
08:00 - Striker

Good morning, afternoon, or night, wherever you are.

We are heading into day one of the 10-day BLAST.tv Paris Major qualifiers, in which 56 teams are about to compete across three different locations for 24 coveted spots at the Major.

Asia RMR — Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (April 6-9)
Europe RMR A — Copenhagen, Denmark (April 6-9)
Americas RMR — Monterrey, Mexico (April 6-9)
Europe RMR B — Copenhagen, Denmark (April 11-15)

Action will be running almost around the clock in the first four days of the Asian, European, and American qualifiers, so we're here to help you stay up to date with our live updated posts. We will run one of these for each event and they will serve as one place you can come to catch up with the latest in Mongolia, Denmark, and Mexico.

This will include everything from results and match analysis to behind-the-scenes videos from every location, stats, fun facts, curiosities, quotes from the players, and more.