BNE qualify for Paris Major after another key win over FaZe

FaZe will fight in the 2-2 pool on Sunday for a shot at earning their own spot at CS:GO's last-ever Major.

Bad News Eagles overpowered FaZe in a 2-0 series to earn a place at the BLAST.tv Paris Major, set to take place on May 8-21 in the French capital.

The teams that have qualified for the BLAST.tv Paris Major thus far are:

The win caps off a successful 3-1 run from the Kosovar roster, one which began with an opening-round loss to 1win (9-16) to get their Major-qualifying campaign off to a less-than-ideal start. Dionis "⁠sinnopsyy⁠" Budeci's men recovered, though, picking up a hat-trick of victories over Viperio (16-9), Apeks (19-16), and FaZe (2-0) to make it to CS:GO's last-ever Valve-sponsored competition, doing so whilst notably lacking organizational support.

Bad News Eagles were firmly in control for the majority of the two teams' time on Inferno, FaZe's pick, as the team around sinnopsyy strung together seven rounds on the trot to nest a 9-6 lead by the side swap. From there, it was simply a case of the Kosovar lineup finding their groove once more, and the roster went on a five-round spree to lock in a 16-10 victory on map one.

Mirage was a far more contentious affair; Bad News Eagles once again managed to get off to a 9-6 start, but the lead narrowed as the second half played out, with FaZe getting to 14 rounds. Alas, Bad News Eagles maintained their footing, eventually putting for rounds on the board in quick succession — including a 1vs2 clutch from Rigon "⁠rigoN⁠" Gashi in round 30 — to clinch their place at the Parisian Major.

"It feels really f*cking good," exclaimed Jonatan "⁠Devilwalk⁠" Lundberg in an interview on stream after the game. "There are so many things, [so many] emotions going through our head right now. FaZe is an incredible team and for us to beat them 2-0 is really, really, really nice."

What's more, Bad News Eagles' qualification also sees Devilwalk's CS:GO career come full circle. The Swede lifted the trophy at the first-ever Major at DreamHack Winter 2013 with fnatic and now qualifies, albeit as a coach, for the last-ever Major in the shooter before competition transitions to Counter-Strike 2.

The loss will come as a bitter blow to FaZe, who have now suffered back-to-back defeats at the hands of the Kosovar-majority ensemble. The last time the two teams met was back at the IEM Rio Major in November, where sinnopsyy and company notably eliminated the PGL Antwerp Major champions — who ended up posting an uninspiring tournament-wide 0-3 record — in 15-16th place.

FaZe will now look ahead to their 2-2 matchup on Sunday. The European outfit will face off against MOUZ, Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's former team, in a bid to clinch a spot at the Major and avoid a trip down to the last chance qualifier in Copenhagen.

---

You can check out more of HLTV's coverage of the RMR and the Paris Major in the dedicated hub.