The biggest stories and plays from day one of the BLAST.tv Paris Major

Catch up on the biggest stories, HLTV.org's player of the day, and highlight moments from the first day of the BLAST.tv Paris Major.

Albeit bruised, the big favorites delivered

G2, FaZe, and ENCE, the three highest-ranked teams of the stage according to our pre-event power ranking, successfully avoided any upsets and made it to the 2-0 matchups, where they are joined by the surprise of the first day Apeks.

It wasn't without any struggles that the favorites made it through, though, as both G2 and FaZe looked in danger of losing their openers to The MongolZ and Monte, respectively, but came out on top before securing more convincing victories over their next opponents, Complexity and paiN.

Looking at the combination of scorelines and opposition faced, ENCE was perhaps the most convincing team of day one, recording a 16-6 over OG and a 16-12 over Ninjas in Pyjamas. However, it was Apeks who managed a historically dominant victory, 16-0ing Grayhound in what was just the third flawless victory in 19 Majors.

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Apeks annihilate Grayhound in third-ever 16-0 in Major history

Liquid and MOUZ face elimination, and favorable opponents

Liquid lost to Apeks on Ancient to start the tournament on the wrong foot, with Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk claiming after the game that the map selection from the North American team was "a huge mistake." Things went from bad to worse for Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella and co as they followed it up with a defeat to FORZE, despite being a comfortable position on the CT side of Nuke, up 13-11. An A site rush changed everything for FORZE's team, who turned around the game on the wings of Aleksandr "⁠zorte⁠" Zagodyrenko.

While MOUZ's losses are to arguably better teams in Ninjas in Pyjamas and OG, that doesn't change the fact that the semi-finalists of the Rio Major face elimination after the first day of the Challengers stage. Luckily for two of the biggest teams of the first phase not in the 2-0 pool, both MOUZ and Liquid seem good for a bounce back tomorrow, as they face GamerLegion and Fluxo, respectively, whose performances have been very uninspiring so far.

One more round of best-of-ones awaits everyone else

For everyone else the first day of the Major had both its ups and its downs. Among the most notable are OG and Ninjas in Pyjamas, who are sitting in the 1-1 pool after they suffered a loss to ENCE and sent MOUZ to the elimination zone due to some unfortunate initial seeding. What's more, they are to face each other in the next round as they gear up for another tough matchup.

A few regional rematches from the RMRs await, one between paiN and Complexity from the Americas side, another between FORZE and Monte from the European side, and one more from the Asia upper final between Grayhound and The MongolZ.

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Live updates from BLAST.tv Paris Major day one

Player of the day

G2's star AWPer Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov had a fantastic first day at the BLAST.tv Paris Major, powering his team on the way to qualification matches in victories over The MongolZ and Complexity.

He shone especially in the second match against the North American side with a carry performance and some outrageous numbers: 34-9 score, nine multikills, 7-1 in opening duels, and a 2.23 rating.

Below are his full stats from the two Inferno affairs:

zorte also deserves a special nod for his performances in FORZE's laborious first day. His outstanding play (28-15, 1.41 rating) was not enough to prevent a Grayhound comeback in the opening round on Mirage as the Russians gave up a 12-3 lead, but the AWPer then one-upped that performance in a hard-fought win over Liquid on Nuke (31-13, 1.66 rating).

Highlights of the day

HLTV live coverage

Our photographers, Josip "brcho" Brtan and Radosław "MAKKU" Makuch, were hard at work throughout the day to bring you photos from the action:

Day one photo gallery

Our writers on the ground, Lucas "LucasAM" Aznar Miles and Danish "Nohte" Allana, conducted several interviews during the first day of play:

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sdy: "Overall I was already mid-round calling a lot before we switched the roles"

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huNter-: "CS:GO is a legendary game, I'm happy I'm a big part of it as are all of the players here"

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jkaem on Liquid veto: "I was 100% sure it was not going to be Ancient"

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Twistzz: "I'm just happy to be here because people say we shouldn't even be here"

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NEKIZ: "We are hitting the same shots we hit back in the RMR"