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

Catch up on what happened on day three of the BLAST.tv Paris Major Challengers Stage in our recap with the biggest stories, standout performances, and best highlights caught on the broadcast.

Three more teams have bit the dust

After day two saw MOUZ and Fluxo suffer early eliminations, three more teams exited the competition on day three in the 1-2 matches.

The biggest of them were OG, who had been expected to fight for Legends Stage spots but went out early after a somewhat tough route. They played ENCE, MOUZ, and Ninjas in Pyjamas to enter the danger zone, and despite the best efforts of Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov went on to lose the elimination series against a GamerLegion squad poised to complete their recovery from a 0-2 start.

The MongolZ also went out early after faltering to Monte in the fourth round. They probably couldn't have gotten a much more difficult matchup when it comes to map pools, as the Ukranian-majority side's Inferno permaban has been a key strength of the Mongolians, but The MongolZ nonetheless proved competitive on Nuke and Anubis before they bowed out.

Complexity had started out the Challengers Stage well with a win over GamerLegion but their form only got worse as the tournament progressed. They went 0-4 in maps over the course of the next three matches and won just under seven rounds on average in them. Their worst defeat came against their regional rivals Liquid in the fourth round, as Complexity just narrowly escaped a 0-16 loss on Overpass and were also far from competitive for most of Anubis.

No RMR flashbacks for FaZe

Three more teams locked in their Legends Stage spot in the 2-1 matches. Chief among them were one of the "big five" teams of the entire Major, FaZe, who had not been able to convert their first opportunity on the previous day at the hands of ENCE.

Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's team dispatched FORZE without ever really looking in danger, off the back of Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard's great recovery from a poor previous day, and sent the Russians to face off against GamerLegion in the 2-2 deciders. As Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants pointed out after the match, FaZe were glad to avoid having flashbacks to the RMR, where they were unable to convert a 2-0 start.

Apeks followed as they locked in their spot in the next Swiss phase with a win over paiN in which the whole lineup had great moments and clutches, all the way down to the in-game leader, Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski, who clutched two 1v3s on the deciding Anubis to help his team lock down the series. The Brazilians will have another chance to advance in the final round, facing off against Monte.

Ninjas in Pyjamas celebrated at the end of the day thanks to an all in all comfortable series victory against Grayhound in their qualifying match, spearheaded by great performances from Daniil "⁠headtr1ck⁠" Valitov on Mirage and Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke on Inferno. The Australians head into day four with another chance, but they got the short end of the stick with a tough matchup against a reformed-looking Liquid squad in the final round.

Teams qualified for the Legends Stage

Standings after day three

Player of the day

It was a difficult task to pinpoint a single player of the day, as several players could have made the cut. Among the candidates was rain, whose CT side play on Overpass against FORZE was worthy of a highlight as the Norwegian decimated the Russian side to earn the majority of FaZe's victory. headtr1ck was another, thanks to his 30-bomb on Mirage against Grayhound.

The nod ultimately goes out to Mohammad "⁠BOROS⁠" Malhas, who topped the day three charts in many respects after leading the way in Monte's victory over The MongolZ. The Mongolian side turned out to be a tough nut to crack, and the Jordanian was key to both close map wins on Anubis and Nuke, with Sergiy "⁠DemQQ⁠" Demchenko and Volodymyr "⁠Woro2k⁠" Veletniuk also putting up standout performances.

Highlights of the day

HLTV coverage

Below is our day three gallery, as captured by HLTV photographers Josip "brcho" Brtan and Radosław "MAKKU" Makuch.

Day three photo gallery

Our writers on the ground, Lucas "LucasAM" Aznar Miles, Danish "Nohte" Allana, and Harry "NER0" Richards conducted the following interviews during the day:

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jL: "Call me jLegend"

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rain on retirement rumors: "I'm not going anywhere"

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daps: "For this tournament YEKINDAR is IGL and nitr0 is second IGL [on some maps]"