sdy shines as Monte secure penultimate Legends Stage spot over paiN

The majority-Ukrainian side lost their 15-map win streak on Anubis but did enough to avoid Major elimination.

Monte defeated paiN in a close-fought series, losing Anubis (10-16) before dominating Nuke (16-1) and closing out the job on Mirage (16-10). New IGL Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev was the key factor in their victory, as the ex-NAVI member put up a 1.39 rating in the series to secure a Legends Stage appearance for his team on their Major debut.

The current team list for the Legends Stage is as follows:

HEROIC
Natus Vincere
fnatic
Bad News Eagles
G2
FaZe
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Monte

Vitality
FURIA
9INE
Into the Breach
ENCE
Apeks
GamerLegion

Monte thus traverse the Challengers Stage following two do-or-die match victories against The MongolZ and paiN, after losses to FaZe and FORZE meant they faced elimination on the third day of play.

Monte have made it to the Legends Stage

Conversely, paiN end their Paris Major campaign with the loss. The Brazilian squad defeated regional rivals Fluxo and Complexity in best-of-ones but couldn't secure a scalp against a European team as they lost out to FaZe, Apeks, and Monte. A key factor to their elimination was Romeu "⁠zevy⁠" Rocco's underperformance, who averaged a 0.88 rating throughout the Major — a far cry from his 1.12 average during 2023.

The match started on Anubis, where Monte had a 15-map win streak coming into the game. They won a decent six rounds on the offensive half to give themselves a decent chance to extend their streak, but their CT side left much to be desired. The majority-Ukrainian side won just four rounds on the defense, as they couldn't contain Rodrigo "⁠biguzera⁠" Bittencourt's fragging. The 26-year-old put up 29 kills on the map, averaging over 121 ADR and giving his team the lead in the series.

Next up was Nuke, and paiN were unable to get going in a 1-16 loss on their map pick, as a solitary T-sided round was all they had to show for their efforts. If there was one round to encapsulate paiN's performance on the map, it is this 1vs1 attempt by zevy.

With their mentality taking a hit after their Nuke loss, paiN needed a reset before the decider. The first half was as close as possible, but the Brazilians ran out of steam on the offense and eventually dropped the map 10-16 after just two rounds in the second half, as some great calls by sdy turned the tide of the game.

BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Challengers StageBest of 3

Monte

Matchpage

2

1

11th May 2023

paiN

10

Anubis

16

16

Nuke

1

16

Mirage

10

Monte	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhevsdy	63 - 36	+27	88.0	82.6%	1.39
Mohammad 'BOROS' MalhasBOROS	49 - 48	+1	85.0	73.9%	1.19
Szymon 'kRaSnaL' MrozekkRaSnaL	51 - 47	+4	86.4	69.6%	1.17
Sergiy 'DemQQ' DemchenkoDemQQ	46 - 42	+4	75.8	66.7%	1.14
Volodymyr 'Woro2k' VeletniukWoro2k	45 - 41	+4	64.9	71.0%	1.07

paiN	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourtbiguzera	63 - 52	+11	96.6	69.6%	1.33
Wesley 'hardzao' Lopeshardzao	44 - 45	-1	69.9	65.2%	0.94
Felipe 'skullz' Medeirosskullz	38 - 52	-14	70.9	58.0%	0.86
Gabriel 'NEKIZ' SchenatoNEKIZ	35 - 52	-17	57.9	56.5%	0.73
Romeu 'zevy' Roccozevy	34 - 53	-19	53.2	63.8%	0.68