Two top-five matchups set for first round BLAST Paris Major Legends Stage

HEROIC take on FaZe and G2 face Vitality in a blockbuster opening round.

With the conclusion of the Challengers Stage, the sixteen teams that will do battle in the Legends Stage of the BLAST Paris Major are now confirmed. As such the initial best-of-ones for the stage have been announced, with a couple of mouth-watering prospects on the horizon.

The most exciting matchup to look forward to is the one that will take place between FaZe and HEROIC and 14:30 on Saturday.

HEROIC may very well find themselves as the outright favorite to go on and secure the Major title, and the HLTV writers’ power ranking had them pegged as the No. 1 team. They also secured second place at IEM Rio and IEM Katowice so far this year, making them the most consistent elite squad to this point.

FaZe by contrast have been struggling to hit the heights of the beginning of 2022, but by taking the trophy at ESL Pro League they have proven they have the capability of, at least for an event, finding their peak level.

Elsewhere in the first round G2 will take on Vitality, a game which pitches the best team of the start of the year with the team that won the most recent elite international event. G2 ended last year in blistering form and they carried that through to the first event of 2023, sweeping IEM Katowice with little resistance. Since then the form have wavered though, and they come into the Legends Stage apparently some way short of their peak.

As for Vitality, they seem to have hit form at exactly the right time with their IEM Rio victory, and they will be hoping this is enough to give them the edge over G2. Getting their superstar AWPer Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut to show what he is capable of will be absolutely key in making it happen.

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs fnatic also deserves a mention as a historical rivalry in CS:GO that will now play out in a different context, considering neither team is predominantly Swedish any longer. Still, one of the Swedish old guard in the form of Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson will be taking on some of the younger names in Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin and Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner, so some semblance of the clashing of Swedish titans still holds true.

The rest of the opening matchups are as follows:

Date	Matches
BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023
13/05/2023	Natus Vincere 11:30 GamerLegion	Match
13/05/2023	9INE 11:30 Liquid	Match
13/05/2023	FURIA 12:45 Monte	Match
13/05/2023	fnatic 12:55 Ninjas in Pyjamas	Match
13/05/2023	HEROIC 13:50 FaZe	Match
13/05/2023	Into the Breach 14:10 Apeks	Match
13/05/2023	Vitality 15:05 G2	Match
13/05/2023	Bad News Eagles 15:25 ENCE	Match