G2 Esports, ENCE, FaZe Clan and Apeks kicked off the first day of the BLAST.tv Paris Major by winning their first two matches of the Challengers Stage of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament on Monday in France.
The quartet of teams reached the Round 3 high matches, with the first two berths into next week’s Legends Stage on the line. G2 will face Apeks and ENCE will battle FaZe on Tuesday for those bids.
The $1.25 million BLAST.tv Paris Major is running from May 8-21, with 24 teams playing offline in Paris. The champion will earn not only a $500,000 payday and 3,500 BLAST Premier points, but also automatic qualification into both IEM Cologne 2023 and the BLAST Premier World Final.
The Challengers Stage is using the Swiss System format, where after the opening match teams are divided into “high” and “low” matches. Elimination and advancement matches are best-of-three, and all other matches are best-of-one. The top eight teams advance to the Legends Stage, while the bottom eight are eliminated.
After the Legends Stage, which will also employ the Swiss System with 16 teams, the Champions Stage will be a single-elimination bracket with all matches best-of-three. The final is scheduled for May 21.
On Monday, G2 defeated The MongolZ 16-11 on Inferno in Round 1, then took down Complexity Gaming 16-9 in Round 2, also on Inferno.
ENCE had an easy 16-6 win over OG on Anubis, then beat Ninjas in Pyjamas 16-9 on Vertigo in Round 2. FaZe Clan got by Monte 16-14 on Ancient and beat paiN Gaming 16-12 on Nuke.
And Apeks topped Team Liquid 16-12 on Ancient before blanking Grayhound Gaming 16-0 on Mirage. It was the only 16-0 result of the day.
The tournament continues Tuesday with eight matches:
–G2 Esports vs. Apeks (Round 3 high)
–ENCE vs. FaZe Clan (Round 3 high)
–Grayhound Gaming vs. The MongolZ (Round 3 mid)
–Monte vs. FORZE (Round 3 mid)
–paiN Gaming vs. Complexity Gaming (Round 3 mid)
–Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. OG (Round 3 mid)
–Team Liquid vs. Fluxo (Round 3 low)
–GamerLegion vs. MOUZ (Round 3 low)
–Field Level Media