CSGO Paris Major recap: Everything that went down at Accor Arena 

If you live under a rock and didn’t follow only the biggest CSGO event ever, here’s a full recap of CSGO Paris Major and everything that led to Vitality’s clean sweep against Gamer Legion at Accor Arena. 

On May 21, the CSGO history book was reopened to lock in all accomplishments for one last time. From Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen’s five major wins to Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut’s first, records were made before a packed arena. So if you feel left out looking at major content over social media, keep reading to catch up to everything that went down. 

Team Vitality is your final major champion, and their journey wasn’t an easy one. Here’s a quick recap of CSGO Paris Major. 

Read more | Team Vitality defeat Apeks in Blast.tv Paris Major 2023 Semi-Final

Team Vitality’s journey to the finals 

Team Vitality was the first team to punch their tickets for the playoffs after beating Monte in a 2-0 fashion. ITB (Into the Breach) was next on their list, but the American core fell hard. The apEX-led roster allowed only eleven rounds to ITB on their own map pick: Vertigo. The second map Anubis, however, was close as ITB bagged 12 rounds but failed to make anything valuable out of them. 

Next, Vitality toasted Apeks in the semi-finals, but this win wasn’t as breezy. Apeks looked sharp on Mirage, with sky-rocketing confidence after beating the Liquid legends in the quarter-finals. However, Team Vitality clawed through, winning by two rounds on the first map and by four on Vertigo, booking a berth in the Grand Finals.

How Gamer Legion made the cut 

Gamer Legion was up against Monte in their first Champions stage game. Monte was the favorite going into this game, considering their blood-curdling performance against NAVI, but Gamer Legion made the faceoff look too easy. The European combine clean swept Monte on Mirage and Overpass. 

The first set was easy, but a big red Heroic stood between GamerLegion and a Paris dream. Heroic’s iconic history clearly had “favorites” written on them in bold, but Mihai “⁠iM⁠” Ivan and the squad didn’t care. After an awfully close game on Ancient and Inferno, the GamerLegion youngsters pushed the matter to the third map, locking things up for the Paris Major grand finale.  

The semi-final upset was indeed a confidence booster for the youngsters at GamerLegion, but it wasn’t enough to stand tall in front of Vitality’s veterans. With the support of the Golden Hornets, the French crowd, and apEX’s shot-calling, Vitality ultimately lifted the last CSGO major trophy. 

Still, iM certainly emerged as the breakout player of the BLAST Paris Major, with a 1.22 rating on the second map. Frederik ‘acoR’ Gyldstrand and Isak ‘isak’ Fahlén were also on top of the scoreboard, bagging crucial AWP and pistol kills.,

How the eight teams qualified for the Champions stage

The major kicked off with 16 teams, out of which eight were sifted out in the Challengers stage. The legends stage started with eight teams up against top-ranked teams picked by the RMR (Regional Major Qualifiers.)

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3:

Day 4

Key events from the Paris Major show

If you were keeping track of the scoreline from your phone and missed the show, fret not. Here’s a rundown and a recap of key events from the CSGO Paris Major. 

The event began with a show match between The Dream Team and France. The Dream Team boasted the crème de la crème of CSGO, featuring sharpshooters like Owen “⁠smooya⁠” Butterfield, Cai “⁠CYPHER⁠” Watson, Christopher “⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠” Alesund, Oleksandr “⁠s1mple⁠” Kostyliev, and Martin “⁠STYKO⁠” Styk. On the flip side, France’s lineup starred Richard “⁠shox⁠” Papillon, Audric “⁠JACKZ⁠” Jug, Cédric “⁠RpK⁠” Guipouy, Kenny “⁠kennyS⁠” Schrub, and Alexandre “⁠bodyy⁠” Pianaro. It was a clash of the titans, but it was s1mple’s breathtaking clutch plays that tipped the scales in favor of the Dream Team, securing their victory with a 12-16 score line.

Now, Gabe Newell, the elusive maestro, decided to remain incognito once again, so the pre-show of the final major wasn’t exactly headline-worthy. Team entrances were indeed a visual treat, but besides that, nothing last-major-ish happened. 

Once the games started, the real fun began. Team Vitality showed those young guns exactly what they were made of, living up to everyone’s sky-high expectations. The French powerhouse effortlessly claimed a resounding 2-0 victory without breaking a sweat. Things got a tad dicey on Nuke, but ZywOo’s sniper helped the Frenchmen bounce back into the game to claim victory. 

As expected, ZywOo was crowned the MVP of the major, the icing on the cake for the French sniper, especially since this marked his maiden major triumph. While ZywOo reveled in his inaugural glory, dupreeh etched his name in the annals of history, shattering records with an unmatched feat of securing five major wins. Danny “Zonic” Sørensen would also go down in CSGO history for coaching five CSGO major winning rosters.

Not just that, there was also a fake knife unboxing at the major, which would eventually become the butt of many CSGO memes to come. During the major, there was a jaw-dropping fake knife unboxing that sent the Accor Arena crowd into a frenzy. A fan unboxed a Chroma 3 case on a live stream, and pandemonium ensued. However, it was later confirmed to be an elaborate prank.

So, that’s a quick CSGO Paris Major recap. It had everything from top-tier showdowns and record-breaking triumphs to epic pranks that had the CSGO community buzzing.