BLAST reveals the format and dates of Paris Major qualifers

BLAST has revealed the date and format of the upcoming qualifiers for the Blast.tv Paris Major. 

As the Blast.tv Paris Major is set to kick off the new season’s Major cycle and crown the year’s first champions, the CS:GO esports scene is prepping to enter into high gear. As the first CS: GO Major to be held on French soil, the upcoming Paris Major will offer a massive prize pool and 24 of the best teams from all over the world. With the excitement boosting up, BLAST has announced the format and dates of the qualifiers for the upcoming Major.

All 16 teams, consisting of 14 teams from Europe and 2 teams from the Americas, who advanced to the IEM Rio Major Legends Stage will be directly invited to their respective Paris Major RMRs. Since no Asia-Pacific team advanced past the Challengers Stage at the IEM Rio Major, Asian teams won’t receive any direct invites to RMR. The remaining teams will enter through the closed qualifiers, which have been put into place as part of changes to the qualifying process made before to this Major cycle. 

Teams directly invited to European RMRs:

European RMR A 

• Outsiders
• MOUZ
• Natus Vincere
• Fnatic
• Sprout
• Bad News Eagles
• FaZe

European RMR B

• Heroic
• Spirit
• Cloud9
• Vitality
• BIG
• ENCE
• Ninjas in Pyjamas

Teams directly invited to Americas RMRs:

• FURIA (South America)
• Liquid (North America)

Format and location of 2023 Paris Major RMRs

Earlier this month, BLAST unveiled the locations for the RMR tournaments for BLAST.tv Paris CS:GO Major 2023 during a press conference. Three different cities will host the qualifying tournaments for the upcoming Major. Mexico’s Monterrey will play host to the Americas RMR, while the European RMR will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark. RMRs for Asia will be held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and will mark the first time that events related to the CS:GO Major will be held in the countries.

The qualification process for the Paris Major will resemble a little bit different due to some tweaks Valve made a month ago. The new Regional Standings ranking system, which will use a model that takes into account a team’s prize pool winnings, the strength of their opponents, and their head-to-head results versus other teams, has been formally implemented by Valve.

The top teams from each region’s Regional Standings will receive invitations to the closed qualifiers, and the standings will be updated on a regular basis until the start of the open qualifiers.

Using the new ranking system, Valve will send 16 invites to closed qualifiers in Europe, which will have two separate RMRs—European RMR A and European RMR B—consisting of 18 teams each. Furthermore, Valve will send 8 closed qualifier invites in South America, 8 closed qualifier invites in North America, and 4 invites each in Asia, Oceania, China, and the Middle East.

All of the teams that aren’t invited to the closed qualifiers will compete in the open qualifiers. Through open qualifiers, an equal number of teams from each region will advance to their respective closed qualifiers. The Paris Major 2023 will run from May 8 to May 21. The RMR (Regional Major Ranking) qualifiers are scheduled to take place in February and March, while the major RMR tournaments will take place from April 3 to April 9th.

Paris Major RMR schedule

The top seven teams among the 17 teams that qualify for the Paris Major from the European RMRs will begin the Major from the Legends Stage, while the remaining ten European teams will start their journey from the Challengers Stage.

The top team from the Americas RMRs will start the Major from the Legends Stage, while four additional teams will do the same from the Challengers Stage. Each closed qualifier carries two berths in Asia to Pacific RMR, which has expanded from four teams to eight.

Although the main event will take place at the Paris Accor Arena, the location of the Legends and Challengers stage has not yet been made public. However, BLAST is making every effort to host the Legends and Challengers Stage in Paris.BLAST hasn’t yet confirmed whether there will be a live audience for these events.

The complete schedule of open and closed qualifiers for Paris Major RMR

Europe

• Open qualifier: February 13 to 14
• Closed qualifier A: February 15 to 19
• Closed qualifier B: February 15 to 19

Americas

• SA open qualifier: February 21 to 22
• SA closed qualifier: February 23 to 26
• NA open qualifier: February 21 to 22
• NA closed qualifier: February 23 to 26

Asia Pacific 

Asia

• Open qualifier: February 15 to 16
• Closed qualifier: February 17 to 19

Oceania 

• Open qualifier: February 15 to 16
• Closed qualifier: February 17 to 19

China

• Open qualifier: February 15 to 16
• Closed qualifier: February 17 to 19

Middle East 

• Open qualifier: February 22 to 23
• Closed qualifier: February 24 to 26

Header: BLAST