G2 and FaZe survive at BLAST.tv Paris Major, for now

After losing their first two matches of the tournament, G2 Esports and FaZe Clan were just one step away from elimination ahead of the second day of the Legends Stage.

This meant that there was no other way of advancing to the playoffs except by proving themselves in best-of-three matches. And not one, but three of them. The first was already played and both teams survived. G2 defeated FURIA Esports while FaZe defeated 9INE.

Both teams that were eliminated were regarded as exceptionally good at the start of the tournament and were actually Legends. This means they started competing in the Legends Stage and were expected to at least qualify for the Champions Stage. But unfortunately for them, it was not to be.

Of course, nobody expected these teams to lose their first two matches and also be unlucky enough to have to face two formidable opponents who also lost their first two matches. Both G2 and FaZe could have easily played in the Grand Final. Now they are struggling to remain in the race.

The qualified teams

After the first two days, the teams that advanced with a flawless result are Heroic and Team Vitality. These two competitors played against each other in the Grand Final of IEM Rio 2023, so it’s not that big of a surprise that they performed so well here.

In the case of Vitality, all of their matches were extremely difficult. Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and his teammates won three maps with a score of 16-13, which pretty much means that the result could have been favorable to the other side. The difference was made by one or two moments of brilliance.

For Heroic, things were a bit easier. They dismantled FaZe (16-7), then had a good game against Apeks (16-10), and finally they defeated Team Liquid (2-1). In this last match, Liquid did better than expected and had a lot of confidence in their moves.

They practically lost the match in the second half of the third map. Up until that point, it looked as though they could have won. They even had a small advantage.

Other results

Other teams that did well on day two of BLAST.tv Paris Major were Natus Vincere, Apeks, Into The Breach, and GamerLegion. All of them have a record of 2 W – 1 L at this point and could prove capable of qualifying for the playoffs.

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