The BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 was the last Major played on CS:GO. Team Vitality, a French organisation, won it in front of a home crowd at the Accor Arena without losing a map, and Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen became the only player with five CS:GO Major titles. Its stickers stayed on sale for almost five months, right up to the launch of Counter-Strike 2, and HLTV's sources later put the earnings for teams and players at more than $110 million, far above any earlier Major.
The tournament
Paris was BLAST's first Major. It ran from May 8 to 21, 2023, with 24 teams that had qualified through Regional Major Ranking events, in the same three-stage format used since Stockholm 2021:
- Challengers Stage (May 8 to 11): 16 teams in a Swiss format, best-of-one except for best-of-three advancement and elimination matches.
- Legends Stage (May 13 to 16): the same format, with the eight Legends joining the top eight from the first stage.
- Champions Stage (May 18 to 21): an eight-team single-elimination bracket, all best-of-three.
Liquipedia lists the Hall de la Pinède in the Parc Floral de Paris for the first two stages, and the playoffs moved to the Accor Arena. The prize pool was $1,250,000, with $500,000 for the winner.
The map pool had changed since the Rio Major. On November 18, 2022, Valve added Anubis to Active Duty and removed Dust II, saying the update "will determine which maps get played at the 2023 Paris Major". The seven maps were Ancient, Anubis, Inferno, Mirage, Nuke, Overpass and Vertigo.
Valve's sticker announcement on May 4 asked who would become "the champion of CS:GO's final Major". Counter-Strike 2 replaced CS:GO on September 27, 2023, and the next Major, PGL Copenhagen 2024, was played on the new game.
Vitality's run
Vitality entered as Legends and went unbeaten through the Legends Stage. In the playoffs they beat Into The Breach 2-0 (16-11 on Vertigo, 16-12 on Anubis) and Apeks 2-0 (16-14 on Mirage, 16-12 on Vertigo).
GamerLegion took a longer road. As Challengers they started in the first stage, then beat Monte 2-0 in the quarter-finals and Heroic 2-1 in the semi-finals, losing Ancient 13-16 before winning Inferno 16-14 and Mirage 16-6. Their lineup was Mihai "iM" Ivan, Isak "isak" Fahlén, Frederik "acoR" Gyldstrand, Kamil "siuhy" Szkaradek and Nicolas "Keoz" Dgus, coached by Ashley "ashhh" Battye.
The final on May 21 was one-sided:
| Map | Score |
|---|---|
| Overpass | Vitality 16-6 GamerLegion |
| Nuke | Vitality 16-13 GamerLegion |
HLTV wrote that Vitality were only the second team to win a Major without dropping a map, after Natus Vincere at Stockholm 2021.
| Vitality | Country |
|---|---|
| Dan "apEX" Madesclaire | France |
| Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut | France |
| Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen | Denmark |
| Emil "Magisk" Reif | Denmark |
| Lotan "Spinx" Giladi | Israel |
| Danny "zonic" Sørensen | Denmark (coach) |
The win settled several storylines at once, as HLTV listed them:
- ZywOo won his first Major and HLTV's MVP medal, his first at a Valve-sponsored event, with a 1.54 rating in the final.
- dupreeh and zonic became the only two people with five CS:GO Major trophies. Their first four came with Astralis.
- Magisk won his fourth Major.
- Spinx became the first Israeli player to win a Major.
- apEX had waited longer than anyone between Major titles, having last won at DreamHack Cluj-Napoca 2015 with Team EnVyUs.
| Place | Team | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Vitality | $500,000 |
| 2nd | GamerLegion | $170,000 |
| 3rd–4th | Heroic, Apeks | $80,000 each |
| 5th–8th | FaZe Clan, Into The Breach, Monte, Team Liquid | $45,000 each |
Capsules and finishes
Valve put the Paris stickers on sale on May 4, 2023, four days before the event. Team sticker capsules and player autograph capsules came in four finishes: paper, glitter, holo and gold, the same set Antwerp and Rio had used. As before, 50% of the proceeds went to the players, teams and organisations.
There were three team capsules and three autograph capsules, split into Legends, Challengers and Contenders. Each team capsule held eight teams plus the BLAST.tv logo, and each autograph capsule the 40 players from those teams.
| Group | Teams |
|---|---|
| Legends | 9INE, Bad News Eagles, Fnatic, FURIA, Heroic, Into The Breach, Natus Vincere, Vitality |
| Challengers | Apeks, forZe eSports, G2 Esports, GamerLegion, Monte, Ninjas in Pyjamas, OG, paiN Gaming |
| Contenders | Complexity Gaming, ENCE, FaZe Clan, Fluxo, Grayhound Gaming, MOUZ, Team Liquid, The MongolZ |
The seventh capsule came after the event. The Paris 2023 Champions Autograph Capsule held apEX, dupreeh, Magisk, Spinx and ZywOo in paper, glitter, holo and gold, and HLTV noted that it arrived 11 days after the final, much later than the Rio and Antwerp versions. Like other Champions autographs, these carry "Champion" in the name, which separates them from the same players' stickers in the Legends Autograph Capsule.
Record sticker earnings
In January 2024 HLTV and Dust2 Brasil reported, citing team sources, that the Paris stickers had earned teams and players more than $110 million, not counting Vitality's Champions capsule. Each capsule's share was split equally among its eight teams or 40 players, and the Contenders capsule, with FaZe, Liquid, MOUZ and ENCE in it, did best.
HLTV pointed to two factors. The stickers were on the market from May 4 to September 27, nearly five months, which it put down to Paris being the only Major of 2023. And CS2's arrival drove player numbers to records, with the average player count passing 1 million for the first time in May and June. Our guide to Major sticker capsules has the per-team figures and compares Paris with earlier Majors.
Souvenirs and the Anubis package
Souvenirs worked as at Antwerp and Rio. Each Viewer Pass coin upgrade gave a Souvenir Token, up to three through the Pick'Em Challenge, and more could be bought. Valve said Souvenirs "feature gold stickers of the teams and map of the match you selected". Our Souvenir packages guide covers how the system changed later.
With Dust II gone, Paris had no Dust II package and was the first Major with an Anubis package. It draws from the Anubis Collection, 19 finishes that Valve added on April 24, 2023, two weeks before the event, with the M4A4 | Eye of Horus as its Covert. The other six packages used the same collections as Rio: Ancient, 2018 Inferno, 2021 Mirage, 2018 Nuke, Overpass and 2021 Vertigo.
Collecting Paris 2023 items
- Read the full name. Paris items end in "Paris 2023". Check for "Champion" in an autograph's name to tell the Champions capsule version from the regular one.
- Know the finishes. Teams and players come in paper, glitter, holo and gold. There is no foil Paris sticker.
- There is no Dust II Paris Souvenir. The seventh Paris package is Anubis, so a "Paris 2023" Souvenir always comes from one of the seven maps listed above.
- Check a Souvenir's stickers. The gold team stickers and the gold map sticker identify the match, such as Vitality against GamerLegion on Overpass or Nuke.
- Search by sticker. The sticker filter on Buy finds weapons carrying a specific Paris 2023 sticker, and you can narrow it by slot.
Sources
- BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 — Liquipedia
- Vitality romp to victory on home soil in last ever CS:GO Major — HLTV.org
- ZywOo claims BLAST.tv Paris Major MVP medal — HLTV.org
- Sources: Paris Major sticker earnings exceeded $110 million — HLTV.org
- Valve release Paris Major champions stickers — HLTV.org
- Anu Map Who Bis — Counter-Strike blog (Valve)
- 2023-05-04 Patch (Valve release notes) — Liquipedia
