By: SEAN YANG
Staff Writer
The Paris Major is the last Major in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, anticipating the release of Counter-Strike 2 in the summer of this year. Many historical teams and players have been eliminated from the tournament, such as G2 Esports and Natus Vincere. NiKo, widely regarded as the greatest rifler of all time, has become infamous to now be the greatest player to never win a Major after his team, G2, lost to Fnatic in the Legends stage. On the other side of the coin is s1mple, considered to be the greatest player of all time overall. After a devastating loss to Monte, s1mple and his team was eliminated from qualifying for a playoff spot by FaZe Clan.
However, there are still favorites to take the trophy. Team Vitality, being a French team, has garnered the most support throughout the Major, with a star player and contender for GOAT status ZywOo putting up MVP stats throughout the entire tournament. Heroic is close on Vitality’s tail, however, with extremely consistent performances in the whole event. With these two teams being so equal, it is entirely up in the air as to who will be able to win it all.
Still, there are dark horses and underdogs among them that could easily throw any predictions out of the window. Into The Breach, a UK team had taken the world by storm when this ragtag group of unknowns had wiped out teams such as FaZe, ENCE, and Fnatic, and nearly took down the goliath that is Vitality. NAVI was considered to be a favorite to take the last Major, before Monte surprised everyone by knocking them down into a bottom seed, eventually getting them eliminated. Teams such as Apeks and GamerLegion have also taken matches from the likes of Team Liquid, with Apeks having eliminated Liquid in the quarterfinals.
Who will win? Team Vitality with their Chosen One, ZywOo? Will it be Heroic with cadiaN, who has never stopped pursuing his goal to win a Major? Or, will the world be taken by surprise as the dark horses that are Apeks and GamerLegion pull off a Herculean effort to find themselves in the grand finals of the last CS: GO Major ever?