989? ??? ??? ??European combine will begin their Major journey in the Legends Stage.

fnatic became the second team to secure a spot at the BLAST.tv Paris Major. With a 3-0 record in the Europe RMR, William "?mezii?" Merriman and company secured Legends status and will therefore skip the Challengers Stage at the French tournament. Their run at the RMR included wins against 1win and Viperio before they bested B8 in their third match to stop their upset run and leave them with two more chances to qualify for Paris. The Ukrainian's first test will come against fellow giant killers Into the Breach on Saturday.

"I don't give a fuck about the run and who we played, it doesn't mean anything in this system," said mezii about their run, which to the criticism of some included games against three teams outside of the top 30.

The teams previously met in the IEM Road to Rio 2022 Europe RMR A, where it was B8 who got the better of fnatic in a 16-9 victory. They weren't able to repeat the feat this time around, with fnatic securing a 2-1 victory and a Major spot.

KRIMZ qualified for his 16th CS:GO Major

The series began on Vertigo, and fnatic put together a dominant T side. It wasn't all smooth sailing, however, as the European combine needed both Freddy "?KRIMZ?" Johansson and Nico "?nicoodoz?" Tamjidi to clutch out respective 1vs4 and 1vs3 situations that kept them in the lead in the opening exchanges. They went into the second half 10-5 ahead and closed out the map 16-8 despite losing a second-round force buy. KRIMZ rolled back the years with a fantastic performance, putting up 113 ADR and 28 kills to put his team one map away from a Major appearance.

Nuke was B8's pick and they quickly justified their decision, winning nine rounds on the T side to give them a three-round lead at the half. Their start to the defense was shaky, with fnatic winning the first gun round and reducing the deficit, but the Ukrainian side stabilized with the help of Artem "?r1nkle?" Moroz's impact on the AWP and closed out the map 16-11.

The close nature of the series continued on Ancient, where neither team got up to a sizable lead in the first half. With the scores tied up at 6-6, Denys "?amster?" Liashenko clutched out a 1vs2 situation to secure the half for his team and break fnatic's economy, giving them a 9-6 lead at the switch.

Once the sides switched, B8 needed too much time to warm up as they found themselves 13-10 down. They put together a decent comeback attempt after that but ran out of steam to lose the map 13-16, as mezii reached 28 kills with a double kill and secured fnatic's spot in the Legends Stage.

BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Europe RMR ABest of 3 B8Matchpage 1 2 7th April 2023 fnatic 8Vertigo 16 16Nuke 11 13Ancient 16

?B8	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Artem 'r1nkle' Morozr1nkle	52 - 54	-2	75.4	1.04
Alexey 'alex666' Yarmoshchukalex666	58 - 56	+2	80.8	1.02
Denys 'amster' Liashenkoamster	50 - 55	-5	66.6	1.00
Arseniy 'cptkurtka023' Derevinskiycptkurtka023	54 - 63	-9	73.3	0.94
Mykhailo 'OWNER' LymarOWNER	37 - 59	-22	55.5	0.75

?fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ	71 - 50	+21	86.5	1.27
William 'mezii' Merrimanmezii	61 - 48	+13	85.2	1.23
Fredrik 'roeJ' J?rgensenroeJ	49 - 49	0	83.9	1.10
Nico 'nicoodoz' Tamjidinicoodoz	50 - 54	-4	68.8	1.03
Dion 'FASHR' DerksenFASHR	51 - 51	0	66.0	1.02

The standings of the Swiss group look as follows:

Group Swiss 3W - 0L Natus Vincere fnatic 2W - 1L Into the Breach Bad News Eagles B8 GamerLegion Falcons FaZe 1W - 2L Virtus.pro Apeks 1win Sprout MOUZ OG 0W - 3L SAW Viperio

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You can check out more of HLTV's coverage of the RMR and the Paris Major in the dedicated coverage hub.

Viperio #80 Tom 'arTisT' ClarkeMatas 'Extinct' StrumilaCallum 'Girafffe' JonesJack 'Gizmy' von SpreckelsenMarco 'MMS' Salomone Denys 'amster' Liashenko Age: 21 Team: B8 Rating 1.0: 0.93 Maps played: 415 KPR: 0.61 DPR: 0.65 fnatic #12 William 'mezii' MerrimanFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonNico 'nicoodoz' TamjidiFredrik 'roeJ' J?rgensenDion 'FASHR' Derksen Nico 'nicoodoz' Tamjidi Age: 22 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 847 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.61 fnatic #12 William 'mezii' MerrimanFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonNico 'nicoodoz' TamjidiFredrik 'roeJ' J?rgensenDion 'FASHR' Derksen 1win #37 Aleksandr 'TRAVIS' TimkivDenis 'deko' ZhukovKirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovIgor 'Forester' BezotecheskiyAleksei 'NickelBack' Trofimov Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson Age: 28 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 1898 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.64 B8 #42 Arseniy 'cptkurtka023' DerevinskiyDenys 'amster' LiashenkoAlexey 'alex666' YarmoshchukArtem 'r1nkle' MorozMykhailo 'OWNER' Lymar Artem 'r1nkle' Moroz Age: 18 Team: B8 Rating 1.0: 1.14 Maps played: 256 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.64 Into the Breach #53 Karol 'rallen' RodowiczJoey 'CRUC1AL' SteuselThomas 'Thomas' UttingCai 'CYPHER' WatsonSebastian 'volt' Malo? William 'mezii' Merriman Age: 24 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 642 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.63 B8 #42 Arseniy 'cptkurtka023' DerevinskiyDenys 'amster' LiashenkoAlexey 'alex666' YarmoshchukArtem 'r1nkle' MorozMykyta 'Hkta' Reva