The End of an era

And with that, we say goodbye to our childhood as the final major under the title of CS: GO comes to an end. All good things come to an end so that better things can prosper. And now we wait and see CS 2 flourish.

After a dazzling end to the grand final, Team Vitality crowns themselves victors of the Paris Major 2023. Some time ago, Valve made an announcement that broke the hearts of millions of fans around the world.

They announced that the Paris Major 2023 will be the final major of the loved and long-running title CS: GO. And with that, yesterday marks the end of an era. So, let us take a look back and see what transpired in this final major of CS: GO.

Paris Major 2023: The Challengers Stage
Paris Major 2023: The Legends Stage
Paris Major 2023: The Champions Stage
Final major champion and their journey

Paris Major 2023: The Challengers Stage

A total of 24 teams entered this grand tournament. And these entered via different routes, some through previous tournament seedings while others through regional qualifiers. And they were divided into three categories according to their journey. These are:

Contenders

ENCE
MOUZ
Team Liquid
Greyhound Gaming
Complexity Gaming
The MongolZ
Fluxo
FaZe Clan

Challengers

Monte
paiN Gaming
G2 Esports
GamerLegion
FORZE Esports
Apeks
Ninjas in Pyjamas
OG

Legends

Natus Vincere
9INE
FURIA Esports
Fnatic
Heroic
Into The Breach
Team Vitality
Bad News Eagles

The Challengers Stage featured a battle between the 16 teams from the Contenders and Challengers. After a gruesome tussle between these teams, the top eight teams qualifying for The Legends Stage were ENCE, G2 Esports, Apeks, FaZe Clan, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Monte, Team Liquid, and GamerLegion.

Paris Major 2023: The Legends Stage

The Legends Stage featured a similar system as the previous one. The eight qualifying teams locked horns against the remaining eight Legends. And only the top eight were to make it to the final stage of the Paris Major 2023.

After four long days of battle, the fan favorites made it to the final stage along with a few underdogs. Heroic and Team Vitality led the table with zero map losses under their name. However, for the first in a while now, two of the biggest contenders in the history of CS: GO were ruled out of the final major of the title, G2 Esports and Natus Vincere.

The eight qualifying teams were Heroic, Team Vitality, Team Liquid, Monte, GamerLegion, Apeks, Into The Breach, and FaZe Clan.

Paris Major 2023: The Champions Stage

This stage featured a single elimination bracket with all games played in a best-of-3 format. The quarter-finals featured games as follows:

Heroic vs FaZe Clan
GamerLegion vs Monte
Team Liquid vs Apeks
Into The Breach vs Team Vitality

Of all the surprises in this major, the biggest came in the quarter-finals. Heroic knocked out FaZe while one of the underdogs, Apeks made short work of Team Liquid and threw them out of this final CS: GO major. The other two teams qualifying for the semi-finals were Team Vitality and GamerLegion.

The semi-finals were hosted between,

Heroic vs GamerLegion
Apeks vs Team Vitality

Team Vitality made their way to the grand final defeating Apeks 2-0 in the set, easily breezing through. On the other hand, one of the fan favorites, Heroic got knocked out at the hands of the absolute underdog, GamerLegion.

The stage was set for the grand final at the heart of France with Team Vitality taking up the mantle against GamerLegion. An unexpected matchup that nobody expected to see in the final. However, despite the old legend of David and Goliath, this one panned out as everyone expected. Team Vitality thrashed their opponent 2-0 to win the title of the final CS: GO major winner.

Final major champions and their journey

Team Vitality was no doubt the strongest side coming into the Paris Major 2023. Showing great performance in the previous tournaments as well as having the French mastermind as the in-game leader (IGL), it was destined to be their victory.

Even coming into the grand final, Team Vitality was the only remaining team to ever face a defeat on any map in the tournament. And they held on to the streak as they defeated GamerLegion 2-0 in the grand final. The whole tournament showed many unexpected turns throughout the campaign and it was a dreamy end for the fans. It was one of the best majors to ever happen for CS: Go, and it was time to say goodbye to the beautiful game.