8 Best CSGO Players at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023

We took a look at the best CSGO players from each team that made it to the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Playoffs

The last-ever Global Offensive Major was one for the history books, with new talents causing big upsets and the legendary players trying to keep their legacy alive. Accor Arena was in tears as Team Vitality grabbed the trophy they rightfully deserved, and even though the rest of the eight squads couldn’t have the same fate, reaching the Champions Stage is an achievement on its own.

THE PARIS MAJOR MVP 🏅

👑 @zywoo 👑 pic.twitter.com/rz8eOgiiJN

— Team Vitality 🐝 (@TeamVitality) May 22, 2023

Each of these eight teams had a guiding light that has helped them reach so far in this Major through consistent performance. Here are all the great players of the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, who led their teammates to the Playoffs, with some even reaching further –

Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut

• HLTV Rating: 1.33
• Impact Rating: 1.44
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 75.2%
• Average Damage Round: 87.7
• Kills Per Round: 0.84

The humble king of Vitality has finally won a Major after four years of consistency, grabbing the MVP title on the way. ZywOo was sharp from the European RMR B, leading his team to a 5-1 record to confirm a Legends Stage spot. After the RMRs, the French prodigy continued his domination in the IEM Rio 2023, becoming the MVP of the event with a 1.31 rating and helping his team grab the trophy. This year already looked great for this 22-year-old, but the Paris Major made it even better.

Vitality arrived at the Major stage as the favorites against most contenders, and they enjoyed an undefeated journey while other alpha contenders faced big upsets. Through this flawless expedition of the French roster in front of their home crowd, Herbus Doubledoor looked stellar from the beginning to the end, with his best performance being against Into The Breach on Anubis with a 26-12 K-D and a 1.70 HLTV rating. 

Mihai “iM” Ivan

• HLTV Rating: 1.12
• Impact Rating: 1.18
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 70.0%
• Average Damage Round: 82.3
• Kills Per Round: 0.74

The Romanian rifler for GamerLegion appeared out of nowhere from B-tier CS:GO scene to being one of the best players in the Major, helping the underdog squad reach the Grand Final against Vitality. Before joining the German roster, iM was part of Nexus and helped them reach their prime of #40 in the world rankings with his excellent talent of taking opening duels. Before this event, the 23-year-old didn’t have any significant achievements in his career, with only a few B-tier trophies to his name, making his Major journey one of the best Cinderella stories of this year.

iM had some downs and primarily ups in the Challengers Stage and found his consistency from the Legends Stage, averaging a 1.35 rating. While his best performance statistically comes from the Bo3 against Monte, where the entry fragger picked up a 1.89 rating on the second map with a 34-17 K-D, the highlight of his Major journey has to be the game facing Heroic, where his excellence in the third map with a 1.87 rating allowed GamerLegion reach the Grand Final. 

Keith “NAF” Markovic

• HLTV Rating: 1.09
• Impact Rating: 1.08
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 73.5%
• Average Damage Round: 81.1
• Kills Per Round: 0.72

NAF is one of the best that North America has to offer in Counter-Strike, as he helped Team Liquid flourish in the Global Offensive scene by joining them in early 2018. This was his 7th Major appearance with TL, with a total of 10 Majors played. We saw the glimmers of his 2019 era in the Accor Arena as he was the torchbearer of success for the North American roster in this Major. 

The rifler had the worst start of any player in the Challengers Stage, getting only 7 frags against Apeks and losing his first game. This underperformance repeated itself in the Playoffs' quarter-final game against the same team. However, these were the only two instances where the 25-year-old failed to reach his potential, as he looked exceptionally well in the rest of the tournament, with the Bo1 against 9INE being his highlight, where NAF scored a 1.63 rating by getting a 25-14 K-D.

Helvijs “broky” Saukants

• HLTV Rating: 1.10
• Impact Rating: 1.01
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 72.7%
• Average Damage Round: 73.0
• Kills Per Round: 0.70

While the Latvian AWPer didn’t have a repeat of his incredible BLAST Premier World Final performance in Paris, he was still the best among his squadmates on his fourth Major. FaZe saw glimmers of excellence in broky in 2019 when he was making waves with Epsilon after dominating regional events. Since his signing, he has helped the legendary CS roster win 6 offline events and a Major at PGL Antwerp 2022. 

The 22-year-old hasn’t been on top of the charts in every game during this Major, but he was consistent throughout, which helped FaZe reach the Playoffs by barely making it through the Legends Stage. It was the decider game against NAVI where broky had his standout masterpiece on Anubis, where a 40-23 K-D helped him close out the third map, winning overtime with a 1.41 rating and eliminating NAVI from joining the Champions Stage. 

Martin “stavn” Lund

• HLTV Rating: 1.12
• Impact Rating: 1.14
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 71.0%
• Average Damage Round: 81.1
• Kills Per Round: 0.73

Even though stavn has been a top 20 player for the last three years, he hasn’t achieved that many big titles for Heroic, winning only 1 out of the 24 LAN events he participated. However, the Danish 21-year-old has come close to significant trophies this year by helping his team reach the Grand Finals of IEM Rio and Katowice. 

During Heroic’s 4-1 journey in Paris, the Lund brother had been on top of his game, with the only exception being the 8-19 K-D facing GamerLegion in the semi-final series. The Champions Stage decider against Liquid was the young professional’s peak in the Major, as he secured a 1.60 rating on Ancient with a powerful 30-16 K-D. 

Mohammad “BOROS” Malhas

• HLTV Rating: 1.16
• Impact Rating: 1.31
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 69.6%
• Average Damage Round: 84.3
• Kills Per Round: 0.79

From participating in B-tier events to becoming one of the top 15 players in the Major, Boros had a wild journey in 2023. Before his remarkable performance in the RMRs as a great impact player, most of the Counter-Strike world was unaware of this Jordanian rifler. The 19-year-old secured a 1.31 rating in the RMRs while defeating top 20 squads like Cloud9, ENCE and FORZE to reach the Challengers Stage of his first-ever Major. 

The best we saw from this rookie in this Major was against none other than NAVI, where not only Monte won the series with a 2-0 score, they did it in a very dominating fashion. In that display of power, BOROS joined his teammates Volodymyr “Woro2k” Veletnjuk and Szymon “kRaSnaL” Mrozek to get a 16-2 victory against Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev’s roster, achieving a 1.64 rating through his 19-7 K/D.

Cai “CYPHER” Watson

• HLTV Rating: 1.07
• Impact Rating: 1.17
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 69.6%
• Average Damage Round: 77.6
• Kills Per Round: 0.69

The 20-year-old British rifler had a lot of eyes on him in Paris as he helped Into The Breach reach the Legends Stage of their first-ever Major through his incredible RMR run. CYPHER surprised everyone by defeating big names like Virtus.pro and Sprout in the European RMR A and crafting a path to his most significant achievement in a five-year-long career. 

While many other players surpassed CYPHER in terms of stats, he remained the best member of his team during ITB’s 3-2 run in this Major. The young talent’s most notable performance comes from the Bo3 upset over Fnatic, where he dominated the third map alongside teammate Joey “CRUC1AL” Steusel to secure a 1.68 rating with the highest ADR score.

Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad

• HLTV Rating: 1.04
• Impact Rating: 1.17
• Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 70.2%
• Average Damage Round: 80.5
• Kills Per Round: 0.73

The Norwegian has one of the most Major appearances, with this being his eighth. However, in his long career, jkaem failed to win big titles even though he attended many of them with G2, FaZe and Renegades. We saw his experience come to fruition after joining Apeks, as he led this European roster to its first Major and almost made it to the Grand Final, being the author of a great dark horse story.

The 29-year-old helped Apeks to bring some of the biggest upsets of the Major against teams like Liquid and Ninjas In Pyjamas. He had a jaw-dropping Bo1 against Into The Breach in Legends Stage, where jkaem’s incredible 31-17 K-D led to a 1.89 rating, one of the best scores in a single map this event.

These are the stories that made the final CS:GO Major one of the most memorable events in eSports history. As we head into a new era of Counter-Strike with CS2, stay with ESTNN to receive your favorite news from the biggest competitions.