Counter Strike Global offensive, and Paris Major 2023 the end of a Chapter in Counter Strike History

Counter Strike, a 5v5 First Person Shooter Video game franchise created by world renowned organization Valve was made in the 1990s, and has had a total of 3 installments. This year on March 22nd 2023 the 4th installment of the game was announced and was said to be coming in summer of 2023. Valve announced it to be called Counter Strike 2 and it would be a sequel to the current Counter Strike game, Counter Strike Global Offensive which has been the most recent installment since 2012.

Throughout the years Counter Strike has been known for its extremely competitive atmosphere which is seen in each game, with countless worldwide tournaments known as majors happening one or two times each year. With the release of Counter Strike 2 on the horizon it signified an end for the current generation of Competitive Counter Strike and shows and this event would send the entire Counterstike scene into turmoil in trying their best at making history in the final Major

The Blast Major in Paris 2023, is the last CS:GO major to ever happen in Counter Strike history. With various different teams from all over the world qualifying and participating.

Legends: Natus Vincere, 9INE, Furia Esports, Fnatic, Heroic, Into The Breach, Bad News Eagles Team Vitality.

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

Contenders: MOUZ, Team Liquid, Grayhound Gaming, Complexity Gaming, The Mongolz, Fluxo, ENCE, FaZe Clan.

During the tournament various analysts doubted many teams, teams like GamerLegion, Grayhound, Apeks and even ITB, as well as the notorious team liquid on even qualifying for the tournament. While many other teams that were foreseen to qualify didn’t. Many of these underdogs made it to the group stage, many went even further and caused many upsets throughout the entirety of the tournament.

In this tournament we saw defeats by many teams that were foreseen to win the major but ended up being struck down. An example of this was shown when Gamer Legion made it to all the way to grand finals and struck down teams like Monte, Fnatic, 9ine, and even Heroic who was foreseen to win the whole major giving Cadian his first and last ever CS:GO win for this year was his last ever appearance on the competitive stage as a pro player. It was also seen in the tournament that competitive team Monte had finally gotten their revenge on Navi in the group stage by wiping them from the chance at winning the major. Before the Major started there had been tension between pro player S1mple, (professional on navi) and pro players DemQQ and Sdy(current monte pros, former Navi pros). Before the two professional players played on navi they were criticized by S1mple the IGL for being bad and were eventually traded. These two players eventually got their revenge and upset everyone, however it was nothing compared to the performance shown by ITB pro Cypher and his immaculate performance against Faze and many other teams in the major. As well as pro team Gamer legion with them making it to Grand finals against Vitality which eventually led to them losing the Major.

The History of Counter Strike, while still alive, closes the Global Offensive chapter forever after this major and setting Pro Team VItality, and Players Zyw0o, Magisk, Sphinx, Dupreeh, and apEX in the CS:GO major history book forever. With Zyw0o getting his much deserved first major, apEX’s Second and last major, and setting Magisk as the Best CS:GO player ever with him setting 5 major titles. The Counter Strike community will never forget CS:GO and as Counter Strike 2 comes closer to fruition each day, the Best and Final Major comes to an end. Goodbye, and rest in peace Counter Strike Global Offensive.