fnatic defeat B8 to qualify for BLAST.tv Paris Major

The 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.

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, Denis "⁠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.

The standings of the Swiss group look as follows:

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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.