It’s a monumental moment for UK and Ireland Counter-Strike today as two UK-based esports organisations have reached the Blast Paris Major 2023 European RMR stage.
Both Viperio and Into the Breach secured their spots in the European RMR A after some impressive performances in a closed qualifier. Get through that, and they’ll be playing in the full $1.25m CSGO Paris Major at France’s Accor Arena this May.
The European RMR A stage will take place in Blast’s Copenhagen studio from April 6th to 9th 2023.
Into the Breach finished in sixth in the qualifier, with Viperio in seventh, putting them through to the European RMR A along with 1win (5th) and B8 (8th). They both picked up three wins and two losses each.
Meanwhile, teams that finished in the top four in the qualifier will head to the European RMR B. These are (in order from first to fourth) 9ine, G2, Eternal Fire and Astralis.
Tricked, Saw and Havu Gaming (9th to 11th) will now move to a closed qualifier decider bracket, while LDLC, Turow, Mixfits, Ikla and Copenhagen Flames are out.
Both UK teams feature plenty of UK talent, with Into the Breach consisting of Thomas, CYPHER and volt (all UK), plus rallen (Poland) and CRUC1AL (Netherlands), plus Portuguese coach Juve, and Viperio having arTisT (Ireland), as well as UK players Girafffe, Gizmy, MMS and cryths, and Irish coach BisCu.
‘Life-changing’ – community reacts to UK orgs reaching European RMR A
The UK CSGO esports community reacted excitedly to the news. Here’s a roundup of views from casters, org management, players and more:
Good luck to both teams as they advance to the European RMR A, and let’s hope we see some UK CS on the big stage in Paris this May.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
