BLAST.tv Paris Major stars debut new rosters at IEM Cologne

The BLAST.tv Paris Major was special for a number of reasons. The first BLAST Major, the final CS:GO Major, apEX and ZywOo winning in front of their home crowd, and tier two teams arriving to spoil the fun of all the tier one teams that look down on them.

The Champions Stage was a perfect representation of what the tier two teams arrived in Paris to do, and as extension of that, the perfect representation of the Major’s open circuit appeal. Out of the eight teams to feature in the playoffs, four of those came from outside of any partner system, and with all four set to also appear at IEM Cologne, each one will do it having made changes to their rosters.

As Cologne prepares to kick off, let’s take a look at those changes and try to gauge whether the teams will be able to repeat their heroics in Germany.

Into the Breach

Into the Breach shocked the world by even making the BLAST.tv Paris Major at all. The first UK core to ever make a Major in CS:GO, the hope at the time was that they would reinvigorate the UK scene in the wake of CS2.

A sad turn of events for the UK scene then, they will now appear at their very next event with only a single UK player remaining in their roster. With volt departing for GamerLegion and CYPHER reportedly on his way to TSM, captain Thomas remains, but that doesn’t mean Into the Breach have been left in the lurk.

Arriving in their place is NEOFRAG and bymas, two players with experience at tier one level that the players they are replacing could only dream of, but also two players who will arrive hungry and with a point to prove considering the ends of their tenures with their previous teams.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

Former FaZe and MOUZ player bymas never truly settled in tier one, at least not in a personal sense. Outshone by fellow rookie broky on FaZe, and then by the influx of academy players brought into MOUZ, bymas had periods playing as both a Lurker and an Entry as the two sides looked to find the best utilisation of him. There were flashes of brilliance, but not enough for either team to stick by him in the long run.

As for NEOFRAG, the Czech starred for his former team SINNERS down in tier two, but his transition to tier one with OG never saw him recapture that form. Often a struggling roster, OG might not have been the best landing place for NEOFRAG in tier one. A team that would become mired down by it’s stand-in IGL, just as NEOFRAG may have started to settle, the shake-up caused by that change hit the reset button.

On ITB, both players will benefit by having lower expectations placed upon their young shoulders, while the team as a whole will benefit from their hunger to prove the doubters wrong. A solid move that builds upon their success in Paris, while it will be difficult for them to replicate that, we like this move in the long run.

Monte

A team that many had suggested were dark horses to reach the Champions Stage prior to the event, Monte had slowly been building their reputation through online events in the months prior to the Major.

Having taken down NAVI on their way to the playoffs, no one could take their achievement away from them via an ‘easy draw’ argument, but they could prise away their prize asset.

An unstoppable aggressive force, BOROS became something of a fan favourite thanks to his destruction of Cloud9’s former IGL nafany in the RMR, and as the Major proved that wasn’t a fluke, Falcons swooped in to poach him for their revamped roster.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

Replaced by br0, a former Astralis Talent player, unlike the moves made by Into the Breach, the one fails to capture much excitement.

Astralis Talent have never been the most successful Academy side, nor have they created the greatest prospects. Fessor has been farmed around multiple tier two teams, including Monte, while Altekz lasted all of two months on the main squadron.

Time will tell if this is a good move and br0 can replace the hole BOROS has left, but on face value at least, Monte are big losers here.

Apeks

Perhaps the most surprising departure from any of these teams was jL’s departure for NAVI. He impressed for Apeks during the Challengers Stage, but failed to replicate the strong performances during Legends and Champions, and a move slightly further down the ladder felt more realistic at the time.

Despite this, NAVI’s rebuild meant that they were moving to a European core, and the storied organisation came calling for the Apeks player they felt had the most potential to help them do that.

Photo: Michal Konkol

Apeks found their replacement in CacaNito, the former BLUEJAYS player who got his first real taste of tier one action while standing in for ATK at ESL Pro League Season 17. Brought in presumably to become one of the stars of the team, there will be a lot of intrigue surrounding his performances in Cologne. A player that many regard as having high potential and already ready for the big time, he could become a key figure for Apeks very soon.

One of the bigger gambles of the off-season, this move could go either way for Apeks. But with jL’s departure carving out a big hole in their squadron, we’re inclined to say the team is also slightly worse off with this move.

GamerLegion

The biggest surprise of all the tier two teams in Paris was GamerLegion. 0-2 down in the Challengers Stage, the siuhy-led squadron went all the way to the Grand Final, even beating Heroic in a thrilling Semi-Final matchup.

With a success as grand as theirs, it was unrealistic to think that they would ever be able to hold onto their stars, particularly when siuhy is the hottest IGL prospect in Counter-Strike right now and iM was the second highest rated player at the event.

It always felt inevitable that siuhy would depart for MOUZ, but it was more of a surprise when it was NAVI who poached iM, the biggest thing though, was that GamerLegion now had a near impossible task to fill their boots.

They would land upon neaLaN as the replacement for siuhy. Coming off a disappointing spell with Evil Geniuses, this is a move that many will be down on, but we remember the slight upturn in the NA team’s fortunes upon his arrival. An IGL who clearly has a lot of talent and a brain for the game, EG was never going to be the right move for neaLaN, but GamerLegion just might be.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

The harder problem was always going to be replacing iM. By far the star of the team, iM’s performances far surpassed those of his teammates, and it’s no surprise that if NAVI were transitioning to an EU core, it was the Romanian they chose to do it with.

GamerLegion found their replacement for iM in the form of another Romanian, Into the Breach’s volt. A player who saw success in the WePlay Academy League with fnatic Rising before his time on ITB, he certainly has potential to succeed with his new team, although it won’t be that simple.

Far from the star of Into the Breach, volt will have to add another element to his game in order to experience the same success with GamerLegion. A team who now have unavoidably raised expectations due to their appearance in a Major final, his performances will be paramount to them living up to their new billing.

Much like Apeks, these are moves that could go either way. neaLaN might not be siuhy, but he has previously shown potential, and this is undeniably a better roster for him to work with. As for volt, it’ll take a lot of convincing for us to believe he’s currently fit to lace iM’s boots, and for that reason, we’ll hedge our bets on GamerLegion never getting close to recreating the success of their former team.