Counter Strike: Global Offensive's BLAST Paris Major is one of the most eye-catching events and it continues with the penultimate day of the Challengers Stage on Wednesday.

Set to be the final ever CS:GO Major before the release of Counter Strike 2 later this year, the Paris Major is also the first Major to be hosted by BLAST and the first ever to take place in France.

Winning this event will therefore be pretty special for one team, who will also scoop $500,000 in prize money and secure their spot at the IEM Cologne 2023 and the BLAST Premier World Final later this year.

The event is split into three stages - the Challengers Stage, the Legends Stage and the Champions Stage.

The Champions Stage is a single-elimination bracket and will crown the overall winner, while the first two stages operate in a 16-team Swiss System format and use the Buchholz system to seed the teams.

The event is currently in the Challengers Stage, with just two days left before eight teams are eliminated and eight teams progress and here is a look at two matches taking place on Wednesday.

paiN Gaming can book place in Legends Stage

Seeded in the 'high matches' on Wednesday, both Apeks and paiN Gaming are going well in the Challengers Stage of the inaugural BLAST Paris Major and the winners of their clash on Wednesday will book their spot in the tournament's Legends Stage.

Both Apeks and paiN Gaming have 2-1 win-loss records as it stands after Apeks took down Team Liquid and Grayhound, but lost to G2 Esports, while paiN Gaming beat Fluxo and Complexity Gaming but lost to FaZe Clan.

Not a lot separates the teams in terms of their results and the teams they have played but it is worth noting paiN Gaming go into this contest with the much stronger round differential of +22 compared to Apeks's +2.

PaiN Gaming (18th) are also six places higher than Apeks (24th) in the HLTV world CS:GO rankings and arguably come out on top when comparing their respective experiences in major events.

Neither really impressed at the recent CS:GO Brazy Party, having both placed in the 5th-8th positions, but paiN Gaming were at least involved in Season 17 of the ESL Pro League earlier this year, having qualified for the knockout stage and made it to the round of 12.

They were also in the IEM Katowice play-in back in February, are more used to these kind of big-ticket events and at -110 they are worth chancing to come out on top and secure their spot in the Legends Stage.

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Ninjas in Pyjamas to show their class

This Wednesday's encounter is likely to be more one-sided with Ninjas in Pyjamas rated 1/6 to see off minnows Grayhound in their Challengers Stage encounter.

Both sides are level on 2-1 win-loss records in the Challengers Stage but it is fair to say Grayhound have been punching above their weight a little.

Very few would have envisaged such a strong campaign from Grayhound, who picked up wins over FORZE and MongolZ to get to this stage.

Both of those wins were, however, tight and Grayhound were found out in their second match of the stage, having been battered 16-0 by Apeks.

That was concerning but perhaps not surprising from a team who are down in 28th in the HLTV world CS:GO rankings.

Ninjas in Pyjamas have not exactly set the CS:GO circuit alight this season - they failed to make an impression at the recent IEM Rio, losing to Natus Vincere and Heroic, and there are concerns about the experience of player Daniil "headtr1ck" Valitov.

But the rest of the team has enough knowhow about it to progress to the Legends Stage, having handled their tricky opener with MOUZ well, winning 16-9, before a slip-up against ENCE and recovery against OG.

Ninjas in Pyjamas should win this and are worth chancing at -138 to win 2-0.

bet365 News Team

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