With the inaugural Paris Major and the BLAST Premier Spring Finals both on the horizon, it is set to be a busy few months in the realm of Counter Strike: Global Offensive.

But before those high-profile events get underway, it is time for the CS:GO Brazy Party, which began earlier this week and finishes next Wednesday.

The A-Tier event has a decent prize pool of $333,000 up for grabs and the 16 teams involved have started in four double-elimination groups with the top two in each section set to advance to the playoffs, which are single-elimination format.

All teams involved were invited and there are some big names - from Astralis to Cloud9, to BIG to OG.

Each group has played its opening matches and attention now turns to the elimination matches - a game between the two initial losers - and a winners match - a game between the two initial winners.

The winner of the elimination matches will then face the loser of the winners match in a decider contest, while the winner of the winners match will progress directly to the playoffs.

OG can demonstrate cutting edge against Apeks

By the end of play on Friday, we will know which four teams will progress to the CS:GO Brazy Party playoffs from Groups A and B, and one of Apeks or OG is guaranteed a spot in the knockouts.

Both teams won their opening matches - Apeks edged Eternal Fire 2-1 and OG defeated GODSENT 2-0 - meaning they will now meet in the Group A winner match.

The winner of the contest will progress directly to the playoffs, whereas the loser will have one final bite at the cherry to qualify as they drop into the decider match in which they will face the winner of Eternal Fire v GODSENT.

There is therefore a lot to play for in this one but OG look set to prevail.

Whereas Apeks limped to their opening win, OG were authoritative against GODSENT, winning 16-7 on Inferno and 16-9 on Mirage.

It was a comfortable win and they demonstrated their superior big-tournament experience in that contest.

OG are 13th in the HLTV world rankings, whereas Apeks are down in 33rd spot and OG have been mixing it with the best for some time.

Although they struggled to make much of an impact at the ESL Pro League Season 17 or the IEM Katowice earlier this year, simply having been in the tournaments puts them above the level of most in this event.

And it is worth remembering they were placed in the third-fourth positions in the BLAST Premier World Final in December.

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Into the Breach and 00Nation tough to separate

Group B's winners match also takes place on Friday and pits Into the Breach against 00Nation.

Brazilians 00Nation are not having the best of years and it would have been remarkably frustrating for them to have not qualified for the recent CS:GO IEM Rio on their own patch.

But they at least restored some pride in their Brazy Party opener, having eased to a 2-0 win against a BIG side who are 11th in the HLTV world CS:GO rankings.

That should have done their confidence the world of good, especially as Into The Breach had to work much harder for their 2-1 win over another Brazilian outfit in paiN Gaming.

Overall, though, these sides are in pretty similar positions right now with 00Nation 29th in the world rankings and Into the Breach only a little lower in 35th position.

Into the Breach should win, but given how 00Nation performed against BIG last time out, punters should not be rushing to back that bet.

bet365 News Team

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