Americas fate at future Majors is at stake today
Heading into the final few games at the BLAST.tv Paris Major Challengers stage, there is a lot more at stake than just personal performance and progression to the Legends stage. For Liquid and paiN, North Americas future Major spots are on the line in their respective encounters with Grayhound and Monte.
If both teams are to win, the Americas will gain back the spot that they lost at IEM Rio late last year when only FURIA progressed to the Playoffs. If only one of the two makes it there will be no change to the spot distribution but if disaster strikes and both teams lose, the next Americas RMR will only see four teams progress to the PGL Major in Copenhagen.
According to the Valve Major rulebook, the Americas are guaranteed at minimum three contenders spots, with all additional places being decided at the previous Major. With FURIA already in the Legends stage, one additional Challengers invitation will be assigned to the Americas every team that reaches the Legends stage.
When it comes to the Legends stage, one Legends invitation will be assigned to the Americas for every team that reaches the playoffs, meaning that there could be even more Americas spots depending on how things go in the next phase.
Liquid looked like they were sure to miss out on the Legends stage after their dismal 0-2 start where they lost to Apeks and Forze in BO1 action. Recovering against Fluxo and Complexity, Liquid will be hoping to complete their comeback story today against Australian side Grayhound.
As for paiN, the Brazilians have had a much more fluctuating run starting with a 16-2 win over Fluxo before going down 16-12 to FaZe. Decimating Complexity 16-4 was followed by a crushing 2-1 loss to Apeks, ultimately booking them a date with Monte in the daunting 2-2 match.
