Top 5 Americas players at the Paris Major Challengers Stage
Now that the BLAST.tv Paris Major Challengers stage is behind us, we have a very brief break before it all kicks off again tomorrow. Before diving head first back into all the action at the Legends stage, let's take a moment for ourselves and look back at the stage just gone by with the Top 5 Americas players at the Paris Major Challengers Stage.
#1 
Keith "NAF" Markovic
Any NAFFERS? The ever-consistent Canadian tops the list of highest-performing players with an impressive 1.22 rating across nine maps, which puts him at number nine overall for the stage. The 25-year-old has notoriously been Liquid's rock, very rarely having a subpar performance but that was exactly what NAF was in the opening match against Apeks. Subpar. 7-22 with a 0.55 rating on Ancient, NAF would only post one more negative rating on Nuke against Fluxo with a 0.93, putting on a clinic in the other seven maps to help Liquid qualify and earn himself number one on this list.
#2 
Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt
Just missing out on the number one spot is paiN's IGL biguzera who posted a whopping 1.21 rating as he led the Brazilian side to the brink of progression. Finishing with a 2-3 record, the recently appointed leader of paiN led from the front across their nine maps played with his pièce de résistance coming on Anubis in the final series versus Monte, putting up a 29-18 stat line with an impressive 2.18 impact rating.
#3 
Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski
Next up on the list is Mr. Liquid himself EliGE, with the rifler trailing his co-star and the Brazilian brainiac just barely with a 1.19 rating for the stage. Only going negative in a sole map against Fluxo, EliGE's strong statistical performances were integral in Liquid's recovery from their 0-2 start, and he will need to continue putting up big numbers if Liquid is going to make it into the Champions stage.
#4 Josh "oSee" Ohm
Seeing the young American sniper's name on this list should undoubtedly put a smile on the faces of NA fans. While not as statistically stellar as his teammates NAF and EliGE, nor Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis who is excluded for obvious reasons, oSee's consistency and 1.11 rating were vital to Liquid's campaign. This time last year oSee had a 1.05 rating at the PGL Antwerp Major Challengers stage and late last year he put up a 1.04 rating at the main portion of IEM Rio. The improvement is evident and hopefully, it shall continue into the Legends stage.
#5 Wesley "hardzao" Lopes
Rounding out the list is paiN's hardzao, who beats out the likes of Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken and his teammate Felipe “skullz” Medeiros for the final spot. Finishing out with a 1.06 rating, many would have predicted that skullz or Romeu "zevy" Rocco would be up there alongside biguzera, however with both making their Major debut it was hardzao who took the honor as this was not his first rodeo, competing back at PGL Stockholm 2021.
