FURIA enter the Paris.tv Major Americas RMR as the second-ranked team, with only Team Liquid sitting higher in the ESL world rankings. The world no.11 has struggled in its last two events, finishing 9th-12th at ESL Pro League 17 and fifth-eighth at BLAST Premier Spring Showdown Americas. FURIA will be heavy favourites to finish in the top five and qualify for the Major, and we don’t expect TeamOne to cause them too many problems in a best-of-one series.

TeamOne, ranked no.50 in the world, drew the short straw in their first round series. They have been competing in IEM Dallas qualifiers and ESL Challenger League Season 44 North America, demonstrating that their form is inferior to that of their Brazilian counterparts.

FURIA are the overwhelming favourites in this match, and they should easily win the first series.

Team Liquid are coming off a disappointing ESL Pro League 17 finish in which they finished 13th-16th and were eliminated 0-2 in the first round of the playoffs by paiN Gaming. They suffered the same fate at their next event, the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown Americas, losing 1-2 to paiN Gaming. The world no.6 and highest-ranked team at the RMR will be looking for a change of form, and with a lot of lower-ranked teams to contend with, Liquid should finish in the top two. They last faced 00Nation at IEM Cologne 2022, winning 2-1 after the first two maps went to overtime.

00Nation’s ranking has risen from 47th in the world at the beginning of March to 24th as of April 3, with their rise owing to strong performances at the IEM Rio 2023 South America Closed Qualifier and ESL Pro League Season 17. The all-Brazilian roster has been in excellent form recently, and Liquid will be aware of how close their previous series with 00Nation was.

This series is shaping up to be one of the best of the Americas RMR’s opening rounds, and we will be taking overs in the total rounds market.

Although Imperial did not advance past the group stage at ESL Pro League Season 17, they did defeat Complexity, EG Black, and paiN Gaming in the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown Americas to win the event and qualify for the BLAST Premier Spring Final. Imperial have risen from world no.42 in February to world no.28 today as a result of performances at S-Tier events. The all-Brazilian roster enters the RMR on a three-match winning streak, and they are heavy favourites to defeat Evil Geniuses in their first series.

Evil Geniuses did not qualify for the Americas RMR, but they were given a spot as a result of Detonate’s inability to submit a roster for the event. Without a doubt, Evil Geniuses have struggled over the last six months. The North American roster has only won four of its last 17 series, and we don’t see that streak ending in this series.

Imperial are in top form, while Evil Geniuses are not. We’ll be backing Imperial to win this series at the rounds line with GG Bet.

PaiN Gaming have been one of the more consistent CS:GO teams in the Americas region, with a win rate of 70% over the last three months. In the last month alone, the all-Brazilian roster has risen from 30th to 15th in the ESL world rankings. After being eliminated in the second round of the playoffs at ESL Pro League 17 and finishing second at BLAST Premier Spring Showdown Americas, paiN enter the Americas RMR as one of the favourites to gain direct entry into the Major’s Legends Stage.

Paqueta will compete in their first S-Tier event after qualifying for the BLAST.tv Paris Major RMR by finishing fifth in the South American Closed Qualifier. However, this level of Counter-Strike is far above what they have been competing at for some time. Coming up against paiN Gaming in their opening series will be a good reference point to see where they are at, but we don’t see them winning this match.

We’ll take paiN Gaming at -5.5, which we believe is a very generous line for a match that could be very one-sided.

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