Blast.tv Paris Major final with a UK touch, thanks to Ash “ash” Battye

31 May 2023

As you probably know by now, especially if you’re a big Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fan, French organisation Team Vitality crowned themselves world champions recently. They won the Blast.tv Paris Major 2023, in their home city, which converted them into the last-ever winners of a CS:GO Major, seeing as the game will be replaced by Counter-Strike 2 later this year. We wrote a more detailed piece about Vitality’s victorious run for our international sister website, but what we haven’t focused on yet is the UK touch to the event’s Grand Final. After all, runners-up GamerLegion were coached by British former CS:GO pro Ash “ashhh” Battye, who has been the German side’s head coach since the summer of 2020.

Milestones for UK esports

The reason for which Battye’s achievement in the French capital has perhaps gone somewhat gone under the radar is the story of UK-based esports organisation Into The Breach in Paris. This year, they became the first-ever UK esports organisation to reach the play-offs in a Major, which is, of course, a major achievement. They eventually had to fold against the eventual champions Team Vitality in the quarterfinals, but it was enough to dominate much of the UK esports news for a few days.

As we said earlier though, Into The Breach’ historic result wasn’t the only success for British esports during the Blast.tv Paris Major 2023. Ash “ashhh” Battye made it all the way to the event’s Grand Final as coach of GamerLegion, one of the tournament’s surprises. Thanks to this incredible performance, the German team made a considerable jump in the HLTV and ESL rankings, as they are currently sitting pretty in seventh place. GamerLegion never ranked higher since the organisation’s inception back in 2017.

“It wasn't just Into The Breach Esports flying the UK Scene flag high in Paris”, wrote UK caster and host Jacky on his own Twitter account, “Congratulations on making history as a coach today Ash “ashhh” Battye. Simply Incredible run from such a bright mind of the scene”.

Happy, but far from done

Of course, even though a second place in a Major is a fantastic achievement, ashhh is an experienced who wants to win titles. He was obviously happy with GamerLegion’s great performance in Paris, but he has his eyes set on the silverware, as any professional would.

“Amazing effort from the team and the GamerLegion staff for the whole event”, ashhh commented after the Grand Final, “It’s incredible what we’ve achieved, but today just wasn’t our day. Thanks everyone for all the support, it doesn’t feel real to have so many people cheering you on. We will just have to win the next one. Second place at the Major, I’m so proud of everyone, but we were too slow to get going. Well-deserved for Team Vitality”.