The current BLAST R6 Major champions Cloud9 Beastcoast won't be able to defend their crown in Montreal, Canada, after losing in North America's Last Chance Qualifier's quarterfinals against the Tier 2 roster CL4L.
Following a one-sided victory on Lair (7-2) the BLAST R6 Major Manchester champions crumbled down after a maximum overtime defeat on Nighthaven Labs, including two clutches by Jaidan "Packer" Franz and Atom "Atom" Gutiérrez. Finally, CL4L closed out the series with a 7-5 victory on Bank after being 4-5 down.
To get a basic idea of where it could have gone wrong tonight for Cloud9 Beastcoast, it's worth having a glance at the match stats. After playing three maps, the series between Cloud9 Beastcoast and CL4L saw 36 rounds being played. Out of those, the BLAST R6 Major Manchester champions got 27 entry kills, while CL4L only got nine. However, the organization-less roster still managed to win the game.
The BLAST R6 Major Montreal will be the first Major since the BLAST R6 Major Copenhagen where the current champions don't have the chance to defend their crown. In Denmark, the Six Jönköping Major champions Team BDS missed out on the first-ever BLAST R6 Major after an underwhelming performance in the Europe League 2023 Stage 1.