The wait is nearly over, CS:GO fans. The PGL Stockholm Major, the first Valve-sponsored tournament since 2019, will run from Oct. 26 to Nov. 7. Some of the best teams in the world will be fighting for their share of the $2 million prize pool and a chance to make history.
For the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, a premier tournament will be held in front of a live audience. PGL is expecting to have a full house at the Avicii Arena, the venue of choice for the playoffs, which will run in the last four days of the competition.
It’s without a doubt the most relevant CS:GO tournament since the last Major, the StarLadder Berlin in September 2019. Most of the best teams in the world secured their spots, so we can expect a handful of quality matches.
The tournament will kick off with the Challengers Stage, where eight of the 16 teams will advance to the Legends Stage. Once again, half of the teams will be eliminated and the top eight will play in the playoffs at the Avicii Arena.
Here’s everything you need to know about the PGL Stockholm Major.
Stream
The PGL Stockholm Major will be broadcast on PGL’s Twitch and YouTube channel. There will be secondary streams for simultaneous matches and non-English broadcasts such as WePlay’s Russian stream.
Format
The $2 million competition will use a 16-team Swiss system for both the Challengers and the Legends Stage. In the Swiss stage, teams who win three matches progress, and teams who lost three are eliminated from the tournament. Both the elimination and advancement matches will be played as best-of-threes, while the other matches are all best-of-ones.
The Challengers Stage will run from Oct. 26 to 29 and eight teams will advance to the next phase to meet the teams who secured Legend status during the Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournaments. The Legends stage will be played from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2 and only the top eight will make it into the playoffs.
The playoffs will take place in the Avicii Arena in front of a live audience starting on Nov. 4 and ending on Nov. 7. PGL will use a single-elimination bracket and all the matches will be best-of-threes. A breakdown of the tournament’s prize pool has yet to be announced.
Teams
Not all of the teams will be playing with their usual rosters. Gambit and Copenhagen Flames will be missing their official coaches, Ivan “F_1N” Kochugov and Faruk Pita, respectively, because they were banned by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) in the coach spectator bug scandal and prohibited by Valve to attend the Major. Gambit and Copenhagen Flames will use their CEO and director of sports, respectively, in place of their official coaches.
Bruno Ono (paiN Gaming), Robert “RobbaN” Dahlström (FaZe Clan), and Nicholas “guerri” Nogueira (FURIA) were also banned from attending the Major as a result of their involvement in the coach spectator scandal, but the organizations have not announced if the team will play with a stand-in coach during the Major.
There are also two coaches on personal leave, Team Liquid’s Eric “adreN” Hoag and BIG’s Dustin “DuDe” Großmann. Liquid will use general manager Steve “jokasteve” Perino and BIG will play under the interim coach Nikola “LEGIJA” Ninić.
And finally, there is Heroic, who didn’t hire a coach after Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen’s departure in July. The Danes signed the former Ninjas in Pyjamas’ in-game leader Richard “Xizt” Landström as an analyst and he will be coaching during the Major.
We will update this article when paiN, FaZe, and FURIA announce their coaches during the Major. Stand-in coaches have been marked with an asterisk.
Challengers Stage
Astralis
Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander
Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen
Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth
Emil “Magisk” Reif
Philip “Lucky” Ewald
Coach: Danny “zonic” Sørensen
Heroic
Casper “cadiaN” Møller
Martin “stavn” Lund
Ismail “refrezh” Ali
René “TeSeS” Madsen
Rasmus “sjuush” Beck
Coach: Richard “Xizt” Landström
FaZe Clan
Håvard “rain” Nygaard
Helvijs “broky” Saukants
Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken
Finn “karrigan” Andersen
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer
ENCE
Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer
Lotan “Spinx” Giladi
Paweł Dycha
Olek “hades” Miskiewicz
Joonas “doto” Forss
Coach: Eetu “sAw” Saha
Virtus.pro
Dzhami “Jame” Ali
Alexey “qikert” Golubev
Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis
Timur “buster” Tulepov
Sanjar “SANJI” Kuliev
Coach: Dastan Akbayev
BIG
Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz
Florian “syrsoN” Rische
Nils “k1to” Gruhne
Tizian Feldbusch
Nicklas “gade” Gade
Coach: Nikola “LEGIJA” Ninić*
MOUZ
Robin “ropz” Kool
David “frozen” Čerňanský
Aurimas “Bymas” Pipiras
Frederik “acoR” Gyldstrand
Christopher “dexter” Nong
Coach: Torbjørn “mithR” Nyborg
Copenhagen Flames
Fredrik “roeJ” Jørgensen
Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen
Nico “nicoodoz” Tamjid
Jakob “Jabbi” Nygaard
Rasmus “Zyphon” Nordfoss
Coach: Daniel Vorborg*
Team Spirit
Abdulkhalik “degster” Gasanov
Victor “somedieyoung” Orudzhev
Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov
Nikolay “mir” Bityukov
Boris “magixx” Vorobiev
Coach: Nikolay “Certus” Poluyanov
Movistar Riders
Alejandro “mopoz” Fernández-Quejo Cano
Alejandro “ALEX” Masanet Candela
Raúl “DeathZz” Jordán Nieto
Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia
David “dav1g” Granado Bermudo
Coach: Galder “bladE” Barcena
Entropiq
Aleksey “El1an” Gusev
Viktor “Lack1” Boldyrev
Alexey “NickelBack” Trofimov
Vladislav “Krad” Kravchenko
Igor “forester” Bezotecheskiy
Coach: Dmitry “hooch” Bogdanov
GODSENT
Epitácio “TACO” de Melo
João “felps” Vasconcellos
Bruno “latto” Rebelatto
Bruno “b4rtiN” Câmara
Eduardo “dumau” Wolkmer
Coach: Olavo “cky” Napoleão
PaiN Gaming
Rafael “saffee” Costa
Vinícios “PKL” Coelho
Rodrigo “biguzera” Bittencourt
Gabriel “NEKIZ” Schenato
Wesley “hardzao” Lopes
Renegades
Liam “malta” Schembri
Simon “Sico” Williams
Joshua “INS” Potter
Jordan “Hatz” Bajic
Alistair “sliStair” Johnston
Coach: David “Kingfisher” Kingsford
Sharks
Jhonatan “jnt” Silva
Lucas “Lucaozy” Neves
Antonio “realziN” Oliveira
Romeu “zevy” Rocco
Filipe “pancc” Martins
Coach: Hélder “coachi” Sancho
TYLOO
Haowen “somebody” Xu
YuLun “Summer” Cai
YuanZhang “Attacker” Sheng
Kelun “SLOWLY” Sun
ZhengHao “DANK1NG” Lyu
Coach: LiKan “KingZ” Luo
Legends Stage
Natus Vincere
Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev
Denis “electronic” Sharipov
Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov
Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy
Valerii “B1T” Vakhovskyi
Coach: Andrii “B1ad3” Gorodenskyi
Gambit
Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov
Abay “Hobbit” Khassenov
Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov
Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov
Timofey “interz” Yakushin
Coach: Konstantin “groove” Pikiner*
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz
Nicolas “Plopski” Gonzalez Zamora
Hampus Poser
Fredrik “REZ” Sterner
Linus “LNZ” Holtäng
Coach: Björn “THREAT” Pers
Team Liquid
Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski
Keith “NAF” Markovic
Jake “Stewie2K” Yip
Michael “Grim” Wince
Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo
Coach: Steve “jokasteve” Perino*
G2
Nikola “NiKo” Kovač
Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač
Nemanja “nexa” Isaković
Audric “JaCkz” Jug
François “AmaNEk” Delaunay
Coach: Damien “maLeK” Marcel
FURIA
Yuri “yuurih” Gomes
Andrei “arT” Piovezan
Vinicius “VINI” Figueiredo
Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato
André “drop” Abreu
Evil Geniuses
Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte
Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov
Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz
Owen “oBo” Schlatter
Michał “MICHU” Müller
Coach: Damian “daps” Steele
Schedule
Tuesday, Oct. 26
3am CT: Astralis vs. Copenhagen Flames
3am CT: FaZe vs. Team Spirit
4:15am CT: ENCE vs. GoDSENT
4:15am CT: paiN vs. Entropiq
5:30am CT: VP vs. BIG
5:30am CT: Movistar Riders vs. Renegades
6:45am CT: Heroic vs. TYLOO
6:45am CT: MOUZ vs. Sharks
Key storylines
It’s the first CS:GO Major in over two years and the first premier Counter-Strike event to be played in front of a live crowd since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, so there’s definitely a lot of hype around the tournament in the community. It’s the most important event in years, the biggest prize pool in Major history, and of equally importance, the competitors will have the opportunity to join the select group of players who have earned a Major, the most prestigious tournament in the scene.
It’s impossible to think of a better team than Na`Vi ahead of the PGL Stockholm Major. The squad headlined by s1mple have always been a threat and won tournaments in the past, but they were missing consistency. They achieved it this year and won two of the biggest events so far, the IEM Cologne and ESL Pro League season 14, claiming the Intel Grand Slam season three and its $1 million prize pool. The organization is a three-time Major runner-up and it would mean the world to the brand if s1mple and company can bring it home.
Gambit, the other powerhouse in CIS, is definitely a team that can ruin Na`Vi’s plans, though. They surprised just about everyone earlier this year when they won the IEM Katowice in February. Sh1ro and his teammates build on that unexpected success and won other premier tournaments such as BLAST Premier Spring Finals and IEM Summer. So far, Gambit have won two grand finals and lost two to Na`Vi. Imagine if theyget to decide who’s better in the PGL Stockholm Major finals. That would be a hell of an arc.
Astralis won the last three Majors, which nobody else has done. The 토토사이트 Danes will be playing for their fourth consecutive title and the fifth Major trophy in general, but the question is if they can do it without dev1ce, who is considered by many the GOAT of CS:GO. The star AWPer departed the Astralis’ camp to join Ninjas in Pyjamas in April 2021 and quickly made NiP a top contender for titles. For CS:GO fans, nothing should be better than watching these two teams face each other in an elimination match.
