The Braindead guide to watching the PGL Major

The CS:GO PGL Major Championship is currently underway and I’m here to give you a brief breakdown of who’s competing, the schedule of the tournament, and more. Matches can be watched at twitch.tv/pgl

The 2022 PGL Major is the 17th Major tournament in CS:GO history and will play host to 24 different teams from all across the world competing for the $500,000 grand prize. Taking place in Antwerp, Belgium, the 3-stage tournament’s first stage began on Monday with 16 of the 24 teams fighting for 8 open spots in the subsequent ‘Legends’ round. For a brief explanation of the tournaments format, check out my blog from earlier today here. If you don’t want to read the earlier blog, just know 8 of the best teams automatically qualify for the ‘Legends Stage’, aka the 2nd round. Here is a snapshot of the 16 teams competing in the first round, and where they qualified from, as of Sunday night before the start of the Challengers Stage.

With the first round already underway, 5 teams have already been eliminated from this initial pool of 16 in the Challengers Stage. Complexity gaming, one of North America’s last competitive teams, was knocked out after losing 3 of their 4 matches. The Turkish team ‘Eternal Fire’ and the Mongolian team 'IHC Esports' also lost 3 of their 4 matches and have been eliminated early on from the Major. Eternal Fire and IHC only managed to beat Renegades, while Complexity beat IHC Esports one time.

Four teams have had their trips to Antwerp cut short after just three days of competition, but on the other side of the spectrum are five teams that have already qualified for the Legends Stage. European mainstays G2 and Team Vitality proved they’re still top teams with a sweep of their first 3 matchups. ENCE, Team Spirit, and Outsiders also qualified for the next round going 3-1 in their first 4 matchups. All 5 teams will now have a few days break until the beginning of the Legends Stage which takes place from May 14-17th.

While 9 teams have had their future determined, 6 teams still fight for the remaining 3 spots in the 2nd round or Challengers Stage. Astralis, who once upon a time won three majors in a row between 2018-2019, is continuing to struggle with their reworked lineup and sits at 2-2. Just two players remain from that legendary championship squad, with 3 former players currently playing for Team Vitality. Another team fighting to remain relevant in a new era of CS:GO is North America’s best team of the past few years, Team Liquid. Having replaced 3 players in the past year, including Stewie2k who is one of the 5 Americans to ever win a major, Team Liquid has struggled to find their footing all year. Now they also sit at 2-2 and will be facing off against none other than Astralis. Two historic teams with a long competitive history, mostly dominated by Astralis to the dismay of all North Americans, will now see their new lineups face off for the first time since the reshuffling.

Elsewhere, Brazilian squad MIBR faces off against Kosovan team Bad News Eagles. If you haven’t noticed by now, CS:GO is a truly international affair. We got dudes from fucking Mongolia and Kosovo competing on the world stage, how many other sports can say that? The best team in the world, NaVi, is made up of Russians and Ukrainians. Yep. Ain’t that some shit. ANYWAY, NaVi is in the Legends Stage so we will talk about them more once they start playing. Back to the plebs in the Challengers Stage. All 6 teams remaining at this point sit at 2-2, so the three remaining matches will determine who makes the Legends Stage and who is going home. I would put my money on MIBR with them having won 14 more rounds to this point in the tournament. The last match of the Challengers Stage is between Russian side Forze and Brazilian team Imperial Esports, where this time I’d put my money against the South Americans and go with the Russians.

Here is a snapshot of the current results as of Wednesday night in America. By the time most people are reading this, this stage will likely have been concluded as the final 3 matches are early Thursday morning on this side of the world.

Regardless of who does qualify for the next stage, things will only be getting more difficult from there. The Challenger teams that do make it are stepping out of the smoke and into the flame of the Legends stage. It is here where 7 European and 1 Brazilian team all at the top of their games wait in the wings to prove why they bypassed the 1st round/Challengers Stage in the first place.

Per usual, Scandinavians absolutely dominate the rosters of Legends teams. This shit is like a Viking age all over again. Heroic is made up entirely of Danes with a Swedish coach, Copenhagen Flames are entirely Danish (Never could’ve guessed), Ninjas in Pyjamas are a mix of Danes and Swedes, and FaZe is a smorgasbord of North-Eastern Europe with a Dane, a Swede, an Estonian, and a Latvian. FaZe also has a Canadian (Twistzz) which is basically the North American version of a Scandinavian. Russians and Ukrainians also show out in the Legends stage. Cloud9’s new roster, which they bought from Gambit (you can buy entire rosters from other teams in esports), is made up of 4 Russians and 1 Kazakh player. NaVi, a team I’ve mentioned many times on this site so far and the reigning champions, is a combination of 3 Russians and 2 Ukrainians. One of those Ukrainians is S1mple, the best undisputed best player in the world and probably the best player of all time.

The last two unmentioned teams to this point in the Legends Stage are German squad BIG and Brazilian team FURIA esports. If MIBR, Team Liquid, and Imperial Esports all fail to qualify for the next round, FURIA will be the only team left representing the entire Western Hemisphere. At least we still have our fancy-haired Canadian on FaZe.

The format of the tournament means that the Legends stage will follow the same Swiss style as the Challengers Stage, but the final round aka the Champions Stage will return to a familiar single-elimination format. Like I said before, the Legends Stage begins on May 14th and runs to the 17th. The Champions Stage will then begin on Thursday May 19th and concludes with the Grand Final at 2PM Eastern on Sunday May 22nd.

The schedule of the last 3 Challengers Stage games are all early Thursday morning

6:00 AM: Astralis vs Liquid

9:45 AM: Bad News Eagles vs MIBR

1:30 PM: Forze vs Imperial

Round 1 of the Legends Stage will begin on Saturday the 14th, with the first match beginning at 6 AM Eastern and the last match beginning at 9:45 AM. Round 2 will see matches beginning between 11 AM and 2:45 PM

Come back soon for updates on what happens in the Challengers Stage as well as who will be facing who in the Legends Stage.