Everything you need to know about the PGL Major Stockholm 2021

UPDATE: To read more about the teams qualified for the New Champions Stage, check out our bracket preview.

The first Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major in over two years is set to take place in Stockholm starting this week. It’s the first major since the summer of 2019 when Astralis won the StarLadder Berlin Major.

As if the two year wait wasn’t enough to hype up this event, the prize pool for Stockholm is $2 million, which doubles Berlin’s prize pool and is the biggest in CS:GO history. It’s also only the second S-tier CS:GO tournament to be on LAN this year. IEM XVI - Cologne also was on LAN. Plus, fans will be in the stands for the final weekend of the tournament to drum up the excitement even more. Before Stockholm gets underway, here’s what you need to know.

Schedule and format

PGL Stockholm begins Oct. 26, and ends Nov. 7. The tournament is divided into three stages: the New Challengers Stage, the New Legends Stage and the New Champions Stage. The first two stages will utilize the Swiss System format. It’s like a round robin, except not all teams play each other. Essentially, if you win, you face off against another team that won, and same with the losers.

In the New Challengers Stage, the 16 “Contenders” and “Challengers” teams will face off in a series of single-map matches with elimination and advancement matches being best-of-three. The top eight will advance to the next stage. These eight teams will then face off in a similar manner against the eight “Legends” teams. The top eight from this stage will advance to a single-elimination bracket.

Initial matchups

With the Swiss System format, all we know so far is the initial matches. They begin at 4 a.m. ET on Oct. 26 in this order:

• Astralis vs. Copenhagen Flames
• Team Spirit vs. FaZe Clan
• ENCE vs. GODSENT
• paiN Gaming vs. Virtus Pro
• BIG vs. Entropiq
• Riders vs. Renegades
• Heroic vs. TYLOO
• MOUZ vs. Sharks Esports

Astralis walk on stage at the last major in 2019. Photo credit: StarLadder

Teams

Contenders:

• Copenhagen Flames
• FaZe Clan
• GODSENT
• Entropiq
• Virtus.pro
• Sharks Esports
• TYLOO
• Renegades

Challengers:

• Astralis
• ENCE
• BIG
• Movistar Riders
• Heroic
• MOUZ
• paiN Gaming
• Team Spirit

Legends:

• Ninjas in Pyjamas
• Team Vitality
• G2 Esports
• FURIA Esports
• Team Liquid
• Evil Geniuses
• Natus Vincere
• Gambit Esports

Teams to watch

Favorites: Natus Vincere and Gambit Esports

Na’Vi have been one of the best CS:GO teams for most of the year, winning the Blast Premier: Global Final 2020, Dreamhack Masters Spring 2021, IEM XVI - Cologne and the ESL Pro League Season 14. They have one of the best CS:GO players of all-time in Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev, and they have experience winning on LAN at Cologne.

Like Na’Vi, Gambit Esports have also won some big tournaments this year: the IEM XV - World Championship, IEM XVI - Summer and the Blast Premier: Spring Finals. They also finished second to Na’Vi at Dreamhack and during ESL Pro League Season 13. Together with Na’Vi they represent the CIS region, which has proven to be better than EU this year.

Contenders: Team Vitality, Ninjas in Pyjamas and G2

European teams Ninjas in Pyjamas, Team Vitality and G2 Esports have all picked up good results throughout the year. Team Vitality finished second to Na’Vi in ESL Pro League Season 14, and G2 finished second to Na’Vi in Cologne. Meanwhile, in a tournament without Na’Vi or Gambit, Ninjas in Pyjamas won IEM XVI Fall: Europe earlier this month, beating Vitality along the way. Like Na’Vi and Gambit, these three teams are among the Legends teams, so they all have the advantage of skipping the first stage of PGL Stockholm.

Dark horses: Astralis, FaZe Clan, Heroic, Virtus.pro

Heroic and Virtus.pro are the only two teams besides Na’Vi and Gambit to finish first in S-tier events this year. Heroic won ESL Pro League Season 13, and Virtus Pro won cs_summit7. FaZe belong here because they finished 3rd-4th at Cologne, picking up victories over Vitality, Heroic and Gambit. Astralis are no longer the dominant team in CS:GO that they were a couple years ago, but their core roster of Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen, Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth and Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander have attained a lot of success over the past five years. In fact, they were the last major champions and winners of the last three. Like FaZe, they finished 3rd-4th at Cologne, and they also finished fourth at IEM XVI Fall: Europe.

Lead photo credit: StarLadder