RLCS 2024 Major 1: Qualified teams, schedule, format and more

The first of two RLCS Majors this season will take place March 28-31 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The 16 teams at the tournament hail from seven different regions and made it via their performance across three qualifiers in their respective regions. Four teams have qualified from both Europe and North America; two teams will be representing each of the Oceania, South America and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions; and there will be one team from each of the Asia-Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa regions.

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Team Vitality are the reigning Major and world champions, and they will be present to defend their titles. However, there are plenty of other hungry teams ready to claim a Major title for themselves. To get you ready for RLCS 2024 Major 1, here are the qualified teams, schedule and format, and a breakdown of the favorites, contenders and dark horses.

Qualified teams

• Karmine Corp
• Team BDS
• Team Vitality
• Gentle Mates
• G2 Esports
• Gen.G
• Luminosity
• OG
• PWR
• Pioneers
• FURIA
• Complexity
• Team Falcons
• Rule One
• Elevate
• Limitless

Schedule and format

Photo credit: Psyonix

Major 1 will begin with a Swiss stage. The five rounds of this stage will play out from March 28-30. All matches are best-of-five, and teams need to win three matches to advance to the playoffs. Teams that lose three matches will be eliminated. Eight teams will advance from this stage to the playoffs.

These are the Round 1 Swiss stage matchups:

• Karmine Corp vs. Limitless
• Team BDS vs. Elevate
• G2 vs. Pioneers
• Team Vitality vs. Complexity
• Gen.G vs. PWR
• Gentle Mates vs. Rule One
• Team Falcons vs. OG
• Luminosity vs. FURIA

The playoffs will take place in front of a crowd from March 30-31. The eight-team playoffs will be a single-elimination bracket.

Breaking down the field

Favorites: Karmine Corp, Team Vitality, G2 Esports

Photo credit: Psyonix

These teams figure to be the heavy hitters in Copenhagen. Karmine Corp dominated their region during qualifiers. KC won all three qualifiers in Europe, the best region in the world last year. They only lost one of their 25 matches during qualifiers. Axel "Vatira" Touret, who’s Shift’s two-time reigning player of the year, appears to be on a mission after losing to Team Vitality in the semifinals of last year’s world championship. He’s a two-time Major winner who could easily get his third this month.

G2 dominated North America, the second best region in the world, but to a lesser extent than KC. G2 won the first two NA qualifiers and were the runners-up of the third and final qualifier. They only lost two matches and both were to Gen.G in Qualifier 3. Considering G2 had already qualified for the Major and that Gen.G is the clear-cut second best team in the region, those losses don’t tarnish G2’s resume that much.

The other three European qualifiers all had fairly similar results across the three qualifiers; each team made a final and was very competitive. However, Vitality gets to be among the favorites because they’re the reigning world champions. Alexis "zen" Bernier & Co. were dominant from the Spring Major through RLCS Worlds last year, so we know they have what it takes to win an international title. Plus, they looked like they were peaking later in qualifiers. They had a runner-up finish in Qualifier 3 and three of their last four losses have come against Karmine Corp.

Contenders: Team BDS, Gentle Mates, Gen.G

Photo credit: Psyonix

The other two European qualifiers belong squarely in this tier of contenders given Europe’s regional strength and the track records of the players on these teams. Team BDS were finalists in one of the European qualifiers. Evan "M0nkey M00n" Rogez is a world champion and Major winner, and Brice "ExoTiiK" Bigeard is a Major winner too. Gentle Mates also were finalists in one qualifier as the organization made their debut in the RLCS this year. Enzo "Seikoo" Grondein is a world champion, and Amine "itachi" Benayachi is a Major winner. Both teams lost multiple times to Karmine Corp, and going head to head against each other, BDS beat Gentle Mates two of three times. Gentle Mates did win their only matchup against Vitality, while BDS didn’t face Vitality.

Gen.G are the other threat from North America to win the Major. They beat G2 to win the third qualifier and two of their four losses this year have come to G2. Jack "ApparentlyJack" Benton and Nick "Chronic" Iwanski won the 2022 Fall Major with Gen.G. They’re the last North American team to win an international event before Europe took over.

Dark horses: Team Falcons, FURIA Esports

Photo credit: Psyonix

No team from outside Europe or North America has ever won an RLCS Major, however, teams from two regions have come close. MENA’s Team Falcons finished second at the 2022 RLCS Spring Major. This isn’t the same Team Falcons roster, however, two of the players on this team were on the Rule One team that performed well last year. Yazid Abdullah "Kiileerrz" Bakhashwin and Saleh Abdullah "Rw9" Bakhashwin achieved a top four finish with Rule One at last year’s Spring Major. Alongside Team Falcons veteran Mohammed "trk511" Alotaibi, this team won all three MENA regional qualifiers leading into this Major.

The past two years have seen South American teams be more competitive internationally. FURIA finished top four at the 2022 RLCS World Championship, and Team Secret also put up a top four finish at the 2023 Fall Major. Only Yan "yanxnz" Xisto Nolasco remains from that 2022 FURIA team, but he’s joined by former KRÜ player Arthur "drufinho" Langsch Miguel and former The Club player Gabriel "Lostt" Buzon. Both were on teams that have performed well the past couple years. Together they led FURIA to win the last two South American regional qualifiers.

Lead photo credit: Psyonix