Counter-strike has long been one of the top e-sports in the world. For as long as the game has been around, people have been playing it competitively, although perhaps not for the same sort of prizes that CSGO2 will be offering in the upcoming PGL Major.
The PGL Major will be the first full-blown CSGO2 tournament since the game launched in September 2023, and this means that all eyes will be on it. How PGL goes will determine the shape of the game for years to come.
What Is the PGL Major?
The PGL Major is a tournament happening in Copenhagen. PGL hosts several different e-sports tournaments, but their CSGO tournaments have always been among the most popular.
While the PGL Major is happening in Copenhagen, it is a worldwide tournament. To compete at PGL, teams will need to qualify from their regional events, and that is no easy feat, particularly in the RMR European region. More on that soon, though.
When Is the PGL Major Happening?
The PGL Major for CSGO2 will happen in Copenhagen between March 17th and March 31st, 2024. The tournament will be split into multiple stages:
- Opening Stages occur from the 17th to the 20th
- Elimination Stage from March 21st to March 24th
- The Playoff Stage will happen from March 28th to March 31st.
There will be over 17,000 people in attendance at the event, with countless more watching through various online platforms, including Twitch.
Why Is the PGL Major So Important?
If you know your CSGO esports, then you’d know that CSGO hasn’t had a major tournament in a good 10 months now. Part of this was due to the release of CSGO2 in March 2023, which basically overwrote the old version of the game, but many of the concepts are the same (well, some of the maps are still missing).
Because this is the first tournament in a while, those who have been clambering to watch some proper CSGO pro action will be all-in on the tournament. We can almost guarantee that it will have more viewers than any of the previous CSGO tournaments.
Because this is the first CSGO2 major tournament, many people will be looking to see how the game pans out. While the second iteration of CSGO isn’t that much different from the first, some people are concerned that the balancing isn’t quite there yet, and the PGL will either confirm or deny their suspicions. At the end of the tournament, Valve is expected to release a big balance patch for their game.
Finally – whichever team wins this tournament will be classed as the first winner of a major CSGO2 championship, which means they’ll go down in history. The winning team will also automatically qualify for the BLAST World Finals 2024 and may even have a space in the Esports World Cup later this year.
Prizes at the PGL Major
The main prize for the tournament is $500,000 in cash. While it isn’t the largest amount of prize money ever, it is a huge amount of money, and all the major esports teams will be competing in the hope of getting a slice of that pie.
There’ll also be smaller prizes throughout the event, and there may even be some sponsorship deals on offer for various teams.
The total amount available is a whopping $1.25 million, with even the lowest-place teams getting $10k.
RMR Qualifier Events
Before any team can compete at the PGL in 2024, they need to get through their region’s qualifying stages. There are four regions:
- Europe A
- Europe B
- American
- Asian
Europe gets 16 teams in the tournament, America 5, and Asia just 2.
At the moment, just a few teams are confirmed to be competing in the tournament:
- Virtus.Pro
- Cloud9
- G2 Esports
- MOUZ
- NAVI
- Apeks
- FaZe
- Vitality
- KOI
- Sprit
- Eternal Fire
- SAW
- AMKAL Esports
- Fnatic
- 9Pandas
- BetBoom Team
These are all European teams, having managed to get through the hardest RMR qualifier yet. Remember – all the best CSGO teams come from Europe, and all want to compete in the PGL, and some pretty big teams were cast to one side as a result.
We expect a European team to walk away with the tournament, with Virtus.Pro seemingly the most likely after their performance (3-0) in the qualifiers.
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