Counter-Strike and eSports fans are ready for a new Major; which will be the first to be played in 2022, the PGL Major Antwerp.

The best 24 teams from all over the world. will compete for USD 1 million in prizes. And of course, the title of Major Champions.

Each season of CS:GO is full of great events, but the Majors are still the most important of each year. Since only the best teams from each region participate, it’s like the FIFA World Cup of eSports.

The 17th edition of this prestigious event sponsored by Valve will be in charge of PGL. This is the same company that organized the 2021 Stockholm Major.

Major Teams

• Legend Stage: Team Heroic, Copenhagen Flames, BIG, Cloud9, FURIA Esports, FaZe Clan, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and NaVi.
• Challenger Stage: ENCE, G2 Esports, forZe, Astralis, Team Vitality, MIBR, Imperial Esports, and Bad News Eagles.
• Contender Stage: Eternal Fire, Team Spirit, Outsiders (Virtus.pro), Complexity Gaming, IHC Esports, Renegades, Team Liquid, and 9z Team.

With historic teams and up and comers in the mix, Counter-Strike fans around the world will be watching this tournament closely.

Tournament Stages 

• Challengers Stage: May 09 – 12
• Legends Stage: May 14 – 17
• Champions Stage: May 19 – 22

Event Format

PGL Major Antwerp 2022: Challengers Stage

The Challengers Stage will be played in a Swiss format; which consists of a group of 16 teams, and, in most cases, the teams that achieve 3 wins will qualify for the next stage. In the Swiss format, the matches are the best of 1 (BO1); except for those that decide the classification or elimination of a team, these being the best of 3 (BO3). On the other hand, the rivals of the first match are matched by the seed of each one (That is, 1st vs 16th, 2nd vs 15th…). From there, the pairing will continue according to the results (1-0 vs 1-0, 0-1 vs 0-1, 2-1 vs 2-1…).

In this phase, the teams from the Challenger and Contender Stage will make up the first Swiss format of the tournament. In the end, the 8 teams that have managed to add their 3 victories will qualify for the Legends Stage.

PGL Major Antwerp 2022: Legends Stage

In this phase, the 8 qualifiers from the Challengers Stage will join the 8 teams that make up the Legends Stage. Like the Challengers Stage, in this phase, a Swiss format will be played. Again, only the 8 best teams of the tournament will be left alive; which will ensure their place in the Champions Stage.

PGL Major Antwerp 2022: Champions Stage

This will be the last phase of the Major and, therefore, the one that will decide the tournament champion. The Champions Stage will feature a direct elimination bracket. There the matches will be based on the final ranking of the Legends Stage. All matches will be best of 3 (BO3), including the final, where one will claim the title of champion in Belgium.

Prize Pool

The RMR qualifiers kicked off with the Americas Circuit, where the Brazilian team FURIA managed to secure the only Legends spot at stake in their region.

They were joined by Liquid and Complexity as the next two big favorites, along with MIBR, Imperial, and 9z, leaving Evil Geniuses and 00NATION, the latter who were playing at a high competitive level, out of this Major.

As we have already mentioned, the Latin American teams that will be present at this Major will be FURIA Esports, MIBR, Imperial Esports, and 9z Team.

LATAM Teams

FURIA Esports

FURIA Esports was the only team that achieved Legend status for this PGL Major Antwerp 2022. This was thanks to the excellent tournament that they played in the RMR Americas. FURIA started this tournament as expected, with their 3 victories in the first phase. However, for statistical reasons, they finished in second place in the table, behind MIBR. Then, in the next phase, they beat Isurus (16-4) and Complexity (2-0). After this, they advanced to the grand final that they played against MIBR and took the victory with a score of 2-0.

MIBR

After many changes in its roster in recent years, the Brazilian team MIBR is once again one of the most competitive and strongest teams in the Americas region. MIBR had a flawless RMR Americas qualifying tournament, with only one blemish losing the grand final against FURIA.

In the rest, MIBR achieved a very good victory in round 1 against 9z (16-13), then they suffered against paiN but achieved a victory (25-23) and achieved the pass to the final after beating Imperial Esports (2-1).

Imperial Esports

A new team appearing on the horizon in the Americas is Imperial Esports, a Brazilian team that now with a roster led by FalleN and fer and with the inclusion of old acquaintances like fnx, boltz, VINI, and peacemaker, arrive with a very solid team who aspires to win all the events in which they participate.

Imperial Esports also had a very good start to qualifying as they finished in 3rd place with 3 wins and 1 loss. In round 1, they had a very good victory against Caetano (16-12) and in round 2 they had a crushing victory against Case (16-6). Thanks to this, they faced MIBR in the round 3 match, a match they lost with a score of 1-2. In round 4, they achieved a 2-1 against Partyz and thus secured third place in the qualifiers and their passage to the Challenger Stage.

9z Team

The last team that achieved its pass to this Major from the Americas qualifiers is the Argentines of 9z Team. 9z started the qualifiers off on the wrong foot, losing their first two matches, against MIBR and EG. But, then they managed to straighten their way to borderline qualifying for the next round.

9z Team managed to react after beating Bad News Bears with a score of 2-0. They then impressed everyone by winning their match against 00 Nation, being the favorites in this match. In round 5, 9z Team achieved a comfortable victory with a score of 2-0 against Caetano sending them to the match for 8th place. In this match they took revenge on EG and defeated them with a score of 2-1 and, finally, they stayed in the sixth and last place for this Major after beating paiN Gaming with a score of 2-0.