PGL Major Antwerp 2022 – Update

From next Thursday, May 19, 2022, the last stage of the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 will begin, which is the Champions Stage (Playoffs) and in this defining phase, the teams will have to do it completely live before the public in Antwerps Sportpaleis, where there will be more than 10,000 fans. Therefore, the return to normality in the electronic sports scenarios is ratified after two very complicated years; due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

PGL Major Antwerp 2022: Qualified Teams

At the moment, we have 5 teams that are qualified for this stage, Team Spirit, the current champions, NaVi, the current # 1 in the world according to the ranking of HLTV.ORG, FaZe Clan, the historical team in the Counter-Strike scene, NiP and ENCE. They will have the company of three teams, who will play everything for everything this Tuesday, May 17 in the last series of the Legends Stage.

Something that we must highlight in this PGL Major Antwerp 2022 is that for this prestigious Counter-Strike event, we already have a record audience, especially from the Brazilian community. This since, during the broadcast of the renowned streamer Gaules in the match between Imperial Esports and Cloud9; he had no less than more than 460,200 fans watching live on the Twitch platform.

Controversy

Another point to note is the controversy that has occurred in this Major due to the use of bugs in the game to take advantage of some rounds in the matches played in recent days. All this is because on May 15, in the match between G2 Esports and Imperial Esports; the player m0NESY used a bug in the Mirage map. In this case, to take advantage of smoke that did not allow his rivals to see it; however, the G2 Esports player could see all his Brazilian rivals.

As a result of this, Valve released a last-minute update correcting this error. Either way, before this update, the CS:GO professional players’ association unanimously agreed that they would not use this type of bug in the maps that will play in this PGL Major Antwerp 2022.

With two exceptions, all the teams left alive in this Major are European EU/CIS. If FURIA or Imperial Esports fail to win their last matches, we will be left with a full European playoff; something that has not happened for several years. North America, Asia, and Oceania were left without representatives in the Challengers Series. Only Team Liquid was left, holding the NA flag at this Major until yesterday when they lost their third match and were eliminated from the tournament.

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Team Liquid, after an excellent recovery in the Challenger Stage with a comeback, got their qualification for the Legends Stage. However, there they failed to put up any resistance, as they lost three consecutive matches against Heroic, FURY, and Vitality.

NaVi will try as much as possible to defend its crown of champions. Last year, they achieved a spectacular victory at the PGL Stockholm Major without losing a single map. The last map was heart-stopping, as they had to come from behind twice in overtime against G2 Esports to finally give S1mple their elusive major. They went a perfect 10-0 on the maps played between the Legends Stage and the playoffs in the route to the trophy, this being the first Major win for all of their players.

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But, in the last tournaments played, NaVi has made many mistakes that have cost them to drop from the first place in the world ranking, and now they are trying to recover that great level shown in recent years in this Major. Coincidentally, another of the teams that achieved direct qualification to the playoffs was Team Spirit, another team from the CIS region, who defeated FURIA, Team Heroic, and Copenhagen Flames.

NiP or Ninjas in Pajamas, achieved their pass to the playoffs of this PGL Major Antwerp 2022 after their excellent victory against FURIA in round 4 with a score of 2-0. They came from standing up to him and playing a spectacular match against NaVi that they couldn’t overcome and ended up losing 1-2. According to the results we have seen in recent tournaments, NiP seems to have regained the winning identity that identified them for many years.

Another team that qualified for the playoffs is FaZe Clan, the current # 1 in the world according to the ranking of hltv.org. They have earned this privilege thanks to the spectacular year 2022, where they have managed to win the two important tournaments they have played, the Intel Extreme Masters XVI – Katowice and ESL Pro League Season 15.

Finally, the last team that qualified for the playoffs on Monday was ENCE, with a spectacular match against Team Heroic, who managed to win it coming from behind, since they started losing the series 0-1 and Team Heroic seemed to would take the victory in the second map, but ENCE managed to come back from the map, take the victory and continue with the drive and confidence to crush their rivals in the last map with an excellent 16-6.

The Last Chance to Qualify

Now, with only 3 spots available for the playoffs, we have 6 teams that will be fighting this Tuesday to access them in a unique opportunity in which they cannot fail if they want to stay alive in this tournament.

CPHF will be in search of this ticket after losing their match against FaZe Clan in round 4. FURIA lost to NiP in this round 4 and left them with no chance to qualify directly. Now they had to search for it on this last day of matches, Team Heroic let go of a lead against ENCE and will now have to play this do-or-die match to qualify for the playoffs.

On the other hand, we unexpectedly have Team Vitality getting oxygen in the lower round. This after a tough win against BIG, as well as G2, who was almost blindsided by Outsiders and got a 2-1 victory to get their last chance in this round 5.

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And like all sports fans, whether traditional or electronic, we would all like to enjoy The Last Dance, just like the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan did in their time. Now we have Imperial Esports, the Brazilian team of the moment commanded by FalleN and fer, two great CS:GO players, who want to make their dream come true by continuing to fight for another Major in their career, just as they did in SK- Gaming, Complexity, and MIBR several years ago.

Now, Imperial Esports wants to continue to surprise and advance to the Champions Stage to face off against the best Counter-Strike teams right now.