The opening round of CS:GO’s second post-pandemic Major, held in Antwerp, Belgium, and hosted by PGL Esports concluded this past Thursday 12th May, with 8 teams booking their spot in the forthcoming round.
For those unfamiliar with the unique tournament setup, the initial round sees 16 teams, appropriately dubbed ‘The Challengers’, compete for 8 spots in the next phase of the competition via Swiss System Format.
G2 Esports, Team Vitality, ENCE, Team Spirit, Outsiders, Imperial Esports, Bad News Eagles, and Team Liquid were the teams who were able to secure the necessary winning records in order to progress to the next round of the tournament.
Meeting them in ‘The New Legends Stage’ will be Heroic, Copenhagen Flames, FURIA Esports, FaZe Clan, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Cloud9, and BIG. Each of these teams qualified for their advantaged position after reaching ‘The New Champions Stage’ in the previous major in Stockholm late last year.
In a shock to some, record title holders Astralis have failed to qualify for ‘The New Legends Stage’ for the first time since their formation in January 2016, having picked up four of the nine major titles available in that period. They ended the qualifying round with a record of just 2-3, losing their matches to Liquid, Spirit, and Vitality.
Moving into the next phase of the competition, which is scheduled to begin on Saturday 14th May, FaZe clan are the odds on favourite to take home the title and the $500,000 grand prize, with Natus Vincere trailing just behind.
This article originally featured in The Rotation.
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