The PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 was the first Counter-Strike 2 Major Championship and twentieth Counter-Strike Major overall. It was held in Copenhagen, Denmark at the Royal Arena from March 17 to 31, 2024. Twenty-four teams qualified from regional qualifiers for the tournament, which involved a prize pool of US$1,250,000. It is the fourth Counter-Strike Major organized by PGL after PGL Major: Kraków 2017, PGL Major Stockholm 2021 and PGL Major Antwerp 2022. Natus Vincere were the tournament's champions, following a 2–1 victory over FaZe Clan.
Background Counter-Strike 2 is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It is the fifth game in the Counter-Strike series. In professional Counter-Strike, the Valve-sponsored Majors are the most prestigious tournaments.
The defending Major champions were Team Vitality, who won their first Major championship at Blast Paris Major 2023. They would be eliminated following a semi-final defeat to FaZe Clan.
Format On November 4, 2023, it was announced that Valve had renamed the Major's stages from Challengers Stage, Legends Stage and Champions Stage to "Opening Stage", "Elimination Stage" and "Playoffs Stage", respectively.
Like previous Majors using a Swiss-system group stage, twenty-four teams qualified for the tournament. This includes sixteen teams who qualified for the Opening Stage. The top eight teams from the Opening Stage moved on to the Elimination Stage, along with eight teams directly from the Regional Major Ranking (RMR) qualifiers. Finally, the top eight teams from the Elimination Stage played a single-elimination Playoffs Stage to determine a champion.
In the first two stages, all matches except for progression or elimination matches, which are played as bests-of-three, are played in a best-of-one format. All matches in the Playoff Stage are played in a best-of-three format. It is the first Major to be played with Counter-Strike 2's new 12-round halves.
Map pool
Ancient Anubis Inferno Mirage Nuke Overpass Vertigo
Talent On March 13, 2024, PGL announced the full talent lineup for the Major, including the first ever "Newbie" stream, intended to ease in newer viewers unfamiliar with Counter-Strike.
Hosts
James Banks (stage host) Richard Lewis Eefje "sjokz" Depoortere Pala Gilroy Sen
Analysts
Jacob "Pimp" Winneche Mathieu "Maniac" Quiquerez Sudhen "Bleh" Wahengbam Jason "moses" O'Toole
Casters
Anders Blume Henry "HenryG" Greer Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill Alex "Machine" Richardson Harry "JustHarry" Russell Hugo Byron Mohan "launders" Govindasamy Conner "scrawny" Girvan Vince Hill (Newbie stream) Jack "Jacky" Peters (Newbie stream)
Teams Europe
G2 Esports Virtus.pro Movistar KOI FaZe Clan Natus Vincere AMKAL ESPORTS SAW Eternal Fire Cloud9 MOUZ Apeks Team Vitality Team Spirit ENCE ECSTATIC HEROIC GamerLegion
Asia
The Mongolz Lynn Vision
Americas
Imperial Esports FURIA Esports paiN Gaming Legacy Complexity Gaming
Qualification Qualification took place through three Regional Major Ranking events, based on teams' geographical regions, events were held in Europe, Americas and Asia. Unlike in previous Majors where teams were seeded according to performance at RMRs, a number of Opening Stage and Elimination Stage places were instead distributed according to Valve's own regional standings.
Seven teams from Europe and one team from the Americas RMRs who qualified earned direct berths to the Elimination Stage, in accordance with the number of each region's teams that advanced from the Legends Stage to the playoffs of Paris 2023.
The RMR tournaments took place in the following cities:
Europe: Bucharest, Romania: February 14–24 RMR A: February 14–17 RMR B: February 19–22 Last Chance Qualifier: February 23–24 Asia: Shanghai, China: February 26–28 Americas: Monterrey, Mexico: March 1–4
RMR results RegionOpening StageElimination StageEurope AEternal Fire SAW AMKAL ESPORTS Movistar KOIFaZe Clan Virtus.pro Natus Vincere G2 Esports Europe BCloud9 ENCE Apeks HEROIC ECSTATIC Team Spirit Team Vitality MOUZ AmericasFURIA Esports Imperial Esports paiN Gaming Legacy Complexity GamingAsia The Mongolz Lynn Vision Last Chance Qualifier 9 Pandas Source:
Team seeding Following the conclusion of the Americas RMRs, Valve updated their regional standings and awarded teams Elimination Stage berths based on their new rankings.
+ EuropeStandingTeam NameRosterSeed 1 FaZe karrigan, rain, frozen, ropz, broky Elimination Stage 2 Spirit chopper, sh1ro, magixx, zont1x, donk 3 Vitality apEX, ZywOo, flameZ, Spinx, mezii 4 MOUZ Brollan, siuhy, torzsi, Jimpphat, xertioN 5 Virtus.pro mir, FL1T, Jame, n0rb3r7, fame 6 Natus Vincere Aleksib, iM, b1t, jL, w0nderful 7 G2 NiKo, huNter-, nexa, HooXi, m0NESY 9 Cloud9 HObbit, electroNic, Boombl4, Ax1Le, Perfecto Opening Stage 10 Eternal Fire MAJ3R, XANTARES, woxic, Calyx, Wicadia 11 ENCE gla1ve, Goofy, dycha, hades, Kylar 12 Apeks STYKO, jkaem, nawwk, sense, CacaNito 13 HEROIC NertZ, TeSeS, nicoodoz, sjuush, kyxsan 14 GamerLegion Snax, acoR, Keoz, isak, volt 19 9 Pandas seized, clax, iDISBALANCE, glowiing, d1Ledez 20 SAW MUTiRiS, roman, story, ewjerkz, arrozdoce Opening Stage 21 ECSTATIC Nodios, Patti, Queenix, kraghen, salazar 23 AMKAL NickelBack, Krad, Forester, TRAVIS, ICY 27 KOI JUST, mopoz, stadodo, dav1g, adamS
+ AmericasStandingTeam NameRosterSeed 1 Complexity EliGE, JT, floppy, hallzerk, Grim Elimination Stage 2 FURIA FalleN, chelo, arT, yuurih, KSCERATO Opening Stage 5 Imperial HEN1, felps, VINI, decenty, noway 7 paiN biguzera, n1ssim, nqz, kauez, lux 9 Legacy coldzera, NEKIZ, dumau, b4rtiN, latto
+ AsiaStandingTeam NameRosterSeed 1 TheMongolz bLitz, Techno, Senzu, mzinho, 910 Opening Stage 2 Lynn Vision Westmelon, z4kr, Starry, Jee, EmiliaQAQ
Opening stage On November 4, 2023, it was announced that Valve had renamed the Challengers Stage and Legends Stage of the Major to "Opening Stage" and "Elimination Stage" respectively. Teams would also be seeded into these stages according to their regional standings. Like previous Majors using a Swiss-system bracket, sixteen teams will compete for eight Elimination Stage spots, with all matches besides elimination and progression matches, which are bests-of-three, being bests-of-one.
The Opening Stage was played between March 17 and March 20, 2024.
Elimination stage Like the Opening Stage, the Elimination Stage is played in a Swiss-system bracket, with eight teams advancing to a single-elimination Playoffs Stage. The Elimination Stage includes the eight teams that advance from the Opening Stage, as well as the seven highest teams from the Europe RMR and the highest team from the Americas RMR in Valve's regional standings. Matches are played in the same format as in the Opening Stage.
During a 2–2 bracket match between Virtus.pro and G2 Esports, Virtus.pro player Dzhami "Jame" Ali experienced a game crash, after what was later determined to be an NVIDIA driver crash. The event led to G2 reaching map point, and caused a response regarding controversial technical issues with the Major, including from G2 player Nikola "NiKo" Kovač.
The Elimination Stage was played between March 21 and March 24, 2024.
Playoffs stage
The top eight teams from the Elimination Stage will advance to a single-elimination bracket. Each match in the Playoffs Stage is played in a best-of-three format.
On March 29, during a quarter-final match between G2 and MOUZ, spectators rushed the stage and were tackled by event security, damaging the trophy. PGL released a statement following the incident stating that they intended to press charges against the disruptors, who were reportedly involved with a Counter-Strike gambling platform.
The Playoffs Stage was played between March 28 and March 31, 2024.
Final standings The final placings are shown below. In addition, the prize distribution, roster, and coaches are shown. Place Prize Money Team Roster Coach 1st Natus Vincere Aleksib, iM, b1t, jL, w0nderful B1ad3 2nd FaZe Clan karrigan, rain, frozen, broky, NEO 3rd 4th G2 Esports NiKo, huNter-, nexa, HooXi, m0NESY TaZ Team Vitality apEX, ZywOo, flameZ, Spinx, mezii XTQZZZ 5th 8th MOUZ siuhy, Brollan, torzsi, Jimpphat, xertioN sycrone Eternal Fire MAJ3R, XANTARES, woxic, Calyx, Wicadia Fabre Team Spirit chopper, sh1ro, magixx, zont1x, donk hally Cloud9 HObbit, electroNic, Perfecto, Boombl4, Ax1Le groove 9th 11th paiN Gaming biguzera, n1ssim, nqz, kauez, lux rikz Virtus.pro mir, FL1T, Jame, n0rb3r7, fame dastan Complexity Gaming JT, hallzerk, EliGE, floppy, Grim T.c 12th 14th HEROIC NertZ, nicoodoz, sjuush, TeSeS, kyxsan sAw ECSTATIC Nodios, Patti, kraghen, salazar, Queenix casle Imperial Esports HEN1, felps, VINI, decenty, noway zakk 15th 16th FURIA Esports arT, FalleN, chelo, yuurih, KSCERATO guerri TheMongolz bLitz, 910, Techno, Senzu, mzinho maaRaa 17th 19th SAW MUTiRiS, story, arrozdoce, ewjerkz, roman NABOWOW GamerLegion isak, Snax, Keoz, acoR, volt ash Legacy coldzera, NEKIZ, dumau, b4rtiN, latto chucky 20th 22nd ENCE gla1ve, Goofy, hades, dycha, Kylar kuben Apeks STYKO, jkaem, nawwk, sense, CacaNito mithR Lynn Vision Westmelon, EmiliaQAQ, Jee, Starry, z4kr GUM 23rd 24th Movistar KOI JUST, mopoz, adamS, dav1g, stadodo deLonge AMKAL ESPORTS NickelBack, ICY, Krad, Forester, TRAVIS svyat
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