Team Heroic and G2 Esports opened the Champions Stage with victories Thursday, advancing to the semifinals at the PGL Major Stockholm.
G2 swept Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 and Heroic defeated Virtus.pro 2-1 in the quarterfinals. The winners meet in Saturday’s semifinals.
Virtus.pro and NiP are eliminated in the single-elimination playoff bracket.
The PGL Major Stockholm 2021 is a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major championship with a total prize pool of $2 million. The winner nets $1 million plus 4,000 Blast Premier points and an automatic bid to the World Final 2021 in December.
Sixteen teams competed in the Legends Stage, which ran through Tuesday. Elimination and advancement matches were best of three, while all other matches were best-of-one.
On Thursday, Heroic needed three sets to best VP. Heroic won the first map 16-10 on Mirage before VP responded with a 16-13 win on Ancient. Heroic clinched with a 16-12 win on Inferno, getting off to a 6-2 start before holding off a late run by VP.
Casper “cadiaN” Moller led the all-Danish side with a plus-9 kills-to-deaths differential while mate Rene “TeSeS” Madsen led the team with 58 kills. Russian Dzhami “Jame” Ali led VP with 54 kills to go with a plus-5 K-D differential.
G2 defeated NiP by identical 16-11 scores, first on Inferno and then on Mirage. Nikola “NiKo” Kovac of Bosnia and Herzegovina led G2 with 51 kills and a plus-14 differential. Sweden’s Fredrik “REZ” Sterner had a plus-3 on 41 kills for Ninjas.
The Champions Stage continues with two best-of-three quarterfinals matches on Friday:
Natus Vincere vs. Team Vitality
FURIA Esports vs. Gambit Esports
PGL Major Stockholm prize pool:
1. $1 million — TBD
2. $300,000 — TBD
3-4. $140,000 — TBD
5-8. $70,000 – Virtus.pro, Ninjas in Pyjamas, TBD, TBD
9-11. $17,500 — Entropiq, FaZe Clan, Copenhagen Flames
12-14. $17,500 — Team Liquid, Astralis, MOUZ
15-16. $17,500 — Evil Geniuses, ENCE
17-19. No prize money — Movistar Riders, BIG, Team Spirit
20-22. No prize money — TYLOO, Renegades, paiN Gaming
23-24. No prize money — Godsent, Sharks Esports
–Field Level Media
