Five favorites of PGL Major Antwerp 2022

The PGL Major Antwerp 2022 is less than three months away. If that does not quicken the pulse, you’re probably better off with a good book. For the rest of us, the guessing games and predictions start here.

NAVI

Top of that list would be defending champions Natus Vincere. The team had a great last season since B1t joined the starting five in April. NAVI won multiple amounts of prestige tournaments, including IEM Cologne, EPL, Intel Grand Slam, and, of course, Major in Stockholm. Three players reached top-10 in HLTV ranking, among them, first place for s1mple, for the second time in his career. In general, 2021 was the best year for Natus Vincere in CS:GO. This season is a test for the team. Will they be able to stay at the same level and continue to play successfully as well? Until this moment, this question still doesn’t have an answer.

Natus Vincere finished in top-4 in Katowice, made only top-8 at ESL Pro League Season 15, and qualified for the Major through RMR, lost only against Heroic 0:2. Yes, the war in Ukraine affected a team. B1t and s1mple can’t return home, Russian players have a lot of questions from the community. The atmosphere in a team is tense. But, of course, NAVI is on the list of favorites ahead of Major. They still have great individual players and an experienced coach as a B1ad3. All the more so since they will be performing at the tournament as current champions, which will motivate them to win again the main tournament of the year in CS:GO.

Heroic

This Danish squad also made mad progress last year. Since joining sjuush and refrezh, Heroic managed to win ESL Pro League Season 13, top-4 at PGL Major Stockholm 2021, and BLAST Premier: Fall Finals 2021. Danes constantly reach the final stages of tournaments, but each time lacked experience. One of the problems was Hunden’s, former coach of Heroic, who did a lot of bad things, and it affected the team and its progress. He was scheming behind players’ backs, cheating with tactics, and left the team before the big tournament.

Fortunately for Heroic, they signed Xizt, a former NiP legendary player. He helped the team to reach a new level and top-5 in HLTV World Ranking. Danish team had a good run at PGL Major Antwerp 2022: European RMR A, finished Swiss Stage 3:0, took a victory over Natus Vincere with a score 2:1, the first since 2019. At LAN-events, Heroic is playing better than online, it confirms their results.

cadiaN said positively about his coach in an interview with HLTV:

He’s good at setting the mindset fo the squad, and he has played in many tournaments and many finals. He talks about the hurdles that, maybe not so much he and his teams, but the teams he played against had because they have been winning so much. He has a lot of experience in that regard and it helps us. We are very happy to have him on board, I think the fact that he has been given a contract and has come to terms with Heroic is a sign that the players are happy to have him.

All players are in a good mood and very motivated. If everything will be going well, Heroic has all chances to reach the minimum semi-finals at the upcoming Major, but of course, the team’s goal is to win the tournament.

FaZe Clan

PGL Major Antwerp 2022 – one of the last chances for karrigan to become a major champion. He was closest in early 2018 in Boston, also playing for FaZe Clan, but the team lost badly to Cloud9 in the final. Four years later, karrigan and his FaZe Clan are again ranked first in the HLTV ranking, and are approaching the main tournament of the year as a candidate to win. From the line-up that reached the final in Boston, the above-mentioned captain remained, and rain. broky, Twistzz and ropz joined the team later.

Altough, recently, in HLTV interview, karrigan said that the victory at Major is not his main goal in his career:

Yeah, every players has goals, right? And everyone has winning a Major as a goal. I think that for me, it’s important to point out that it’s just a part of my goals, not my only goal. If I win a Major people think I’m stopping, but that’s not what it is, it’s part of my goals just like IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne, that are also huge legendary trophies. A Major is just one of them.

With ropz joining this January, FaZe Clan turned into the best team of the season. They finished 1st at IEM Katowice 2022, given that the entire tournament was not played on the main roster. After that, they triumphed at ESL Pro League Season 15, won ENCE in grand final with a score of 3:1. Recently at RMR, they lost only against BIG, qualified for the Major.

The current roster of FaZe Clan is better than Boston’s version in 2018. Here are three young and experienced players with the addition of rain and karrigan. And if the danish IGL can allow himself to finish the games at the bottom of the scoreboard, Norwegian player is still in form, and ready to finally win the Major.

A possible problem may be the absence of RobbaN as a coach, who has not expired the ban from ESIC dated 2020. Only at the next Major can he stand behind the players.

Overall, in my opinion, FaZe Clan is the main candidate for Major trophy right now, and it’s a cool chance for karrigan to win this event.

Astralis

As controversial as it may sound, I believe in Astralis. Yes, the team has problems, they are clearly visible, you can just look at the latest team results. But again, we still have teams of LAN, who traditionally are playing better on stage than in online matches. It’s still Astralis, with blameF and k0nfig. These two players show a good individual level of play, and are able to win the game alone. With farlig coming, Astralis managed to find stability and fully focused on their play style.

That fact that Astralis will start their journey at Major from New Challengers Stage, they have a great chance to gain an in-game form during the tournament, and in the distance to bypass direct competitors.

It’s clear that Danish player don’t have problems with aim, they all show decent performance. We should talk about the team directly. One more major change was made in March when coach ave was changed by trace.

blameF said in interview for HLTV after the qualifying for the Major, next words:

I don’t want to talk too much about differences or speak badly about anyone else, but I think trace is a good leader for us. He’s making sure that the guys are staying focused on the task and that they are doing what they are supposed to, not only when playing, but also in terms of training, eating, and all that stuff. He’s really good at handling all that part outside the game, he’s a good leader and what the team needs.

We should get used to the fact that the coach is a full-fledged sixth-team player. When your coach understands you, can help you, and makes an impact – it then brings the desired result.

Cloud9

The Former Gambit roster, suddenly, could be on top of the upcoming Major in Belgium. Signed contract with a new organization, especially well-known as Cloud9, players could receive extra motivation before the event. It will be cool if at their first tournament under a new tag, they will achieve a good result.

We finally signed CS:GO Players. pic.twitter.com/MawBtLf3fX

— Cloud9 (@Cloud9) April 24, 2022

After a successful season last year, the former Gambit roster had problems in playoffs of tier-1 events. They lost both times in Katowice and Düsseldorf against FaZe Clan, finished in top-6 and top-12 respectively.

At RMR they had a pretty good run, won all three matches, and secured the Legend Status for the Major. As I have already said, the new organization can be a big motivator for the upcoming tournament. Things may go differently for the team in Belgium, and we will see the same Gambit as last year.

In conclusion, I want to talk about “Dark Horses”. These are teams with little to expect, but they can show good play at the tournament, and surprise everyone. I want to note ENCE, who had a brilliant run at EPL S15, good matches at RMR, and now beat Heroic recently on BLAST event. Spinx and hades received a lot of useful experience at recent LAN-events, and are ready to make playoffs at the Major.

PGL Major Antwerp 2022 will take place in Belgium, starting on 9th of May, and ending 22th. The event will have three-phase. New Challengers Stage, during 9th-12th, where 16 teams will fight for eight slots for next phase. Then will be a one-day break, and a New Legends Stage will be played, where 16 teams will try to make the playoffs. Finally, playoffs will take place during 19th-22th May, a single-elimination bracket, all matches are bo3. The prize pool is $1,000,000.

I can say with confidence that this major will be one of the most interesting in the history of the game. Many new lineups will be introduced at this tournament, and it will be especially interesting to watch them.