PGL Europe A RMR Power Rankings: Who will qualify for Major

The first group within the Europe RMR tournament will fight for eight slots for PGL Major Antwerp 2022. Among the participants are the leaders of the world ranking in the person of NAVI, FaZe, and Heroic. As well as debutants: Unique, Quazar, and Gamer Legion.

Here we’ll take you through what to expect from the event: who are the favorites, who will have to prove their strength, and for whom this tournament is a “first big experience”.

Favorites

Four teams from this group will receive the “Legend Status” at the Major, and they will start the event in Belgium from Legend Stage. I can confidently say that NAVI, FaZe Clan, and Heroic will make the top-4 in this group. The Ukrainian team, current champions of the Major, the best team in 2021. Karrigan and Co won two last big events: IEM Katowice 2022 and EPL S15, they’re on the move. The Danish team failed in the playoffs of the last event, but they must prove their strength at RMR.

Three teams are competing for the fourth “Legend” slot: Vitality, Outsiders (VP), and MOUZ. All of them didn’t play in EPL’s playoffs, winning only two matches in their groups. By the way, Vitality beat Outsiders 2:0 at ESL Pro League. The French team is dependent on ZywOo. You can see that when a Frenchman is on top of the scoreboard, his team wins. If ZywOo shows good stats, Vitality can secure the “Legend” spot in Belgium.

Contenders

Four slots remain, two Challengers and two Contenders. All teams with this status will start the Major from the “New Legends Stage”, but Challenger teams have a seeding advantage.

Here we return to MOUZ and Outsiders. Both teams have experienced players and staff, which helps them to qualify for the Major. First, after EPL made a strange change, benched NBK and added JDC from the academy roster. But if we look from the firepower side, it’s a good move. On the other side, MOUZ lost a very experienced player, two times Major Champions.

Outsiders also failed the EPL group, but this time still have all the right supplies to qualify for the Major.

To “Contenders” I also add OG and BIG. Both teams made changes before the season. With adding nexa, OG made a good run at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2022, which helped them to take the slot for Spring Finals. BIG returned to the full German roster, signed faveN from Sprout, and added the youngster Krimbo from the academy roster. Qualifying for the Major will be a good achievement for both teams.

Dark Horses

These three teams can make a surprise run at RMR. Fnatic, faced big problems when they drove out smooya, and suddenly sold Brollan to NiP. But it’s still a team with experienced ALEX and Krimz, good riflers mezii and Pepzor, and worthy AWPer poizon. Few expect anything from this team, and this may be the secret of Fnatic’s success.

Next in line – Dignitas, where f0rest and friberg are making “Last Dance”. For both of them, this RMR is the last chance to visit the Major in their career. They are already 30, but they are still at a decent level, not inferior to the younger generation. From the point of experience, there are no questions. But, as we know, veterans have problems with firepower in most matches. If players show stable performance, they can secure 7th-8th place here.

We should also talk about the Turkish team Eternal Fire. XANTARES and woxic project achieved 20th place in HLTV World Ranking at the end of this January and managed to qualify for RMR tournament. Numerous fans can remember the first strong Turkish team, Space Soldiers. Eternal Fire is an upgraded version of that team. Turkish players always have good aim, and if EF can add a decent strategy to their performance, woxic and XANTARES can return to the Major.

Underdogs

The final five teams come in as the big underdogs for the Regional Major Ranking tournament and will find it hard to make it deep in the Swiss group. This tournament for them is about the experience of playing at LAN against top teams from Europe.

SAW, Gamer Legion, and forZe are stable tier-2 teams, frequent visitors of tournaments like Pinnacle, Thunderpick, Malta Vibes, etc. They have some notable achievements, but only these were often isolated cases. These teams are equal to each other, and they can beat each other, but against most teams here they will experience some difficulties.

Unique and QUAZAR are debutants of RMR. For almost all of them, this tournament will be their first international experience, so it is not worth expecting anything from them.

PGL Major Antwerp 2022: European RMR A will take place in Bucharest, Romania, from 17th until 20th of April. All matches will take place in PGL Studio Bucharest.