feaver
The teams of PGL Major Stockholm 2021 are already ready to start fighting. There is a $2 million prize pool at stake. PGL Major Stockholm 2021 is undoubtedly the main event for the Counter-Strike world in the last two years. It will be a real feast for all CS:GO fans, because the Swedish authorities allowed the event with a crowd at the stadium.
Traditionally, the Major will consist of several stages. The first stage is the Challengers Stage. The Swiss system will determine the fate of 16 teams, 8 of which have to go to the New Legends Stage. Let’s talk about the favorites, outsiders and underdogs of the Challengers Stage.
Favorites
European Mastodons
I don’t think anyone would be surprised if I listed Astralis as one of the favorites. The Danes made replacements in their roster, but it looks like they were able to cope with the absence of a playmaker like dev1ce in the team. Xyp9x is finally back in the game and Clutch Minister is ready to conquer the CS:GO scene. I’m not sure about the 3:0 result, but this team should definitely be among those who will make it to the next stage.
FaZe Clan is the team that is predicted roster changes after this Major. The fact is that many analysts believe that the FaZe squad is obsolete and unable to compete at the level of the top teams. However, I think this statement is misleading, at least for the Challengers Stage. The Swiss system allows you to make mistakes, and more than once. Even if FaZe’s strategies misfire, there are still the teams on the roster that are weaker. The advantage of FaZe Clan is a strong leader and captain, which is karrigan. One of the oldest players in the tournament can bring stability to the FaZe game and show good results in the Challengers Stage.
Another strong European team to add to this list is BIG. Berlin International Gaming didn’t pay well at LAN tournaments for a long time, but it’s the audience did not see a common LANs with the crowd for a two years. We know Berlin International Gaming as a team that likes to gain momentum as the championship progresses. These facts definitely do not allow us to put BIG to the outsiders list of Challengers Stage.
The fourth team from the list of European mastodons will be MOUZ. These guys are a combination of youth and experience, where youth plays the leading role. MOUZ has three young players, and ropz, being young, already has a lot of experience in LAN tournaments under his belt. This should give MOUZ the confidence to make it through the Challengers Stage and move on to the next stage. Tournament practice shows that a symbiosis of experience and youth is the right strategy to win.
ENCE is another team that should pass for the Top-8 Challengers Stage at the PGL Major Stockholm 2021. Granted, this is long gone from the legendary Finnish squad that finished second at Intel Extreme Masters XIII – Katowice Major 2019, but ENCE have young and promising players. By the way, one person from that squad is still going with ENCE to the Major as the 6th player – it’s allu.
A team with zero losses
Based on previous tournaments, I think Heroic is the right team to beat Challengers Stage 3:0. According to the Swiss system, the team that wins 3 games in a row immediately qualifies for the New Legends Stage.
Heroic has been showing a great performance in recent months. Cohesion, tactics, the use of grenades and, of course, shooting – these are the things that should help the Danish team easily beat their opponents 3:0. Especially considering that Heroic’s first opponents will be TYLOO. This confrontation should look one-sided.
All Heroic players have excellent individual skills, but refrezh stands out the most. This guy shows simply a prohibitive level of aim skill and understanding of the game. Over the past year refrezh has created quite a few highlight videos that will remain in the memory of CS:GO fans.
On top of everything else, Xzist has joined the team, who will be a coach of the Danish team. It is important to understand that Richard is a player with tremendous experience, which he can share with the young talent Heroic.
CIS warriors
One of the most stable teams in the region is Virtus.Pro. Of course, looking at the results of Na’Vi, we understand that VP are on a bit lower level of playing than Natus Vincere, but Virtus.Pro in my opinion deserves a place in this pick-em as a team that will still make the Challengers Stage. The substitution right before the Major might have confused the VP’s playstyle a bit, but if we’ll look at the comments on social media, the guys have been training with FL1T for a while now and are feeling pretty comfortable. The SANJI’s kick seems a logical decision, as Sanjar had been unstable in the VP roster. As for Team Spirit – I’m not sure that this team can pass to the next stage. I think team can expect significant roster changes after the Major.
The Underdogs
For the last slot in the top 8, there are several teams who are underdogs in the tournament. There are several such teams in the tournament.
Copenhagen Flames is another Danish team that could be in contention for the final slot in the Challengers Stage Top-8. They did well at tier 2 and tier 3 tournaments before the PGL Stockholm Major. This is a Danish team that shows results that we can call “not bad at least” and will they fight for the top-8 of the table. The LAN atmosphere can help them a lot.
The real underdog among the CS:GO teams at the Major is Movistar Riders. The squad consists entirely of Spanish players. They fought quite well against G2 at the Intel Extreme Masters XVI – Fall: Europe. And just like CPH Flames, Movistar Riders also have good results in tier-3 online tournaments. Their level of play is high when they have comfortable maps. This team like to play with their own working plans and they doesn’t try to adjust the opponent’s plan. This could play a cruel trick on many Challengers Stage favorites.
Entropiq is a CIS team led by the legendary coach and talent of the Russian analytics panel, Dmitriy “hoochR” Bogdanov. The team consists almost entirely of Russian players. By the way, the former Na’Vi player flamie acts as a substitute player in the tournament. Entropiq is a mystery team. They are young and ready to win to advance to the New Legends Stage. They have to cling to the top-8 with all their might. A coach like hoochR should bring a fresh perspective to the team for new tactics and strategies.
Outsiders
Of course, the Challengers Stage has an outsiders who will most likely not win any game at the tournament. TYLOO and Sharks Esports have the highest chance of leaving the tournament without winning a winning game.
Chinese CS has always been weaker than in Europe or the CIS. It is very difficult for players from China to adapt to the playstyle which is practicing on European servers. Because of this, Chinese teams are always consistently ranked last in the international championships of the Major level.
Shark Esports is the weakest team from South America in terms of level of play. If the result of Pain Gaming is still difficult to predict, because they can unexpectedly knock out some of the favorites, the Shark Espors have very little chance of such an outcome.