PGL Major: Kraków 2017

PGL Major: Kraków 2017, also known as PGL Major 2017 or Kraków 2017, was the eleventh Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship. It was organized by PGL and held in Kraków, Poland from July 16 to 23, 2017. It features sixteen professional teams from around the world. Eight teams directly qualified based on their top eight placement in the last major, ELEAGUE Major 2017, while another eight teams qualified through the Offline Major Qualifier. The PGL Major was the fourth consecutive major with a prize pool of US$1,000,000 since Valve announced the prize pool increase from US$250,000 at MLG Columbus 2016.[2]

PGL Major 2017

2017
The PGL Major 2017 logo
Tournament information
Sport	Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Location	Kraków, Poland
Dates	July 16, 2017–July 23, 2017
Administrator(s)	Valve PGL
Tournament format(s)	16 team swiss-system group stage 8 team single-elimination playoff
Host(s)	PGL
Venue	Tauron Arena Kraków
Teams	16 teams
Purse	$1,000,000 USD
Final positions
Champions	Gambit Esports
1st runners-up	Immortals
2nd runners-up	Astralis Virtus.pro
Tournament statistics
Attendance	15,000
MVP	Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev [1]

The playoffs consisted of eight teams. Astralis, Fnatic, Gambit Esports, North, SK Gaming, and Virtus.pro were returning Legends while BIG and Immortals were new Legends. FaZe Clan and Natus Vincere lost their Legends status after failing to make the top eight. The grand finals consisted of two underdogs with Gambit Esports, which defeated Fnatic and Astralis, and Immortals, which defeated BIG and Virtus.pro. The major concluded with Gambit defeating Immortals 2-1 in a relatively close best of three series, marking just the third time a non-European team won a major (Brazilians Luminosity Gaming and SK Gaming each won a major, though they had the same core roster.) and the first time an Asian team won a major.

Format

The format will be kept the same as the previous majors.[3]

There will be four regional qualifiers and two from each qualifier will move on to the main qualifier.

In the major qualifier, the top eight teams from the pool of sixteen will move on to the major. The teams will play in a 16 team Swiss tournament. Teams with three wins will move on to the major and teams with three losses will be eliminated. The teams that move on will be known as "Challengers".

The top eight teams from the previous major will receive automatic bids to the major; these teams are known as "Legends." The group stage of the tournament will also be a 16 team Swiss tournament. Teams with three wins will move on to the playoffs and become the new Legends. Teams with three losses will be eliminated and will be invited to the next major's offline qualifier.

In the playoffs, eight teams will play in a single elimination, best of three bracket. Teams will play until a winner is decided in the finals.

Map Pool

The map pool was changed for this major. Dust II was taken out of the active map pool and Valve reintroduced Inferno, which has been revamped since it was taken out.[4]

The veto process was also changed for the best of one games. One team can decide whether to veto first or second. The team that vetoes first will remove two maps. The second team will remove three maps. The first team will then choose from one of the two remaining maps. The second team will then choose the side it wants to start on. The best of three veto process was unchanged. Each team will remove one map. Then each team will choose one map. For the decider map, each team will remove one more map to decide the third map.[5]

Maps Cache Cobblestone Inferno Mirage Nuke Overpass Train

Major Qualifier

Asia Minor

A total of eight teams will compete in the Asia Minor. Two teams will be invited and the other six will qualify in their regional qualifiers. These teams include one team from East Asia, one team from the Middle East, one team from China, one team from Oceania, and two teams from the India & Southeast Asia qualifier.[6]

Teams Renegades (Invited) TyLoo (Invited) Flash Gaming (China) The MongolZ (East Asia) Team Spotnet (Middle East) Team Immunity (Oceanic) Signature Gaming (India + SEA) 7642 (India + SEA)

First round

Semifinals

Finals

A1

Flash Gaming

0

B2

Team Immunity

2

B2

Team Immunity

1

A2

Renegades

2

B1

TyLoo

1

A2

Renegades

2

A2

Renegades

2

B1

TyLoo

1

A1

Flash Gaming

0

B1

TyLoo

2

B2

Team Immunity

0

B1

TyLoo

2

Asian Minor summary; Shanghai, China

Teams were split up into two groups. It was played out like the old group stages in a major, most recently being at ESL One Cologne 2016. In Group A, Flash and Renegades easily took care of Signature and Spotnet, respectively. Flash then took down Renegades in the winner's match to take first seed in the group. Signature defeated Spotnet in a close 2-0 series, and Renegades defeated Signature in the decider match, 2-1. In Group B, TyLoo easily took care of 7642 while Immunity needed to take almost the full 30 rounds to take down MongolZ. TyLoo then defeated Immunity 16-4 to take first seed in the group. 7642 fell to MongolZ in the loser's match 0-2, but Immunity again defeated MongolZ in the decider match to move on to the final four.

TyLoo and Renegades won their respective maps and it came to the decider map. The third map ended up being a battle between each team's newly acquired players, with TyLoo picking up Hansel "BnTet" Ferdinand from Indonesia and Renegades signing Noah "Nifty" Francis from the United States. In the end, Renegades ended up with the win in overtime to move a step closer to the major qualifier. Immunity pulled off an upset win against Flash and both Australian teams moved on to winner's finals. In winner's finals, very lopsided matches took place, as Renegades won the first map 16-5, Immunity won the second map 16-5, and Renegades won the third map 16-4 to guarantee a spot at the major qualifier. In loser's semifinals, TyLoo fell behind early in the first map, but came back to take it; TyLoo then carried the momentum to the second map and dominated Flash and moved on to face Immunity. In loser's final, TyLoo swept up Immunity with ease and took the second Asian spot in the major qualifier. Renegades met TyLoo once again in the Asia Minor finals. This time, Renegades came up on top after a game three overtime win and took the first seed in the Asia Minor after finally defeating its Asian rival.[7]

CIS Minor

A total of eight teams will compete in the Commonwealth of Independent States Minor. The eight teams that participated in this minor all qualified through the closed qualifier. In the closed qualifier, twelve teams are invited and four teams qualify through an online open qualifier. Teams were separated into four groups of four and the top two teams moved on in each group to the closed qualifier. Two teams in the minor qualified for the main qualifier.

Teams Spartak Esports (CIS High) Team Spirit (CIS High) Team Spirit Academy (CIS High) Tengri (CIS High) Nemiga Gaming (CIS Low) pro100 (CIS Low) Quantum Bellator Fire (CIS Low) Vega Squadron (CIS Low)

First round

Semifinals

Finals

A1

Vega Squadron

2

B2

pro100

0

A1

Vega Squadron

1

A2

Tengri

2

B1

Q.B. Fire

0

A2

Tengri

2

A2

Tengri

0

A1

Vega Squadron

2

B2

pro100

2

B1

Q.B. Fire

0

A1

Vega Squadron

2

B2

pro100

1

CIS Minor summary; Moscow, Russia

Spirit Academy and Vega Squadron won close games in the initial matches, but Vega easily took the winner's match to take the top seed for Group A. Tengri defeated Nemiga in the loser's match and then got revenge on Spirit Academy to take the second seed. Both second seeds won the initial matches, as Quantum Bellator Fire (QBF) defeated Team Spirit and pro100 defeated Spartak Esports. QBF took a close winner's match 16-14 against pro100 to take the top seed of Group B. Team Spirit fell to Spartak in the loser's match, but it was pro100 to come out on top in the decider's match.

Vega easily took down pro100. Tengri had a little bit of a tougher time but still managed to close it out against QBF relatively easily. In the loser's bracket, pro10 took care of QBF relatively easily to move on toe loser's finals. In a tense winner's finals, Vega defeated Tengr in the first game 19-16 and the second game went in favor of Tengri, 16-13. Tengri then dominated the third game to secure a spot at the major qualifier. Vega and pro100 were in a hotly contested best of three, but it was the Russian team that came up on top, with the scores being 22-19, 14-16, and 16-11. Vega secured its second straight major qualifier spot. Tengri and Vega fought again and this time Vega took down Tengri to obtain the top seed at the minor.[8]

Europe Minor

All teams in the European Minor were required to compete in a closed qualifier. In the closed qualifier, 8 teams were invited and 8 other teams qualified through three different open qualifiers. The teams will play in a Swiss system tournament and the top 8 teams move on to the closed qualifier. In the closed qualifier, the teams will be separated into two groups of four teams. Two teams from each group move on to a four team, double elimination playoff bracket. The top three teams advance to the main qualifier.[9]

Teams PENTA Sports (1st-2nd) Team EnVyUs (1st-2nd) BIG (3rd-5th) iGame.com (3rd-5th) Team LDLC.com (3rd-5th) Ballistix Gaming^1 (6th-8th) Team Dignitas (6th-8th) Team Kinguin (6th-8th) ^1Fnatic Academy will play under the organization Ballistix Gaming just for the European Minor due to two teams not being allowed under the same organization.[10][11]

First round

Semifinals

Finals

A1

BIG

0

B2

Team Dignitas

2

B2

Team Dignitas

1

B1

PENTA Sports

2

B1

PENTA Sports

2

A2

Team EnVyUs

1

B1

PENTA Sports

0

A1

BIG

2

A1

BIG

2

A2

Team EnVyUs

0

B2

Team Dignitas

0

A1

BIG

2

Europe Minor summary; Bucharest, Romania

Ballistix Gaming upset Team EnVyUs in the first match of the minor after taking a dominant lead and then closing it out before EnVyUs could complete its comeback. BIG had an easy time against Team Kinguin. In the winner's match, Ballistix had a 11-4 lead at the half, but BIG was able to bring it back and take first seed in the group, 16-14. EnVyUs was able to defeat Kinguin after a slow start in the loser's matchup. In the decider's match of Group A, the French team took revenge on Ballistix and take the second spot in the group after two close games, including an overtime game for the second map. In Group B, PENTA Sports came back from a 1-9 deficit to win the game 16-14 over iGame.comTeam Dignitas handily defeated Team LDLC.com and PENTA defeated Dignitas to claim the first seed in the group. iGame continued to surprise as the underdog of the group, but LDLC was able to take it over the edge to eliminate iGame from the tournament. Dignitas easily defeated LDLC in the first match of the decider's series; the second match was much closer as LDLC made a massive comeback to win 16-14. In the final group stage map of the Kraków minors, Dignitas edged out LDLC in overtime to take the final spot in the European Minor playoffs.

In bracket play, Dignitas defeated BIG in one triple overtime game and one blowout to guarantee a spot at the main qualifier. PENTA defeated EnVyUs in the other series with relative ease in the third game. Dignitas was able to convincingly take out PENTA in the second map, but two close losses allowed PENTA to move on to the finals. BIG defeated EnVyUs to secure the last spot at the major qualifier and EnVyUs was eliminated despite being hugely favored to make it out of the minor. This was the first time EnVyUs's in game leader Vincent "Happy" Cervoni will not play at a major. BIG continued its run in the loser's bracket by taking out Dignitas in two 16-14 victories and then blew PENTA out of the water to claim the top seed at the major despite struggling the first day.[12]

Americas Minor

Two teams were invited to the Americas minor. One team out of a pool of 512 from South America qualified for the minor. The last five teams came from the North American closed qualifier. In that closed qualifier, 8 teams qualified through the open qualifier and 8 more teams were invited. The top five teams moved on to the Americas minor. In the minor, two teams moved on to the major.[13]

Teams Cloud9 (Invited) Immortals (Invited) Misfits (North America 1st-2nd) NRG Esports (North America 1st-2nd) compLexity Gaming (North America 3rd-5th) Counter Logic Gaming (North America 3rd-5th) Luminosity Gaming (North America 3rd-5th) paiN Gaming (South America 1st)

First round

Semifinals

Finals

A1

Immortals

2

B2

Counter Logic G.

0

A1

Immortals

2

B1

Cloud9

0

B1

Cloud9

2

A2

Luminosity G.

0

A1

Immortals

1

B1

Cloud9

2

B2

Counter Logic

2

A2

Luminosity G.

0

B1

Cloud9

2

B2

Counter Logic G.

0

Americas Minor summary; Santa Ana, California

Immortals and Luminosity won their games as the two Brazilian teams faced off in the winner's match. Immortals convincingly won the match between the two to take the first seed. compLexity and NRG duked it out in the loser's match, but it was NRG taking the first game in double overtime and convincingly taking the second game to move on. Luminosity and NRG fought in the decider's match and it was Luminosity taking the 2-0 win, with both maps being a very close 16-14 scoreline. Cloud9 started Group B strong with a 16-1 win over paiN Gaming and Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) took down a Misfits team that was without its in-game leader Sean "seang@res" Gares due to a wedding[14] and its AWPer Shahzeeb "ShahZaM" Khan.[15] Cloud9 took the first seed of the group after edging out CLG. paiN took a 2-0 upset win over Misfits in the loser's match, including a comeback win on the second map. In the decider's match, CLG took a huge lead in the first game of the first half (13-2), but paiN started a comeback but fell short. In the second map, CLG cleaned up the third Brazilian team after paiN started another comeback to reach the final four.

Cloud9 took down Luminosity in the first game after a close first half and ran away with the game in the second. In the second game, Cloud9 came back from a deficit and took the series in overtime. Immortals had some trouble with CLG, and the Brazilians pulled away with both games despite removing CS:GO veteran Lincoln "fnx" Lau from the lineup due to internal problems.[16] Luminosity had a 12-3 lead in the first game, but CLG made the comeback to take the first game. CLG had a 13-3 lead, but losing an anti-economy round started a comeback for the other side as Luminosity came alive this time. However, CLG barely took it over the line to take it 16-14. CLG did not find the same success as it did against Luminosity as it fell to Cloud9 2-0. Cloud9 then defeated Immortals to take the top seed for the Americas Minor. This was also the first time Cloud9 defeated Immortals in a series on LAN.[17]

Teams

Atlanta 2017 Bottom 8^1 GODSENT Team Liquid mousesports OpTic Gaming G2 Esports FlipSid3 Tactics HellRaisers	Regional Qualifiers Renegades (Asia Minor #1) TyLoo (Asia Minor #2) Vega Squadron (CIS Minor #1) Tengri (CIS Minor #2) Cloud9 (Americas Minor #1) Immortals (Americas Minor #2) BIG (Europe Minor #1) PENTA Sports (Europe Minor #2) Team Dignitas (Europe Minor #3)

¹Team EnVyUs loses its automatic bid since it changed three players after kennyS, apEX, and NBK- transferred to G2 Esports. Thus, G2 acquires EnVyUs's spot and EnVyUs must play in the regional qualifier.

The main qualifier will be a sixteen team swiss tournament, where after the Day 1 games, teams will play other teams with the same win-loss record. Every round will consist of one game. In addition, teams will not play the same team twice unless necessary. Any team with three wins would qualify for the major, and any team with three losses would be eliminated. The qualifier will be played in Bucharest, Romania.

In the first round, teams from pool 1 will be matched up against teams in pool 4. Teams in pool 2 will play teams in pool 3.

In the second round, the winners in the first round will face each other in the "high" matches; the losers will face each other in the "low" matches.

In the third round, the winners of the high matches from round two will face each other. The winners of these two matches will qualify for the major. The losers of the high round and the winners of the low round will face each other in the "mid" matches. The losers from the previous low matches will face each other in round three's low matches. The losers of these low matches are eliminated. Twelve teams remain in the Qualifier.

In the fourth round, the losers of the high matches and the winners of the low matches will face each other in round four's high matches. The winners of the high matches qualify for the major. The losers of the mid matches and the winners of the low matches will face each other in the low matches of round four. The losers of these matches are eliminated from the Qualifier. Six teams remain.

In the last round, the remaining teams will face off. The winners of these matches will qualify for the major and the losing teams will be eliminated.

The Ninjas in Pyjamas, after missing its first ever major at ELEAGUE and failed to be Legends for the first time at ESL One Cologne 2016, failed to qualify for the major qualifier and the European Minor after losing to Finland's iGame.com in the first round, losing to Sweden's Red Reserve in second round, defeating Sweden's Epsilon eSports in the third round, and losing to Turkey's Space Soldiers in the fourth round, failing to attend its second straight major.

Main Qualifier Results

Place	Team	Record	Differential	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5
1–2	mousesports	3-0	+21	Tengri 16-1 Inferno	High match GODSENT 16-11 Train	High match PENTA Sports 16-14 Cobblestone	Qualified	Qualified
	G2 Esports	3-0	+10	Immortals 22-20 Inferno	High match Cloud9 16-11 Cache	High match FlipSid3 Tactics 16-13 Nuke	Qualified	Qualified
3–5	PENTA Sports	3-1	+21	OpTic Gaming 16-14 Train	High match Team Liquid 16-3 Mirage	High match mousesports 14-16 Cobblestone	High match Vega Squadron 16-8 Train	Qualified
	Cloud9	3-1	+19	BIG 16-10 Cobblestone	High match G2 Esports 11-16 Cache	Mid match GODSENT 16-11 Train	High match FlipSid3 Tactics 16-3 Mirage	Qualified
	BIG	3-1	+9	Cloud9 10-16 Cobblestone	Low match Tengri 16-14 Cobblestone	Mid match Immortals 16-19 Cache	High match Team Liquid 16-10 Train	Qualified
6–8	Vega Squadron	3-2	+9	HellRaisers 10-16 Mirage	Low match OpTic Gaming 16-10 Train	Mid match TyLoo 16-10 Inferno	High match PENTA Sports 8-16 Train	Team Dignitas 16-5 Inferno
	FlipSid3 Tactics	3-2	+1	Renegades 19-16 Train	High match HellRaisers 16-4 Overpass	High match G2 Esports 13-16 Nuke	High match Cloud9 3-16 Mirage	Team Liquid 25-23 Mirage
	Immortals	3-2	-1	G2 Esports 20-22 Inferno	Low match Team Dignitas 16-13 Cache	Mid match BIG 9-16 Cache	Low match GODSENT 16-14 Cobblestone	HellRaisers 16-13 Overpass
9–11	Team Liquid	2-3	-4	TyLoo 22-19 Inferno	High match PENTA Sports 3-16 Mirage	Mid match HellRaisers 16-2 Train	High match BIG 10-16 Train	FlipSid3 Tactics 23-25 Mirage
	Team Dignitas	2–3	-5	GODSENT 14-16 Overpass	Low match Immortals 13-16 Cache	Low match Tengri 16-7 Mirage	Low match Renegades 16-14 Mirage	Vega Squadron 5-16 Inferno
	HellRaisers	2-3	-17	Vega Squadron 16-10 Mirage	High match FlipSid3 Tactics 4-16 Overpass	Mid match Team Liquid 2-16 Train	Low match TyLoo 16-11 Overpass	Immortals 13-16 Overpass
12–14	Renegades	1-3	-1	FlipSid3 Tactics 16-19 Train	Low match TyLoo 14-16 Cache	Low match OpTic Gaming 16-10 Mirage	Low match Team Dignitas 14-16 Mirage	Eliminated
	GODSENT	1–3	-10	Team Dignitas 16-14 Overpass	High match mousesports 11-16 Train	Mid match Cloud9 11-16 Train	Low match Immortals 14-16 Cobblestone	Eliminated
	TyLoo	1-3	-12	Team Liquid 19-22 Inferno	Low match Renegades 16-14 Cache	Mid match Vega Squadron 10-16 Inferno	Low match HellRaisers 11-16 Overpass	Eliminated
15–16	OpTic Gaming	0-3	-14	PENTA Sports 14-16 Train	Low match Vega Squadron 10-16 Train	Low match Renegades 10-16 Mirage	Eliminated	Eliminated
	Tengri	0-3	-26	mousesports 1-16 Inferno	Low match BIG 14-16 Cobblestone	Low match Team Dignitas 7-16 Mirage	Eliminated	Eliminated

Broadcast Talent

Host

• Paul "ReDeYe" Chaloner

Interviewer

• Scott "SirScoots" Smith

Fluff

• Pala "Mantrousse" Gilroy Sen

Commentators

• James Bardolph
• Anders Blume
• Henry "HenryG" Greer
• Daniel "ddk" Kapadia
• Auguste "Semmler" Massonnat
• Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett

Analysts

• Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill
• Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson
• Joona "natu" Leppänen
• Jason "moses" O'Toole
• Janko "YNk" Paunović

Observers

• Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo
• DJ "Prius" Kuntz

Broadcasts

All streams were broadcast on Twitch in various languages.

PGL TV IzakOOO 500Anaheim 99Damage BiDa Fragbite HitpointCZ ImbaTV Moreira Ogaming TV SpilerTV Starladder

Teams Competing

The top eight teams from ELEAGUE Major 2017 (Legends) will be joined by the eight teams from the main qualifier (Challengers).

Legends Astralis Virtus.pro SK Gaming Fnatic Natus Vincere Gambit Esports North FaZe Clan	Challengers mousesports G2 Esports PENTA Sports Cloud9 BIG Immortals Vega Squadron Flipsid3 Tactics

Prior to the major, changes took place.

Jesper "JW" Wecksell and Robin "flusha" Rönnquist, after transferring to and playing in ELEAGUE with GODSENT, transferred back to Fnatic. GODSENT acquired Joakim "disco doplan" Gidetun and reacquired Simon "twist" Eliasson in the exchange.[18]

SK Gaming, after benching him, traded Lincoln "fnx" Lau to Immortals and acquired João "felps" Vasconcellos after Ricardo "fox" Pacheco fulfilled his duty as a stand-in for SK Gaming. fox played with SK Gaming at ECS Season 2 Finals and the ELEAGUE Major 2017, where the team placed third place at both events, losing to Astralis and Virtus.pro, respectively. fox then went on to join Team Dignitas.[19][20] After a few months playing with Immortals, fnx was benched on that team due to internal issues. He was replaced by Vito "kNg" Giuseppe.[21]

North acquired Philip "aizy" Aistrup from FaZe Clan and released Ruben "RUBINO" Villarroel.[22] FaZe Clan then bought out Bosnian player Nikola "NiKo" Kovač from mousesports. NiKo officially joined the team after DreamHack Las Vegas 2017.[23] RUBINO went on to join Team Dignitas's newly formed European roster.[24] mousesports signed Robin "ropz" Kool and activated Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný from the roster to complete its five-man roster. Timo "Spiidi" Richter was moved to the inactive roster.[25][26][27]

Legendary Natus Vincere former player and current coach Sergey "starix" Ischuk leaves the team and Na'Vi's manager anaylst Andrey "Andi" Prokhorov takes over the coaching role. Only Denis "seized" Kostin remains from the original Na'Vi lineup after starix departed and its former team captain Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko was released by the team in favor of Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev and went on to play for Gambit Gaming (now rebranded as Gambit Esports) last year. starix signed with Team Spirit as a player and will play in the CIS qualifier.[28][29]

Arguably the biggest change of the teams in the major was the "French shuffle," which was led by Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt and Richard "shox" Papillon. NBK-. Kenny "kennyS" Schrub and, Dan "apEX" Madesclaire left Team EnVyUs for G2 Esports to join shox and Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro; in addition, former G2 AWPer Édouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux moved to the coaching position. The remaining two G2 players, Cédric "RpK" Guipouy and Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom, left the team and joined Team EnVyUs.[30]

Former NRG Esports players Fatih "gob b" Dayik, Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz, and Nikola "LEGIJA" Ninic form Berlin International Gaming, abbreviated as BIG. They also buy out Johannes "nex" Maget from mousesports and Kevin "keev" Bartholomäus from ALTERNATE aTTaX to fill out its roster.[31][32]

PENTA Sports also had big changes to its lineup. After Stefan "stfN" Seier left the team because he could not commit playing full-time, Christian "loWel" Antoran being picked up by mousesports, and Tahsin "tahsiN" Broschk and Mike "mikeS" Tuns leaving the team, PENTA signed four new players. PENTA first signed Miikka "suNny" Kemppi from Finland. After Kevin "kRYSTAL" Amend decided to stay on the team, PENTA filled out its five-man roster by signing Kevin "HS" Tarn from Estonia, Jesse "zehN" Linjala from Finland, and Paweł "innocent" Mocek from Poland.[33]

Pre-major ranking

HLTV.org rank teams based on results of teams' performances. The rankings shown below reflect the July 10, 2017 rankings. In addition, a list premier tournaments and relevant major events is listed. These tournaments are part of the list the HLTV.org takes into consideration when calculating the rankings, starting with ESL One Cologne 2016, in which SK Gaming defeated Team Liquid and StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2, in which Ninjas in Pyjamas defeated G2 Esports. The rankings concluded with the Esports Championship Series Season 3 Finals, in which SK Gaming defeated FaZe Clan and ESL One: Cologne 2017 in which SK Gaming defeated Cloud9 in the finals.[34][35][36][37]

HLTV.org Pre-Major Ranking

World ranking
Place	Team	Points	Move^1	Peak^2	Low^2
1	SK Gaming	1000		1	4
2	FaZe Clan	623		2	9
3	Astralis	518		1	3
4	G2 Esports	474		4	16
5	Cloud9	427	1	5	14
6	Natus Vincere	295	4	4	10
7	North	294	2	4	8
10	Immortals	225	2	7	27
11	Fnatic	209	4	6	14
12	mousesports	200		12	17
14	Virtus.pro	181	3	2	15
15	Gambit Esports	177	1	7	15
17	BIG	127	1	17	27
20	PENTA Sports	106	1	19	52
23	Flipsid3 Tactics	76	1	16	53
24	Vega Squadron	74	3	21	56

¹Change since July 3, 2017 ranking

²Peak and low since end of ELEAGUE Major.

Relevant tournaments

Key

	Valve-sponsored Major
	Premier tournament
	Relevant major tournament

The following list shows the relevant tournaments to the rankings. From top to bottom, the tournament becomes more relevant to the rankings. Those in gold indicates the tournament was a Major, meaning Valve, the developers of the game, sponsored the tournament to host a CS:GO major. A premier tournament means it offers an outstanding prize pool, is frequently played offline, and features the best players from all over the world. A major tournament simply means the tournament features a large prize pool and a good number of top teams. This list also shows where the tournament took place, the number of teams at the tournament, the winner and runner-up, prize pool, and – if applicable – HLTV's most valuable player of the tournament.

Relevant tournaments

Tournament	Location	Teams	Winner	Runner-Up	Prize Pool	MVP
ESL One Cologne 2016	Cologne	16	SK Gaming	Team Liquid	US$1,000,000	coldzera
Northern Arena 2016 - Toronto	Toronto	16	Immortals	Cloud9	US$100,000
StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2	Kiev	16	Ninjas in Pyjamas	G2 Esports	US$300,000	f0rest
DreamHack Open Bucharest 2016	Bucharest	8	Virtus.pro	Cloud9	US$100,000	NEO
ESL One: New York 2016	New York City	8	Natus Vincere	Virtus.pro	US$250,000	s1mple
EPICENTER 2016	Moscow	8	Team Dignitas	Virtus.pro	US$490,000	k0nfig
ESL Pro League Season 4	São Paulo	28	Cloud9	SK Gaming	US$750,000	autimatic
Northern Arena 2016 - Montreal	Montreal	8	OpTic Gaming	G2 Esports	US$100,000
iBUYPOWER Masters 2016	Costa Mesa	8	Immortals	Cloud9	US$100,000
Intel Extreme Masters XI - Oakland	Oakland	12	Ninjas in Pyjamas	SK Gaming	US$300,000	f0rest
ELEAGUE Season 2	Atlanta	16	OpTic Gaming	Astralis	US$1,100,000	RUSH
Esports Championship Series Season 2	Anaheim	20	Astralis	OpTic Gaming	US$750,000	dev1ce
DreamHack Open Leipzig 2017	Leipzig	8	FlipSid3 Tactics	BIG	US$100,000
World Electronic Sports Games 2016	Changzhou	24	Team EnVyUs	Team Kinguin	US$1,500,000	kennyS
ELEAGUE Major 2017	Atlanta	16	Astralis	Virtus.pro	US$1,000,000	Kjaerbye
DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 2017	Las Vegas	16	Virtus.pro	SK Gaming	US$450,000	Snax
Intel Extreme Masters XI - World Championship	Katowice	12	Astralis	FaZe Clan	US$250,000	Xyp9x
StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 3	Kiev	16	FaZe Clan	Astralis	US$300,000	NiKo
cs_summit	Los Angeles	8	SK Gaming	Gambit Esports	US$150,000	coldzera
Intel Extreme Masters XII - Sydney	Sydney	8	SK Gaming	FaZe Clan	US$200,000	coldzera
DreamHack Open Tours 2017	Tours	8	G2 Esports	HellRaisers	US$100,000	kennyS
ESL Pro League Season 5	Dallas	28	G2 Esports	North	US$2,000,000	kennyS
DreamHack Open Summer 2017	Jönköping	8	SK Gaming	Fnatic	US$100,000	coldzera
Esports Championship Series Season 3	London	20	SK Gaming	FaZe Clan	US$750,000	fer
ESL One: Cologne 2017	Cologne	16	SK Gaming	Cloud9	US$250,000	FalleN

Premier tournament wins SK Gaming: 6 Astralis: 3 Virtus.pro: 2 Cloud9: 1 G2 Esports: 1 FaZe Clan: 1 Natus Vincere: 1 North: 1 BIG: 0 FlipSid3 Tactics: 0 Fnatic: 0 Gambit Esports: 0 Immortals: 0 mousesports: 0 PENTA Sports: 0 Vega Squadron: 0

Top twenty players in the tournament

The top 20 players of 2016 were ranked by HLTV.org. Below is the list of players in the top 20. A few players were on the list, but were not at the major, including f0rest from Sweden at number 7 from Ninjas in Pyjamas, ScreaM from Belgium at number 9 from Team EnVyUs, GeT_RiGhT from Sweden at number 18 from Ninjas in Pyjamas, and fnx from Brazil at number 19, who was recently benched by Immortals. Players who dropped off the list from 2015 included KRiMZ from Fnatic from Sweden (7th), Happy from Team EnVyUs from France, NBK- from Team EnVyUs and G2 Esports from France (9th), JW from Fnatic and GODSENT from Sweden (10th), dupreeh from Astralis from Denmark (12th), cajunb from Team Dignitas and North from Denmark (15th), NEO from Virtus.pro from Poland (17th), apEX from Team EnVyUs and G2 Esports from France (18th), allu from ENCE eSports and FaZe Clan from Finland (19th), and Skadoodle from Cloud9 from the United States (20th).[38]

HLTV.org Top 20 Players of 2016

World Ranking
Rank	Name	Team	Move^†	Highest rank
1	coldzera	SK Gaming	NEW	NR
2	FalleN	SK Gaming	NEW	NR
3	dev1ce	Astralis		3 (Team SoloMid, 2015)
4	s1mple	Natus Vincere	NEW	NR
5	Snax	Virtus.pro	1	4 (Virtus.pro, 2014/2015)
6	shox	G2 Esports	7	3 (VeryGames, 2013)
8	olofmeister	Fnatic	7	1 (Fnatic, 2015)
10	flusha	Fnatic	5	2 (Fnatic, 2014)
11	NiKo	FaZe Clan	NEW	NR
12	flamie	Natus Vincere	2	12
13	kennyS	G2 Esports	7	6 (Titan, 2014) (Team EnVyUs, 2015)
14	Magisk	North	NEW	NR
15	fer	SK Gaming	NEW	NR
16	Kjaerbye	Astralis	NEW	NR
17	GuardiaN	Natus Vincere	15	2 (Natus Vincere, 2015)
20	dennis	Fnatic	NEW	NR

^†From 2015

Group stage

The group will be a sixteen team swiss tournament, where after the Day 1 games, teams will play other teams with the same win-loss record. Every round will consist of one game. In addition, teams will not play the same team twice unless necessary. Any team with three wins would qualify for the playoffs and win Legend status (granting automatic invitation for the next major), and any team with three losses would be eliminated (however, these teams will be guaranteed a spot in the next major qualifier). The group stage and playoffs will be played in Kraków, Poland, with group stage played in closed studio and playoffs being held in Tauron Arena Kraków.

In the first round, teams from pool 1 will be matched up against teams in pool 4. Teams in pool 2 will play teams in pool 3. Team from pool 1 are Astralis, Virtus.pro, Fnatic, and SK Gaming. Teams in pool 2 are Natus Vincere, Gambit Esports, FaZe Clan, and North. Teams in pool 3 are BIG, Cloud9, mousesports, and G2 Esports. The remaining teams are in pool 4 – Immortals, FlipSid3 Tactics, PENTA Sports, and Vega Squadron

In the second round, the winners in the first round will face each other in the "high" matches; the losers will face each other in the "low" matches.

In the third round, the winners of the high matches from round two will face each other. The winners of these two matches will qualify for the playoffs and gain Legend status. The losers of the high round and the winners of the low round will face each other in the "mid" matches. The losers from the previous low matches will face each other in round three's low matches. The losers of these low matches are eliminated. Twelve teams will remain in the group stage.

In the fourth round, the losers of the high matches and the winners of the low matches will face each other in round four's high matches. The winners of the high matches qualify for the playoffs and gain Legend status. The losers of the mid matches and the winners of the low matches will face each other in the low matches of round four. The losers of these matches are eliminated from the major. Six teams will remain.

In the last round, the remaining teams will face off. The winners of these matches will qualify for the playoffs and win Legend status, and the losing teams will be eliminated.

Place	Team	Record	Differential	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5
1–2	Gambit Esports	3-0	+21	mousesports 16-10 Inferno	High match G2 Esports 16-6 Cache	High match Virtus.pro 16-11 Train	Playoffs	Playoffs
	BIG	3-0	+15	FaZe Clan 16-8 Inferno	High match Cloud9 16-11 Inferno	High match SK Gaming 16-14 Inferno	Playoffs	Playoffs
3–5	SK Gaming	3-1	+16	PENTA Sports 16-13 Inferno	High match Astralis 16-8 Inferno	High match BIG 14-16 Inferno	High match Immortals 16-9 Overpass	Playoffs
	North	3-1	+9	Cloud9 12-16 Mirage	Low match PENTA Sports 16-9 Mirage	Mid match mousesports 19-15 Cobblestone	High match Virtus.pro 16-14 Mirage	Playoffs
	Astralis	3–1	+6	Immortals 19-17 Overpass	High match SK Gaming 8-16 Inferno	Mid match Fnatic 16-14 Nuke	High match G2 Esports 16-6 Inferno	Playoffs
6–8	Virtus.pro	3-2	+18	Vega Squadron 16-2 Nuke	High match Fnatic 16-11 Cache	High match Gambit Esports 11-16 Train	High match North 14-16 Mirage	Cloud9 16-10 Train
	Immortals	3-2	+17	Astralis 17-19 Overpass	Low match Vega Squadron 16-6 Train	Mid match Natus Vincere 16-10 Overpass	High match SK Gaming 9-16 Overpass	FlipSid3 Tactics 16-6 Train
	Fnatic	3-2	+7	FlipSid3 Tactics 16-12 Mirage	High match Virtus.pro 11-16 Cache	Mid match Astralis 14-16 Nuke	Low match Natus Vincere 16-12 Mirage	G2 Esports 16-10 Overpass
9–11	Cloud9	2-3	-4	North 16-12 Mirage	High match BIG 11-16 Inferno	Mid match G2 Esports 17-19 Cobblestone	Low match mousesports 16-11 Train	Virtus.pro 10-16 Train
	FlipSid3 Tactics	2-3	-12	Fnatic 12-16 Mirage	Low match Natus Vincere 9-16 Train	Low match FaZe Clan 16-10 Mirage	Low match PENTA Sports 16-13 Train	Immortals 6-16 Train
	G2 Esports	2-3	-22	Natus Vincere 16-14 Overpass	High match Gambit Esports 6-16 Cache	Mid match Cloud9 19-17 Cobblestone	High match Astralis 6-16 Inferno	Fnatic 10-16 Overpass
12–14	Natus Vincere	1-3	-5	G2 Esports 14-16 Overpass	Low match FlipSid3 Tactics 16-9 Train	Mid match Immortals 10-16 Overpass	Low match Fnatic 12-16 Mirage	Eliminated
	PENTA Sports	1-3	-11	SK Gaming 13-16 Inferno	Low match North 9-16 Mirage	Low match Vega Squadron 16-14 Mirage	Low match FlipSid3 Tactics 13-16 Train	Eliminated
	mousesports	1-3	-11	Gambit Esports 10-16 Inferno	Low match FaZe Clan 19-15 Train	Mid match North 15-19 Cobblestone	Low match Cloud9 11-16 Train	Eliminated
15–16	FaZe Clan	0-3	-18	BIG 8-16 Inferno	Low match mousesports 15-19 Train	Low match FlipSid3 Tactics 10-16 Mirage	Eliminated	Eliminated
	Vega Squadron	0–3	-26	Virtus.pro 2-16 Nuke	Low match Immortals 6-16 Train	Low match PENTA Sports 14-16 Mirage	Eliminated	Eliminated

Summary

The first match of the major started with Gambit Esports from Kazakhstan and the multinational mousesports on Inferno. mousesports took an early 5-0 lead, but Gambit was able to counter the Europeans under Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko's leadership. Gambit pulled away in the end as mousesports struggled on its terrorist half and Gambit won the first game of the major. Fnatic and FlipSid3 Tactics faced off in the second match. FlipSid3 took an early lead in the game, which included a Denis "electronic" Sharipov 1 vs. 4 clutch, but Fnatic made it a close halftime score. Like mousesports, FlipSid3 struggled in the second half and the three time major champions advanced to the winner's matches. The struggling Virtus.pro (VP) took on the surprise Vega Squadron. Vega had odd bans as the final two maps went to VP's two best maps. VP easily took the game on Nuke in Vega's first major. HLTV.org's number five player of 2016 Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski dominated the Russian team. PENTA Sports took on SK Gaming, the hottest team coming into the major, as the Brazilians won its last three tournaments and its last four of five. SK took an early 10-0 lead, but PENTA came all the way back to take a 13-11 lead. However, the two time major MVP Marcelo "coldzera" Davis took over and dominated PENTA and SK survived a scare. FaZe Clan paired up against BIG in the next match. The halftime score was close, but BIG's counter-terrorist half proved very sturdy as it only allowed one round. BIG took the game in the first upset of the day behind Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz's and Johannes "nex" Maget's 23 kills. North was in its event first event since EPL Season 5, in which it placed second; its opponent was Cloud9, who was on a hot streak coming into the major, including a second-place finish at ESL One: Cologne 2017. Despite Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke 29 kills, he was the only one who showed up for his team. North's counter was Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert's 26 kills and Cloud9 took the game. Natus Vincere (Na'Vi) took on G2 Esports and the CIS team took a massive 12-3 lead. However, the French came back despite Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev's 30 kills. Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt went huge for his team and G2 completed the comeback. Astralis and Immortals was the last match of the day. Astralis was very close to defeating the second Brazilian team, but Immortals came back and the game went to overtime. However, the defending major champions barely took it over the edge to defeat Immortals. Peter "dupreeh" Rothmann and Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander both had more than 30 kills for Astralis while Lucas "LUCAS1" Teles's and Vito "kNg" Giuseppe's 28 and 27 kills, respectively, did not lead Immortals to victory in a close match.

Day 2 began with PENTA Sports and North. PENTA took a huge 7-1 lead, but North came all the way back, only allowing two rounds afterwards. Kevin "HS" Tarn, Jesse "zehN" Linjala, and Miikka "suNny" Kemppi did well for their team, but the combination of Paweł "innocent" Mocek only had five kills and k0nfig and René "cajunb" Borg showing up at the start of the comeback allowed North to take the win. FaZe and mousesports put up a fight on Train and the game went to overtime. Despite Håvard "rain" Nygaard's 33 kills for the Clan, it was mousesports that came up on top after sweeping the overtime and the world's number two fell one game away from elimination. Christian "loWel" Antoran had 27 kills for mousesports and Denis "denis" Howell and Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný had 26 kills each. The CIS match was the next match of the major. Na'Vi's AWPer Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács had 16 kills with the AWP to help Na'Vi and Na'Vi's in-game leader Denis "seized" Kostin turned things around from the last day with 22 kills. Andrey "B1ad3" Gorodenskiy only had 7 kills for FlipSid3. Immortals easily took care of Vega with its players being very close to each other in terms of kills, with Henrique "HEN1" Teles leading the way with 21 kills. Nikolay "mir" Bityukov had the best performance for Vega, but it was not enough as players such as Sergey "keshandr" Nikishin only had 7 kills. BIG took on Cloud9 in the next match and the Germans closed out the game after a huge first half. nex and tabseN lead the team once again. Timothy "autimatic" Ta turned things up as Cloud9 mounted a comeback, but it was too late for the Americans. In the second winner's match, Gambit easily took down G2 on Cache. Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev went massive for his team as he had 25 kills in the short game, with Rustem "mou" Telepov and Abay "HObbit" Khasenov chiming in as well. Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro only had 8 kills for his team. The defending champions faced off against two-time champions. SK took a massive 13-2 halftime lead, but Astralis fought its way back. However, two economy rounds from SK in which it barely invested into the rounds went the way of SK. Although Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye, the ELEAGUE Major MVP, and Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz rose in the second half, SK proved to be too strong and the Danes fell to 1-1. coldzera had a big performance in the game and Fernando "fer" Alvarenga also helped his team out with 20 kills. The second day ended with two legendary teams: Virtus.pro and Fnatic. VP looked like it was going to easily take the game after the first half despite Cache being a map VP does not play much one. The nine round lead turned into a two-round lead as Dennis "dennis" Edman started a huge comeback. However, VP held its ground and took the last three rounds to close out the game. Paweł "byali" Bieliński and Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski lead the way for VP with 25 kills each and VP's former in game leader Filip "NEO" Kubski was close by with 24.

The first decider's match started day 3 of the PGL Major with PENTA and Vega. PENTA could not get things rolling in the first half. Dmitriy "jR" Chervak's leadership and Sergey "keshandr" Nikishin's firepower took Vega to a strong first half, but Vega continued to struggle on its terrorist side. Vega blew a 14-8 lead and PENTA came back under the team's in-game leader Kevin "kRYSTAL" Amend. Pavel "hutji" Lashkov and Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov struggled massively in the second half aside from a few rounds, but PENTA completed the comeback in the end and Vega was the first team to be knocked out of the major. FaZe and FlipSid3 met in the next game. There, Nikola "NiKo" Kovač went huge for his team and Aleksi "allu" Jalli had his moments as well. However, Jan "wayLander" Rahkonen was able to overshadow FaZe's stars and lead FlipSid3 to victory. One of the huge favorites to win the whole tournament was eliminated in last place as the experienced Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey and FaZe's in-game leader Finn "karrigan" Andersen did not put much impact in their games. In a hotly contested match between North and mousesports, the game went to overtime. Although Denis "denis" Howell and Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný put up big numbers for their team, North – lead by cajunb and Philip "aizy" Aistrup – did better and North moved to 2-1 in the group stage. Immortals and Na'Vi struck to Overpass, a map both teams are comfortable on. The map that favors tactics went in favor of Immortals's in-game leader Ricardo "boltz" Prass. Na'Vi's captain seized failed to put up numbers like in the first day when his AWPer GuardiaN had a good performance along with s1mple. G2 and Cloud9 was a very close game that went to overtime. Both in-game leaders, Richard "shox" Papillon and Jake "Stewie2k" Yip, topped the scoreboard and autimatic had 28 kills, but the French were able to edge out the Americans. Two veterans of the scene faced off in the final of the middle matches as both teams are two of the few teams that have been to every major. In a close game, Astralis took down Fnatic after dominating the second half. Robin "flusha" Rönnquist struggled this game with just 12 kills in 30 rounds. Gambit and VP was the first match to decide which team would move on to the playoffs. VP started strong, but Gambit went huge under AdreN's 32 kills with some help from Mikhail "Dosia" Stolyarov. Gambit was the first team to move on to the top 8. BIG continued its Cinderella run as it took down the world's number one in SK Gaming to be the second team to move on to the playoffs. Nikola "LEGIJA" Ninic had a huge performance for BIG with 19 kills, completely turning things around from the past two days as BIG edged out the Brazilians.

Two playoff contenders battled it out in the first match of the final day of the group stage. Between autimatic's huge performance and Stewie2K's and Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham's key clutches, Cloud9 was able to send mousesports home as Chris "chrisJ" de Jong's squad could not reach the coveted Legends status for another major. Robin "ropz" Kool was the youngest player ever to play at a major, but it was shut down by Cloud9. In the PENTA and FlipSid3 matchup, the two Finns for PENTA stepped up, but FlipSid3 showed that experience matters much more as wayLander and Yegor "markeloff" Markelov kept FlipSid3 alive in the tournament after mounting a huge comeback from 12-4. Na'Vi and Fnatic played it out with two of the longest standing lineups played it out to determine who was going home. s1mple continued to step it up for his team, but the rest of Na'Vi could not, including Egor "flamie" Vasilyev, the second star of the team, with 16 kills and Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev with just 15. This was the first time Na'Vi would not make the playoffs since EMS One Katowice 2014. In the first high match, Astralis dominated G2. Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye, the MVP of the ELEAGUE Major, took on the role of the top fragger as he had 24 kills. NBK- only had 8 kills for the French side. In the closest game of round four, North and VP faced off. aizy and k0nfig had big games with 26 kills each and Emil "Magisk" Reif had an improvement from the last three games as he had 19 kills. VP, after going 2-0, was one game away from elimination. SK and Immortals battled it out between in the two Brazilian teams. As coldzera dropped off a bit against his fellow Brazilians, João "felps" Vasconcellos had the best performance in the major against his former team with 37 kills, which ties the most kills in regulation at a major. LUCAS1 was the only one on Immortals to have a positive kill-death differential.

Round 5 started with the French superteam against the most decorated team of all time. Fnatic started with a strong 11-4 lead at the half. G2 started a comeback of its own, but a 13th round from Fnatic proved to be the end for G2 and once again the French team could not get to the playoffs. Dan "apEX" Madesclaire had 24 kills and bodyy had 22, but flusha and Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer had 25 kills each and olofmeister and Freddy "KRiMZ" Johansson continued their streak of being few of the only players to reach the playoffs at all eleven majors (dev1ce, dupreeh, and Xyp9x from Astralis are the other three). G2's star AWPer Kenny "kennyS" Schrub could not make much of an impact as he normally does in the loss. pashaBiceps, byali, and Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas took VP to the playoffs over Cloud9 after months of struggle. Cloud9 players like Skadoodle and Michael "shroud" Grzesiek could not show up for Cloud9 and the American's first major in about a year came to an end. The final match of the group stage came in the form of FlipSid3 vs Immortals. Immortals jumped to a huge lead before FlipSid3 managed a reasonable halftime score of 5-10. However, Immortals dominated in its terrorist side and the team went into the playoffs in its first ever major appearance, a feat that was last achieved by Team Kinguin at ESL One Cologne 2015. Lucas "steel" Lopes lead his team with 23 kills in the victory. FlipSid3's AWPer Georgi "WorldEdit" Yaskin and its captain Andrey "B1ad3" Gorodenskiy failed to produce much impact in the loss.

Playoffs

Bracket

BIG and Gambit received the top seeds and played a randomly selected opponent among Virtus.pro, Immortals, and Fnatic. BIG received Immortals and Gambit received Fnatic. Among SK Gaming, North, and Astralis, two randomly selected teams from this pool would go on to face each other and the teams would be SK Gaming and Astralis. The remaining two teams, North and Virtus.pro, were paired together.

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
	Gambit Esports		2
	Fnatic		0
						Gambit Esports		2
						Astralis		1
	SK Gaming		0
	Astralis		2
											Gambit Esports		2
											Immortals		1
	BIG		1
	Immortals		2
						Immortals		2
						Virtus.pro		0
	North		0
	Virtus.pro		2

Gambit Esports vs. Fnatic

After a day of rest from competition, the first matchup in the Tauron Arena pitted Gambit Esports and Fnatic. For the third consecutive major, these two teams met up in the quarterfinals. The previous two times, Fnatic dominated both series. Gambit had a tough road to the playoffs on paper, but the Kazakh team took care of all its opponents and went on to a perfect group stage record. Fnatic had an even tougher road as after its initial matchup against Flipsid3 Tactics, it only faced top ten teams, but survived after defeating a struggling Natus Vincere and the number four ranked team in the world, G2 Esports. History shows Fnatic has the edge, 9 wins to Gambit's 4, which includes the Swedes winning the last three matches.

Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

Gambit–Fnatic Vetoes

Map Vetoes
Gambit Esports	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Mirage	Cache	Train	Inferno	Cobblestone	Nuke	Overpass
Fnatic		BAN		PICK	BAN

The first game at the arena pitted Gambit Esports and Fnatic on Train, Gambit's pick. Gambit initially jumped to a 3-0 lead, but Fnatic jumped back into the game with by taking the next five rounds. In the tenth round, Gambit was forced onto an economy round. KRiMZ was able to take down mou, but Dosia was able to trade kills and Zeus popped out from behind a smoke and kill olofmeister. dennis won a duel against Dosia, who had just planted the bomb for Gambit. HObbit peaked when Fnatic attempted a defuse and killed dennis who was close up and Zeus killed JW before flusha responded by taking down AdreN. flusha put up a smoke grenade in an attempt to defuse the bomb, but HObbit sprayed down the Fnatic in-game leader to take the round. Gambit would go on to take a 7-6 lead, but the Swedes came back to win the half, 8-7. Gambit suddenly rocketed up to 14 rounds as Fnatic only took one round in the meantime to start the second half. Fnatic took one more round before a crucial 27th round, in which both teams had a full buy. About 20 seconds into the round, mou just about caught a peeking JW near the A Bombsite. The combination of KRiMZ and flusha took out a hiding Dosia, but AdreN was able to trade out flusha as Fnatic planted the bomb. olofmeister peeked to take down HObbit, but Zeus killing KRiMZ left olofmeister in a 1 vs. 3. AdreN then held tha angle as olofmeister peeked and Gambit took its 15th round. However, Fnatic reset Gambit the next round and then won the following round to take the game to the full distance. in the 30th round, mou quickly took down dennis to start things off. A struggling Dosia took down olofmeister as flusha found Zeus behind the B bombsite train. flusha found another kill on Dosia before mou could respond by trading him out. mou suddenly took down KRiMZ right after the flusha kill, leaving the map's top performer JW in a 1 vs. 3 with about a minute left. JW attempted to fake his way to the A bombsite, but when going back to B, mou was waiting at an aggressive angle to finish off the game. JW lead all players with 26 kills while KRiMZ had 22 kills, but the usually consistent dennis only had 17 kills. on Gambit's side, with AdreN having less impact than usual, it was mou and HObbit who chimed in as mou had 24 kills and HObbit had 23 to lead Gambit to the win in a tight victory.

Gambit started the second game strong as the team took an early 7-2 lead. Fnatic was able to take a third round. In the 11th round, Dosia was nearly caught off guard, but Zeus was able to assist him by taking down KRiMZ before being found by dennis. mou chimed in with a kill on JW before being traded out by flusha. Zeus traded out flusha, but the Gambit in-game leader was taken out by olofmeister. olofmeister hid behind a box and then took down HObbit after planting the bomb and then dennis took down AdreN to secure another round. Fnatic routed Gambit in the remaining rounds of the half as the 7-2 Gambit lead turned into an 8-7 Fnatic lead. The second round appeared to be all Gambit as Fnatic could not get a rhythm. Gambit went up 13-12 after a round Fnatic won in which it defused the bomb. However, the Swedes could not string more than two rounds together in the second half and the next one was a crucial one. In the 26th round, Zeus had his team play under his normal slow style. With about a minute to go, Gambit executed towards the B bombsite. Hobbit quickly entered and took down a boosted JW. flusha was able to find one in AdreN, but he needed to reload, allowing mou to kill him. olofmeister killed HObbit despite the latter holding an unusual angle. Dosia took down dennis as the bomb was planted and then quickly took down KRiMZ before mou found olofmeister and Gambit reset Fnatic's economy. Gambit closed out the game with the last two rounds and Gambit finally took down Fnatic at a major. Dosia completely turned things around from his other performances in the tournament with 30 kills in a game in which Gambit' star AdreN did not show up, as he only had 17 kills. JW was the top performer for his team again with 20 kills, but it was not enough as Dosia and his team cleaned up the three time major winners.

Gambit Esports vs. Fnatic Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Gambit Esports	16	Train	14	Fnatic
Gambit Esports	16	Inferno	12	Fnatic
Gambit Esports	–	Overpass	–	Fnatic

SK Gaming vs. Astralis

What was supposed to be a potential grand finals matchup showed up in the quarterfinals, as the world's number one went up against the world's number three. SK Gaming survived a scare against PENTA Sports and defeated its quarterfinals opponent before suffering an upset against BIG. However, the team bounced back and defeated its compatriot Immortals to advance to the playoffs. Astralis survived two games that were almost upsets, as it edged out Immortals in overtime on the first day and survived Fnatic on the third day. The defending champions easily took down G2 Esports to make the playoffs with just one loss. SK Gaming always had the upper hand against Astralis since the Brazilians were under the Luminosity Gaming organization and the Danes were under the Team SoloMid organization, with the exception of the period of success Astralis had, which included a major title.

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

SK–Astralis Vetoes

Map Vetoes
SK Gaming	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Nuke	Cobblestone	Cache	Overpass	Inferno	Train	Mirage
Astralis		BAN		PICK	BAN

Within a span of twelve rounds, SK Gaming and Astralis went back and forth. Astralis won the pistol round, but SK Gaming won a force buy round. Astralis won a force buy of its own and then took the next round. SK Gaming only bought slightly upgraded pistols to save for the next round, but the Brazilians ran over the Danes to take the round. TACO took down dev1ce before gla1ve responded onto Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo. fer quickly traded with his pistol and SK planted the bomb. dupreeh took down fer, but felps took out Xyp9x, coldzera took down dupreeh, and then felps won a duel against Kjaerbye and SK won the round. SK would take the next three rounds before Astralis took two back to make it 6-6. In the 14th round, FalleN started SK strong with a kill onto Xyp9x, but dev1ce and Kjaerbye took down FalleN, coldzera, fer, and Kjaerbye before dupreeh took down felps to retake the lead. Astralis took one more round before SK took the last round to make it an 8-7 score in favor of Astralis. Astralis went up to 13 rounds after a close pistol and third round in the second half. SK finally took a round after Astralis's 13th, but it was at the risk of resetting its economy. In the 22nd round, FalleN attempted to push aggressively, but Kjaerbye spotted him first and killed him. fer was able take down gla1ve, but Xyp9x caught felps off guard in middle, and dupreeh put down TACO, forcing the remaining SK players to save their guns. SK, however, got a 9th round under a force buy to keep itself in the game. SK brought itself to 12 rounds and Astralis called a timeout. In the next round, dev1ce started with a kill onto FalleN and Xyp9x followed up onto TACO. fer was able to kill Xyp9x with a grenade, but gla1ve and Kjaerbye took down felps and coldzera, respectively, forcing fer to back off. Astralis took the 16th round it needed and took the first game of the series, stifling the SK comeback.

After a close first game, SK could not get anything rolling in the second game. dev1ce continually shut down FalleN in the AWP battle. After SK took a 3-0 lead, Astralis took the next ten of twelve rounds to take a 10-5 lead at the half. Astralis then closed out the match by taking the six of seven rounds and the world's number one was sent home early. dev1ce dominated the map with 27 kills and had 8 opening kills. SK's stars could not produce many kills, as coldzera only had 15 and the usually impactful FalleN only had 14. TACO had just 7 kills in the loss and Astralis aimed to be the third team to win back to back majors.

SK Gaming vs. Astralis Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
SK Gaming	12	Cache	16	Astralis
SK Gaming	6	Overpass	16	Astralis
SK Gaming	–	Mirage	–	Astralis

BIG vs. Immortals

BIG was the surprise team in this playoffs, as many did not have the Germans even in contention of a playoff spot, yet they went flawless in the group stage. Immortals was also in its first major after struggling in the major qualifiers. Immortals appear to have a solid record against BIG, but that was without keev and nex. In the major qualifier, BIG defeated Immortals 16-9. BIG had three upset wins against FaZe Clan, Cloud9, and SK Gaming to take the second seed of the top 8.

Casters: HenryG & Sadokist

Immortals–BIG Vetoes

Map Vetoes
Immortals	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Nuke	Overpass	Cobblestone	Inferno	Mirage	Cache	Train
BIG		BAN		PICK	BAN

BIG vs. Immortals Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
BIG	19	Cobblestone	17	Immortals
BIG	7	Inferno	16	Immortals
BIG	14	Train	16	Immortals

The first time Legends faced off in the quarterfinals. The first half of the first map started very well for Immortals. Immortals took a 12-3 lead at the half and looked to cruise to the finish line. However, BIG started a comeback under the leadership of gob b. With the score at 13-11, Immortals had just come off of a save round and was executing to the B bombsite. kNg walked in and took out nex, who was hiding against the wall. tabseN traded out LUCAS1, but steel was able to erase gob b from the round. boltz followed up on tabseN. HEN1 planted the bomb and at that point keev and LEGIJA had to save their weapons. The next round, keev started with a kill on boltzz with the AWP he saved from the previous round, but HEN1 traded him out to keep it an even playing field. kNg feel to tabseN in between the A and B bombsites and then nex followed up on steel. The twins were still alive for Immortals, but tabseN was in on the flank and took them down and BIG reset Immortals's economy. BIG got to 15 rounds first, but Immortals staved off a loss by sending the game to overtime. Immortals got the upper hand in the first half of overtime, 17-16, but BIG took the first two rounds of the second half to put the Germans on match point. nex found HEN1 first, but did not see boltz, who took down LEGIJA and nex. gob b finally shut down the in-game leader and tabseN took down steel. kNg attempted to duel tabseN, but the German came out on top. LUCAS1 took down tabseN partially through a wall and then took out gob b. LUCAS1 lost track of keev and started defusing the bomb, but keev jumped out and knifed him to complete the comeback. LEGIJA showed up big for his team as he had 35 kills while tabseN had 28 kills. steel and kNg had 31 and 28 kills, respectively, for their team, but HEN1 only had 13 kills in the loss.

The next map was Inferno, a map BIG was now notorious for abusing a jump bug.[39] Although BIG took out top tier teams on the map in the group stage, Immortals saw no problem with the Germans. Immortals started with a 7-0 lead before BIG got on the board. In the 9th round, BIG charged to the B bombsite with under 50 seconds left, in which LUCAS1 took out gob b and then traded by nex. HEN1 then took out nex and tabseN before LEGIJA finally took out the Immortals AWPer. LEGIJA put up a molotov, which is a fire bomb, but kNg ran through it and took down LEGIJA. keev attempted to find just one person, but a mistake caused him to jump, allowing boltz to take advantage and put BIG's economy in shatters. Immortals went on to a 13-2 half, but BIG attempted another comeback. Immortals went to 15, but BIG had five straight rounds to make it 15-7. In the 23rd round, Immortals just nearly won the game, but a tabseN 1 vs. 2 clutch kept BIG in the game. keev changed hi position by going to the Banana area, which leads to the B bombsite, and took down HEN1. LUCAS1 crept up onto gob b and took the BIG in-game leader down. nex's incendiary grenade burned LUCAS1, but steel found tabseN to keep it even. boltz was taken down by nex, who was in the A bombsite, but steel traded right after. kNg found keev and steel took down LEGIJA to secure an Immortals win. LEGIJA was essentially the only won who had impact for his team as he finished with 19 kills. kNg had 25 kills, steel had 23 kills, and LUCAS1 had 20 kills.

The first half was a back and forth affair between the two teams on Train. After BIG took a 6-5 lead, Immortals was able to slightly turn things around and take an 8-7 advantage into the second half. A key round was the 8th one – keev took out kNg early in the round and then BIG executed towards the A bombsite. steel took down gob b and tabseN planted the bomb in the smoke. tabseN was then taken down by boltz shortly after, but LEGIJA was flanking the whole time. He easily took down HEN1, but steel was defusing the bomb in the smoke. LEGIJA proceeded to kill boltz and the Serbian was aware someone was defusing, but steel got off the bomb. steel started to defuse again while LEGIJA desperately knifed in the smoke to find him. He could not find steel and Immortals clinched the round. Immortals won the pistol round in the 16th round, but an economy round followed by four more rounds put BIG up 12-9. Immortals took one back, but BIG reset the economy of Immortals right after. In the 24th round, Immortals only put one rifle onto steel while the rest had only pistols. Once the round started, steel immediately rushed in to find gob b and then fell back, but a quick flick by keev onto LUCAS1 on the other end of the map evened it out to four men per team. tabseN tried to push, but was caught off guard by boltz. HEN1 flashed his way into the area called pop dog, which connects the upper and lower areas of the map, and found LEGIJA to give Immortals a two-man advantage. keev caught a jumping HEN1 and nex found botlz after the bomb was planted, but a flank from kNg to take down nex and steel killing keev proved to be the turning point of the match. The score tied to 13-13 before BIG got a 14th round. The score was then 14-14 and the next one proved to be crucial as BIG was in reset potential. boltz started off with a kill onto nex and then transferred his spray to gob b while LUCAS1 was shut down by LEGIJA. kNg easily took down a blinded keev while tabseN hit a headshot onto boltz. kNg traded tabseN and HEN1 took down LEGIJA, putting BIG in a less than favorable situation. Immortals took the 30th round to move on to the semifinals. tabseN dominated the field with 31 kills and nex had 22, but it was not enough against the Brazilians. boltz went huge for his team with 24 kills and HEN1 and kNg had 21 kills each to put Immortals through against the winner of North and Virtus.pro

BIG vs. Immortals Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
BIG	19	Cobblestone	17	Immortals
BIG	7	Inferno	16	Immortals
BIG	14	Train	16	Immortals

North vs. Virtus.pro

The second day of the playoffs will have North face off against Virtus.pro, with VP playing in front of a home crowd in a rematch of the ELEAGUE Major quarterfinal, in which North blew a massive lead in the third game, and the Round 4 matchup, in which North barely took it over the Poles. North suffered an initial loss against Cloud9, but then took the next three games to make the playoffs for a second consecutive major. VP started the major strong with a 2-0 record, but loses to Gambit Esports and North and was nearly took it out of the tournament. However, it bounced back against Cloud9 to reach the playoffs for a tenth consecutive major. Historically, North has a 12-8 record over VP.

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

North–VP Vetoes

Map Vetoes
North	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Train	Overpass	Cobblestone	Nuke	Cache	Inferno	Mirage
Virtus.pro		BAN		PICK	BAN

The rematch of the ELEAGUE quarterfinals started on Cobblestone. VP started with a 5-2 lead after North had just won the recent one. In the 8th round, aizy pushed up near the A bombsite trying to trick VP, but he was found by aizy. Meanwhile, the bomb was going to the B bombsite, where MSL took out pashaBiceps but he was immediately traded out by NEO. cajunb caught a blinded NEO in the open but NEO had taken out Magisk just before. cajunb attempted to plant the bomb, but byali heard it going down and took out the Danish veteran. k0nfig traded but he was left in a 1 vs. 2. He then put a bullet through Snax's head, but the timing went in TaZ's favor as the Pole denied the clutch. VP went on to dominate the half, ending in a 11-4 lead for the Polish legends. VP proceeded to take the next three rounds to 14-4, only spelling trouble for North. North was able to bring it back to 9-15 heading to the 25th round. TaZ spotted a hiding MSL to start VP strong. TaZ then immediately followed up onto k0nfig through a smoke grenade and NEO stepped in to take out aizy. TaZ won a duel against Magisk quite easily, leaving cajunb in a 1 vs. 5. cajunb did find a flanking pashaBiceps, but Snax had the angle on cajunb and VP secured the game. TaZ had 22 kills for VP and NEO and pashaBiceps had 19 kills. Most of North struggled as Magisk was the leader for his team with 16 kills.

The next map was Nuke, a map VP is arguably the best team on. North, however, took a 6-1 lead before VP brought it all the way back to take five rounds in a row. In the 13th round, cajunb found a kill onto pasahBiceps, who was pulling out a grenade. However, NEO was able to sneak down with an AWP and found an off guard k0nfig. cajunb found another kill onto TaZ in the meantime. The bomb was planted as North made its way to the bombsite. NEO missed a shot onto MSL and cajunb found a kill onto Snax. NEO took out Magisk, but aizy quickly responded, leaving byali alone for VP. byali heard the defuse come in, but cajunb had the angle to keep North in the lead. The half ended with an 8-7 lead for North. VP then showed how dominant Nuke's counter-terrorist side could be as VP won the next 6 of 8 rounds. With VP leading 13-10, Snax caught k0nfig with about a minute to go. Snax then followed up onto MSL with an AK-47 the VP in-game leader picked up, but cajunb was able to take out Snax, but nore before taking a lot of damage. byali made his way up to where cajunb was and won a duel against him. NEO took down aizy on the A bombsite and then sprayed on Magisk and VP went up to 14 rounds. VP took the last two rounds to secure a spot in the semifinals in front of its home crowd. After a quiet Cobblestone game, byali took down 30 people as he dominated the server. cajunb had 21 kills and Magisk had 20, but North fell short of defeating VP, who now moved on to face Immortals.

North vs. Virtus.pro Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
North	9	Cobblestone	16	Virtus.pro
North	10	Nuke	16	Virtus.pro
North	–	Mirage	–	Virtus.pro

Gambit Esports vs. Astralis

Gambit finally took down its major demons in Fnatic as it swept the Swedish legends in the best of three. Astralis took down the favorites to win the whole tournament, SK Gaming, after a dominant performance on Overpass. After SK lost, Astralis became the clear favorites to win the major. These two teams last met over a year ago at ESL One Cologne 2016, in which Gambit defeated the Danes in the group stage; however, that was without Zeus's leadership, in which it has now seen dominant results, and gla1ve's leadership, in which Astralis won its first ever major with.

Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

Astralis–Gambit Vetoes

Map Vetoes
Astralis	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Cobblestone	Mirage	Overpass	Inferno	Nuke	Cache	Train
Gambit Esports		BAN		PICK	BAN

The first map went to Overpass. Gambit took a 6-0 lead before Astralis found its first. Astralis was able to make it 8-4 eventually, but it struggled to win many rounds consecutively. In the 13th round, dupreeh started with a kill onto HObbit but Dosia traded him out. mou won an AWP duel against dev1ce near the middle area and Gambit proceeded to close the space Astralis had. Kjaerbye found a quick kill onto Dosia near the B bombsite but Zeus jumped out from the connector area to took out the ELEAGUE Major MVP. Xyp9x planted the bomb, but AdreN was flanking and took down gla1ve. AdreN then followed up onto Xyp9x and Gambit took the round. The half ended in a 10-5 Gambit advantage. Astralis took two rounds, but Gambit jumped to a 15-7 lead before Astralis took three more. In the 26th round, Gambit just lost the previous round and two of its players were on pistols. Zeus continued his slow playstyle. AdreN made his way up to the restrooms area; dev1ce peeked into it and had the upper hand, but missed a shot, which AdreN easily took advantage of. AdreN then took down Kjaerbye and found a headshot on Xyp9x. Dosia took out gla1ve, who was attempting to make a play to save the game, leaving dupreeh in a 1 vs. 5. mou took down dupreeh and Gambit found an upset win. After Dosia stepped up for his team against Fnatic, it was mou this time who went big, as the AWPer had 33 kills and AdreN had the second most kills with 20. Kjaerbye had 19 kills for Astralis. dev1ce, after winning many head to head duels against FalleN, who is considered to be the best AWPer, on Overpass, failed to find many will as he had 16.

Inferno was a turnaround for both teams. Astralis took a 7-3 lead heading into the 11th round. There, Xyp9x took down mou fairly early. dupreeh pushed up deep into Gambit's territory and was able to catch HObbit off guard. AdreN was able to kill dupreeh and Zeus took down Xyp9x towards the end of the round, but two kills from gla1ve on Zeus and AdreN gave Astralis the advantage. Dosia hid in the bombsite and took down Kjaerbye trying to plant the bomb, but dev1ce was there to quickly trade to give Astralis the round. The Danes took a 10-5 lead in the first half. In the second half, Gambit took a 3-0 lead, but there was no comeback as Astralis simply won the next six rounds to win the game. Xyp9x had 25 kills to lead all players and dupreeh followed by with 21. AdreN and HObbit had 17 kills each, but mou quickly dipped below as he only had a 7 kill performance.

The final map went to Train. Gambit had an 8-1 lead heading to the 10th round. AdreN took out Kjaerbye to start but AdreN later overpeeked and dupreeh took advantage of it. dupreeh caught out a flanking Dosia, but HObbit was able to take down dev1ce right after on the other side of the A bombsite. Xyp9x killed Zeus and gla1ve took down mou. HObbit attempted to find a way to penetrate the Astralis offense, but dupreeh quickly found him. The round gave Astralis momentum to make it 5-8 and then 6-9 to end the half. The two teams traded three rounds each and then Gambit won one before being reset the next round. Astralis only had a one-round deficit to make a 12-13. Gambit took its final timeout heading into the next round. dupreeh was blinded by a flashbang, allowing Zeus to easily take him down. Dosia, with the assist of AdreN, took out Kjaerbye. Dosia took out dupreeh and dev1ce took out mou. dev1ce through a molotov into AdreN's position, allowing gla1ve to get a kill. Zeus took down gla1ve in the battle of the in-game leaders and that forced dev1ce to back off and save his gun. This allowed Gambit to take the next two rounds, pulling off an upset win and headed to the finals. Zeus topped the scoreboard with 24 kills and AdreN followed closely with 22. Although dupreeh had 24 kills, the rest of his team did not perform as well, including Kjaerbye, who only had 9 kills.

Gambit Esports vs. Astralis Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Gambit Esports	16	Overpass	10	Astralis
Gambit Esports	8	Inferno	16	Astralis
Gambit Esports	16	Train	12	Astralis

Immortals vs. Virtus.pro

Immortals continued its impressive run despite being underdogs all the way through the tournament and became the only team out of four to defeat BIG on Inferno. Virtus.pro made it to a semifinals at a major after months of struggle, failing to make it out of group stages at nearly every tournament. These two teams have met only one time in the past year, in which Immortals defeated VP at ESL One: Cologne 2017. Historically, Immortals have a lead in the matchup 5-3, but that was when the team was with Tempo Storm and when the team had felps, who now plays for MiBR, and Gustavo "SHOOWTiME" Gonçalves, who now plays for Keyd Stars.

Casters: Sadokist & HenryG

Immortals–VP Vetoes

Map Vetoes
Immortals	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Nuke	Overpass	Inferno	Mirage	Cache	Train	Cobblestone
Virtus.pro		BAN		PICK	BAN

Virtus.pro tried for a second straight major final and now with Astralis out of the tournament, VP looked to be the favorites to win the major as it was in Poland, the team's home country. On the first map, Immortals took the pistol round and the two anti-economy round before VP got two. In the 6th round, Immortals only had two weapons it saved from the previous round while the rest of the team was on pistols. kNg killed pashaBiceps with the AWP while byali took out a flying boltz. LUCAS1 traded out byali and NEO killed kNg with a pistol before LUCAS1 could respond onto the former in-game leader of VP. The bomb was planted for Immortals and Snax and TaZ saved their weapons for the next round and Immortals won an economy round. The Brazilians would not stop there as they only allowed VP to get up to four rounds by then end of the half to Immortals's 11. The second half started with an Immortals pistol round win, but VP was able to respond, giving the Polish team a lifeline in the game after Snax's clutch with 4 health points left. In the 18th round, Immortals was down to pistols with the exception of kNg, who was on a submachine gun. kNg pushed slightly up and took down NEO near the A bombsite. VP fell back and started towards the B bombsite, where the twins were waiting. HEN1 started with a kill onto Snax and pashaBiceps took out a low kNg. LUCAS1 was able to trade out pashaBiceps from behind. byali tried to find a frag, but steel came into the scene to take him out. TaZ was able to find steel and HEN1, but with just 9 second left, boltz picked up an AK-47 and killed the Polish veteran, stealing a round. Immortals did not look back after that and took the first map of the series in a dominating fashion. Although TaZ had 17 kills for his team, LUCAS1 stepped up for Immortals with 25 kills in 21 rounds. byali did not turn up in the server as he only had 7 kills.

Map 2 went to Mirage, historically one of the best maps for both VP and Brazilian Counter-Strike, as it was the map FalleN and his former crew, which included boltz and steel, played on as its rise to fame. Immortals jumped out to a dominant 8-1 lead and looked to be a repeat of the Inferno game. In the 10th round, kNg pushed up to the middle area to find NEO quickly. boltz followed up onto TaZ before being traded by Snax. steel quickly flanked Snax and kNg took out byali, leaving pashaBiceps in a 1 vs. 4. He started by catching an unaware steel and then quickly flicked onto kNg while retrieving the bomb. LUCAS1 nearly caught out Snax, but a quick shot onto the head of LUCAS1 allowed pasahBiceps to plant the bomb. With 6 health points, pashaBiceps tricked HEN1 and he caught him looking the other way, putting up a second round. for VP. After two more rounds to the Poles, Immortals took the last three to take another 11-4 lead into the second half. VP started the second half strong, before Immortals found another round. However, VP took the next round, resetting the Immortals's economy and with just one round between the teams, VP looked to take the lead for the first time in the series. In the 24th round, Snax went into the palace area, which is one of the entrances to the A bombsite from the terrorist spawn, to catch someone off guard. However, boltz did better with his pistol and he shot Snax right into the head. pashaBiceps missed a shot onto kNg, allowing the new pickup for Immortals to rush in and take the second player down. TaZ attempted to make a play by running into the apartments area in order to catch Immortals with its backs turned, but steel was waiting patiently. HEN1 caught out byali and then bomb was planted. NEO did catch steel and saved his gun, but Immortals took a 13th round. Immortals picked up two more rounds heading to the 27th round. VP did have all the guns it needed, but it lacked severely in utility. HEN1 took out pashaBiceps trying to make a play from the connector area. NEO pushed up onto the short area, which is in middle and leads to the B bombsite, to trade steel. boltz took down byali in the A bombsite and then took out Snax to give Immortals a strong advantage, leaving the two Counter-Strike veterans to clutch. NEO sprayed down kNg in the connector area as the bomb was planted. NEO took a duel against HEN1 and tacked on a lot of damage to HEN1, but it was the AWP that came out on top. TaZ tried to defuse through a smoke NEO had put up on the bomb, but LUCAS1 finished the job as TaZ peeked and Immortals pulled in another upset in a series only 9% of people had the Brazilians winning. pashaBiceps and Snax pulled their weight with 21 and 20 kills, respectively, but other VP members could not in the loss. On the other side, boltz had 23 kills and kNg had 20 kills as the two dominated the server. With Immortals going through to the finals, this guaranteed a new champion.

Immortals vs. Virtus.pro Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Immortals	16	Inferno	5	Virtus.pro
Immortals	16	Mirage	11	Virtus.pro
Immortals	–	Cobblestone	–	Virtus.pro

Finals

Gambit Esports became the first CIS team since MLG Columbus 2016 to reach the finals. At the Columbus major, Natus Vincere reached the final before falling to Luminosity Gaming and Zeus was part of that Na'Vi team. However, with a completely new lineup, Zeus lead Gambit to the finals, by far Gambit's greatest achievement for its CSGO squad. Meanwhile, Immortals became the first team in major history to reach the grand finals while being in its first ever major. After losing to Cloud9 in the Americas Minor, barely scraping past the major qualifier and the group stage, and a few close games against BIG and Virtus.pro, Immortals faced off against Gambit in a series in which there is no clear favorite. Another major final pitted a CIS team against a Brazilian team.

Casters: Sadokist & HenryG

Gambit–Immortals Vetoes

Map Vetoes
Immortals	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Nuke	Mirage	Cobblestone	Train	Cache	Overpass	Inferno
Gambit Esports		BAN		PICK	BAN

The first game of the finals started on Cobblestone. Immortals took the common 3-0 lead before Gambit took two back. However, a run of five straight rounds gave Immortals an 8-2 lead. Gambit won the next round. In the 12th round, boltz flashed his way into the drop area of the map to take down Zeus with about 1:20 to go. mou quickly peeked to trade out boltz, but LUCAS1 took down AdreN just before. HObbit was able to sneak his way in through a smoke grenade, but only found LUCAS1 before HEN1 quickly turned around to take him out. steel planted the bomb, but Dosia sneaked around to make it a 2 vs. 2. mou threw an incendiary grenade to force HEN1 out of his position and took him out, but kNg quickly traded. Dosia then walked into the bullets of kNg and Immortals reset Gambit. Immortals took a huge lead into the second half with the score of 12-3. Immortals once again took the first three rounds of the half to get to map point. Gambit was able to take a round, but Immortals quickly struck back to take the first game. HEN1 lead all players with 22 kills while the rest of Immortals ranged from 15 kills to 17 kills. Dosia and mou each had 14 kills, but the starpower of AdreN did not show as he only had 5 kills.

Game 2 went to Train. Gambit won the pistol round, but Immortals won the second round. However, Gambit forced up in the next round and won that round to set Immortals back. Gambit would go on to win four more rounds before Immortals won two. In the last round of the first half, Immortals was forced onto pistols as it had just lost the previous round. HEN1 took down AdreN with about a minute left but HObbit quickly traded. mou took down steel in a corner and HObbit found a headshot onto boltz. Dosia caught out a flanking kNg and HObbit wrapped around LUCAS1 to secure a 9th round for Gambit. Immortals tied things up by winning the first three rounds of the half, but Gambit won the next three rounds. After a couple of rounds that were traded, Immortals took an 11th round. The next round, AdreN attempted to push up early in the round, but a quick flick by kNg gave Immortals the start it needed. LUCAS1 took out the head of HObbit, but mou and Zeus quickly made it a 3 vs. 3 by taking out kNg and HEN1, respectively. mou then gave Gambit the man advantage as he took down boltz with his AWP and then Dosia took out LUCAS1. mou killed steel and Gambit stole away a round in which the majority of the team was on pistols. Gambit went on to win the next two rounds to tie up the series. AdreN stepped up with 22 kills as opposed to the last map, but it was mou who outshined AdreN with 28 kills. kNg and boltz each had 20 kills, but it was not enough with mou hitting many crucial shots.

The last map of the major headed to Inferno. Gambit won the first 9 of 10 rounds and then 10 of 12 rounds to start Gambit strong. Immortals did pick up two more rounds, but the game looked to head to a similar result to the Cobblestone game, except the other way around. However, Immortals looked to be the second Brazilian team to win a major as it took the first four rounds. of the second half. Gambit took a round back heading to the 21st round. There, Immortals was only on a limited buy, as HEN1 was limited to a pistol and boltz to a shotgun, which is only effective in very close range battles. With under 30 seconds left, Gambit pushed to the B bombsite. HEN1 found a shot to the head of AdreN and LUCAS1 took down Dosia. Zeus was able to kill HEN1, but a sudden push from kNg quickly traded out Zeus and LUCAS1 helped by taking down HObbit. mou took out LUCAS1 in the B bombsite and then kNg, but mou needed to back off and let the timer run out. With the score 11-8, the 20th round proved to be a vital turning point. AdreN got the jump onto HEN1 to take him out. kNg shot down Dosia to keep the plying field even. The bomb was then planted. LUCAS1 took down a blind AdreN and then followed up onto Zeus. LUCAS then found mou in the corner. HObbit did take out boltz in the meantime, but then HObbit sprayed down LUCAS1, steel, and kNg to clutch the round for Gambit. Immortals did pick up a 10th round, but not before Gambit earned map, match, and tournament point. Immortals had just been reset and the team had one shotgun on boltz and pistols on the rest, which was a tall order for having to win 5 rounds straight in a row to force overtime. boltz was found early on by mou through a wall. Dosia spotted steel and mou tried to chase him down, but kNg was waiting there with the dropped shotgun of boltz to take the Gambit AWPer down. Gambit then headed back to the B bombsite and started its play there. LUCAS spotted HObbit through a small gap in the smoke that was put up by Gambit, but Dosia quickly responded with a headshot. HEN1 took down Dosia, but Zeus did trade. The bomb was planted and AdreN spotted kNg trying to close up onto Zeus. steel traded but lost the duel to Zeus, giving the longtime Counter-Strike veteran his first ever major win. mou had 20 kills and AdreN had 24 kills, but it was HObbit who won key clutch situations. steel had 20 kills and kNg had 19, but it was not enough as boltz only had 10 kills.

AdreN was named the MVP of the tournament.[40]

Fnatic, from Sweden, still leads the way for all teams with three major wins. SK Gaming, from Brazil, could not tie Fnatic this major and stayed in second place with two major wins. Virtus.pro (Poland), Ninjas in Pyjamas (Sweden), Team LDLC.com (France), Team EnVyUs (France), Astralis (Denmark), and now Gambit Esports (Kazakhstan) each have one major title.

Gambit Esports vs. Immortals Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Gambit Esports	4	Cobblestone	16	Immortals
Gambit Esports	16	Train	11	Immortals
Gambit Esports	16	Inferno	10	Immortals

Final standings

The final placings are shown below. Each team's in-game leader is shown first.

Place	Prize Money	Team	Seed	Roster	Coach
1st	US$500,000	Gambit Esports	Boston 2018 Legends	Zeus, AdreN, HObbit, mou, Dosia	kane
2nd	US$150,000	Immortals		boltz, HEN1, kNg, LUCAS1, steel	zakk
3rd – 4th	US$70,000	Astralis		gla1ve, dev1ce, dupreeh, Kjaerbye, Xyp9x	zonic
		Virtus.pro		Snax, byali, NEO, pashaBiceps, TaZ	kuben
5th – 8th	US$35,000	Fnatic		flusha, dennis, JW, KRiMZ, olofmeister	Jumpy
		SK Gaming		FalleN, coldzera, felps, fer, TACO
		BIG		gob b, keev, nex, tabseN, LEGIJA	kakafu
		North		MSL, aizy, cajunb, k0nfig, Magisk	ruggah
9th – 11th	US$8,750	Cloud9	Boston 2018 New Challengers	Stewie2K, autimatic, n0thing, Skadoodle, shroud	valens
		Flipsid3 Tactics		B1ad3, electronic, markeloff, wayLander, WorldEdit
		G2 Esports		shox, apEX, bodyy, kennyS, NBK-	SmithZz
12th – 14th	US$8,750	Natus Vincere		seized, Edward, flamie, GuardiaN, s1mple	Andi
		mousesports		chrisJ, denis, loWel, oskar, ropz	lmbt
		PENTA Sports		kRYSTAL, HS, innocent, suNny, zehN
15th – 16th	US$8,750	FaZe Clan		karrigan, allu, kioShiMa, NiKo, rain	RobbaN
		Vega Squadron		jR, chopper, hutji, keshandr, mir	Lk-

Post-Major Ranking

The first HLTV.org ranking after the PGL Major came out on July 24, 2017.[41]

HLTV.org Post-Major Ranking

World Ranking
Place	Team	Points	Move^†
1	SK Gaming	1000
2	Astralis	607	1
3	FaZe Clan	524	1
4	Gambit Esports	505	10
5	G2 Esports	463	1
6	Immortals	411	5
7	Cloud9	396	2
8	North	349	2
9	Virtus.pro	309	6
10	Natus Vincere	277	3
11	Fnatic	262	2
14	BIG	266	3
15	mousesports	221	3
20	PENTA Sports	111	1
21	Flipsid3 Tactics	111	4
24	Vega Squadron	72

^†Change since July 17, 2017 ranking

Showmatch

A showmatch was played before the final set between Gambit Esports and Immortals. The rosters were decided by the community on Reddit's CS:GO community (r/GlobalOffensive). The community was to decide teams among twelve personalities, but it was determined that the casting duo Daniel "ddk" Kapadia and James Bardolph were to be captains and choose their teams.[42]

Details Statistics

Team Bardolph	12-16	Team ddk
James Bardolph HenryG Izak natu sapphiRe	Cache	ddk moses Mantrousse Prius YNk

Casters: Fifflaren & SPUNJ

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