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The PGL Major Stockholm 2021, also known as PGL Major 2021 or Stockholm 2021, was the sixteenth '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' (''CS:GO'') Major Championship. It was held in
Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
,
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
at the
Avicii Arena Avicii Arena, originally known as the Stockholm Globe Arena and previously as the Ericsson Globe, but commonly referred to in Swedish simply as Globen (; ), is an indoor arena located in Stockholm Globe City, Johanneshov district of Stockho ...
from October 26 to November 7, 2021. Twenty-four teams qualified via regional major rankings. It featured a prize pool, a rise from the of previous Majors due to the absence of offline competition amid the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. It was the second Major hosted by the
Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
n organization PGL, after PGL Major: Kraków 2017. Stockholm 2021 was the first Major after a break caused by the COVID-19 pandemic following the StarLadder Major: Berlin 2019. The Major was won by
Natus Vincere Natus Vincere (Latin for "born to win"), commonly referred as abbreviated name NAVI (formerly Na`Vi), is a Ukrainian esports organization based in Kyiv. Founded in 2009, the organization has teams and players competing in various games, such as ...
, who did not lose a single map throughout the tournament.


Background

''Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' is a
multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...
first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...
video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and
Valve Corporation Valve Corporation, also known as Valve Software, is an American video game developer, video game publisher, publisher, and digital distribution company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. It is the developer of the software distribution pl ...
. It is the fourth game in the ''Counter-Strike'' series. In professional ''CS:GO'', the Valve-sponsored Majors are the most prestigious tournaments. The Stockholm Major was the first Major in two years following an absence in offline play in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, the ESL One Rio Major 2020 was planned for May 2020, but was postponed to November, before later being canceled in September. The defending champions were Astralis, who won their fourth Major at Berlin 2019. They were eliminated in the Legends stage after their loss to Team Vitality.


Format


Map Pool

Between the Berlin 2019 Major and the Stockholm 2021 Major, Valve replaced Train in the active duty map pool with Ancient.


Regional Major Ranking

On April 2, 2020, Valve revised the former major qualification system which featured direct qualifiers called minors, for a yearly circuit where teams had to earn Regional Major Ranking Points (RMR) in a series of tournaments. The system was revised in scope of the first postponement of the Rio Major. In early January 2021, Valve reached out to organizers for proposals of three RMR events per region–Asia, CIS, Europe, North America, South America and Oceania. Five days later, the corporation released the 2020 RMR Sticker capsule as an in-game item, including the team's logos as sticker who qualified for Rio. They furthermore reset all the points acquired and reset the leaderboard. As a compensation, teams who qualified as a Legend for the Rio Major were awarded with 600 points, Challengers with 300 and Contenders with 100. Through the rules laid out by Valve, teams were able to replace up to two members of their roster at a time for a penalty. Teams lost 20% of their points per player change. If three or more players were removed from the team, the points would be reset. At least two RMR events per region were required with an optional third one being possible. The only regions to have three RMR events were CIS and South America.


Tournaments


RMR standings


Teams competing

;Legends *
Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses (EG) is an American esports organization based in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. Founded in 1999, the organization has fielded players in various fighting games, ''Call of Duty (series), Call of Duty'', ''Counter-Strike ...
* FURIA Esports *
G2 Esports G2 Esports (or simply G2) is a European esports organization headquartered in Berlin, Germany, with players competing in ''League of Legends'', ''Valorant'', ''Counter-Strike 2'', ''Hearthstone (video game), Hearthstone'', ''Rocket League'', '' ...
* Gambit Esports *
Natus Vincere Natus Vincere (Latin for "born to win"), commonly referred as abbreviated name NAVI (formerly Na`Vi), is a Ukrainian esports organization based in Kyiv. Founded in 2009, the organization has teams and players competing in various games, such as ...
* Ninjas in Pyjamas *
Team Liquid Team Liquid is a multi-regional professional esports organization based in the Netherlands that was founded in 2000. They signed their first professional players with the release of '' StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty''. In 2012, Team Liquid acq ...
* Team Vitality ; Challengers * Astralis * BIG * ENCE * Heroic * MOUZ * Movistar Riders * paiN Gaming *
Team Spirit Team Spirit was a joint military training exercise of United States Forces Korea and the Military of South Korea held between 1974 and 1993. The exercise was also scheduled from 1994 to 1996 but cancelled during this time period as part of diplom ...
; Contenders * Copenhagen Flames * Entropiq *
FaZe Clan FaZe Clan, or simply FaZe, is a professional esports and entertainment brand. Founded on May 30, 2010, as FaZe Sniping, the organization has professional players and content creators from around the world, across multiple games. In October 20 ...
* GODSENT * Renegades * Sharks Esports * TYLOO * Virtus.pro


New Challengers Stage

The New Challengers stage took place from October 26 to October 29, 2021, at the Avicii Arena. The Challengers stage, also known as the Preliminary stage and formerly known as the offline qualifier, is a sixteen team swiss tournament. Initial seeding was determined using RMR srandings, from the 3rd round forward the Buchholz system was used.


New Legends Stage

* Top 8 Teams proceed to New Champions Stage * Bottom 8 Teams are eliminated


New Champions Stage

With eight teams remaining, the final stage of the Major is a single-elimination bracket, with all matches played as best-of-3 maps.


Bracket


Quarterfinals


Heroic vs. Virtus.pro

''Casters: Semmler & moses''


G2 Esports vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas

''Casters: Semmler & Anders''


FURIA Esports vs. Gambit Esports

''Casters: James Bardolph & ddk''


Natus Vincere vs. Team Vitality

''Casters: James Bardolph & ddk''


Semifinals


Heroic vs. G2 Esports

''Casters: Semmler & Anders''


Natus Vincere vs. Gambit Esports

''Casters: Semmler & Moses''


Finals


Natus Vincere vs. G2 Esports

''Casters: Machine & SPUNJ''


Final standings

The final placings are shown below. In addition, the prize distribution, seed for the next major, roster, and coaches are shown.


Notes


References

{{Professional Counter-Strike competition 2021 first-person shooter tournaments Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Majors Esports competitions in Sweden