A surprise from the hosts, a Brazilian offensive, and the favorites holding their own — that’s your executive summary of the events at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 so far. The end of the Elimination Phase has cleared the way to the Play-Offs for eight teams, and now’s the perfect time to sum up what has been happening so far in the Danish capital. 

Danes Struggle on Home Turf

Danish CS is experiencing quite a slump. Heroic lost its national identity, while Astralis and Preasy failed to qualify for the Major. The only team with a full Scandinavian pedigree was ECSTATIC. Not only that, it was a team made up exclusively of players for whom the PGL was the first Major of their careers. However, they did their job: they confidently advanced to the second stage, where they rose to the challenge again. Among other things, they won 2:1 against FURIA, and in the match that decided their fate they succumbed to G2 1:2. It is worth mentioning that in the second stage, they had to face three teams that eventually found themselves in the Play-Off. So their competition was tough, to put it mildly.

Three Brazilian Teams Reach Eliminations

The Brazilian teams at the Copenhagen Major provided another set of highlights. Brazil is a country that’s always brimming with Counter-Strike excitement, and as many as four Brazilian teams showed up at the start of the tournament. This in itself is not unusual—it’s kind of a tradition, really—but what’s surprising is that three of them reached the Elimination stage. That’s not only a positive surprise, but also a testament to the dedication and hard work these players put in every day to meet the high expectations of the huge crowd of fans. 

PAIN Narrowly Misses the Play-Offs

Imperial and FURIA were unable to keep up with the pace of the fight in the Elimination phase. Meanwhile, PAIN handled the pressure just fine, thus causing one of the biggest positive sensations of this year’s tournament. In the end, they dropped out with a balance of 2-3, narrowly missing the TOP 8 of the Major. However, their meeting with Heroic will go down in history—they led 12:0 on the second map (sic!), to eventually allow their opponents to make a partial comeback and close the map with a score of 13:9. 

The Favorites Don’t Disappoint

Those on whom the whole world was betting before the tournament did not disappoint. MOUZ and Spirit seem to be two of the strongest teams in the world at the moment, as confirmed by their advancement to the Play-Offs with a balance of 3-0. Cloud9 did equally well: despite its unique style (playing without a sniper), they confidently defeated ECSTATIC, G2, and NaVi. Vitality joined the Play-Off stage with one defeat, though it is worth mentioning that the star of the “bees”, Zywoo, was going through health issues. He seemed not to feel fully prepared for the hardships of the battle in Copenhagen, causing Vitality’s game to encounter occasional difficulties. Hopefully, the break before the finals will have helped him recover — 4 days of rest should do it! 

The final day of the Eliminations saw G2, NaVi, and FaZe join the Play-Offs, and the relief felt by the community was palpable—tons of Pick’ems were saved that day!  

Eternal Fire Enters the Play-Offs

Last but not least, a few words about Eternal Fire. Before the Major, many experts described Eternal Fire as the dark horse of the tournament. These predictions proved entirely true: led by MAJ3R, the team confidently strode through the Opening and Elimination stages. XANTARES’ magic is real <3 

Play-Offs Begin Today

So there they are: the top eight, who will compete for victory in the world of professional CS2 from Thursday to Sunday. Here are the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 quarterfinal pairings: 

• Thursday, March 28th, 5PM CET (12PM EDT) – Cloud9 vs. Vitality
• Thursday, March 28th, 8PM CET (3PM EDT) – Spirit vs. FaZe 
• Friday, March 29th, 5PM CET (12PM EDT) – Eternal Fire vs. NaVi
• Friday, March 29th, 8PM CET (3PM EDT) – MOUZ vs. G2

The teams’ performance so far indicates that Spirit and MOUZ are the favorites for the Grand Final. What surprises could Eternal Fire have in store, though? How will the “old-timers” of FaZe and G2 perform? Can Vitality defend the title won in Paris? We don’t know yet, and neither do they. Let the server decide! 

GLHF