Audience Storms the Stage at PGL Major Copenhagen

What a crazy incident we witnessed last night! Multiple members of the PGL Major Copenhagen live audience decided to storm the stage and disrupt the event in a way that hasn’t been seen in many years of professional Counter-Strike.

At first, the fans were under the impression that this was a spontaneous action. But in reality, the group of protesters had known in advance about it. The whole thing was planned and we now know who was behind it.

The Incident

Our event experienced an attempted disruption.
We temporarily halted the match to ensure everyone’s safety.
The individuals involved were removed by the police.
We will be pressing charges against the disruptors.

— PGL (@pglesports) March 29, 2024

Apparently, CSGOEmpire, a gambling company, paid people to storm the stage in order to draw attention to CSGORoll, a rival gambling company that works closely with G2 Esports.

PGL managed to find out about the plan before the match began, but couldn’t do more to prevent the incident. They did, however, add multiple security workers around the stage and acted swiftly to contain the troublemakers.

PGL CEO, Liviu Stroe, later said that police would take care of the protesters and that his company would be pressing charges against them and, most likely the people who paid them to do what they did.

The match was stopped during the second map and resumed after less than one hour. So the disruption we experienced was not a severe one. But in light of the various terror attacks that happened around the globe in the last 25 years, the audience was probably emotionally disturbed by the incident, especially because we’re talking about a CS2 event.

Guns are a casual thing in video games. But they are the exact opposite in real life. And when you’re in a crowd at a large event, the last thing you want to see is people causing chaos.

A huge shout-out to our incredible crowd at last night’s event!
Your support and understanding during the unexpected disturbance were nothing short of amazing.
It’s in moments like these that the strength and unity of our community truly shine through.
The way everyone handled…

— PGL (@pglesports) March 30, 2024

The Match Result

The two teams came back on stage and continued playing after the incident was resolved. G2 Esports won the second map much easier than we expected and qualified for the semifinals. The scores were 13 – 9 on Inferno and 13 – 6 on Vertigo.

Header: PGL