PGL Major Elimination Stage Day 1 Recap: Rookie Debuts Were A Success

The long-awaited Elimination Stage of Counter-Strike 2’s first Major has finally begun. Players from Team Spirit and MOUZ made their Major debuts today. 

On Day 1 of the Elimination Stage, sixteen Best of 1 matches were played, with four teams having clean 2-0s, two teams already at 0-2, and the remaining eight ending 1-1.

2-0 Pool

The following teams have ended the first day with a flawless 2-0 score:

• Team Spirit
• Complexity
• Natus Vincere
• MOUZ

Youngsters donk, zont1x, and Jimpphat were set to make their first Counter-Strike Major appearance. Looks like these kids are the real deal, as their respective teams cleaned up both matches with ease. 

Team Spirit took down Cloud9 in the opening match 13-7, and had an easy 13-2 victory against the Brazilian squad, Team Imperial. Though the entire team played well, donk and sh1ro, the team’s top two players, turned out to be the best performers. 

2-0 for the day 🤟 pic.twitter.com/Mkt1ie9Q0Q

— Team Spirit (@Team__Spirit) March 21, 2024

Complexity, the only North American representatives at the Major, have also joined the 2-0 pool. Their first match was an Americas derby against the uprising paiN Gaming squad, which they won without too many issues 13-9. In the second game, Heroic was their next opponent. After a tight game with overtime, EliGE’s star-level performance pushed his team to claim a 19-17 victory.

Na’Vi was immediately tested by The MongolZ in the opening match on Mirage, but Aleksib and the squad could clinch the victory after a close 13-10 match. Their next opponents were G2, one of the tournament favorites. It looks like Na’Vi thrives in tight games, as they could make a comeback on their T-side of Nuke after being down 8-11 and winning five in a row to win 13-11. 

Just chilling. pic.twitter.com/MuN1oI3NY8

— NAVI (@natusvincere) March 21, 2024

Though MOUZ did not drop a single game today, it could be argued that they got lucky twice. Brollan’s heroics saved MOUZ from an upset against ECSTATIC, where they clinched Overpass 13-11. Again, the MOUZ roster barely made it past their second match against Eternal Fire in another 13-11 map. 

All the teams in the 2-0 pool skipped the Opening Stage and showed that they deserved direct invitations to the Elimination Stage.

1-1 Pool

Eight teams reside in the 1-1 pool, with four big names within the list:

• Team Vitality
• Cloud9
• FaZe Clan
• G2 Esports
• HEROIC
• Eternal Fire
• Virtus.pro
• Imperial

Team Vitality, the previous Major winners, had a surprising loss to Eternal Fire in the opening match. However, they cleaned up their gameplay and salvaged the situation after defeating The MongolZ.

Cloud9’s position in the 1-1 pool can be justified as they were donk’d in their first series against Team Spirit. Perfecto and company proceeded to maul ECSTATIC 13-2 to go 1-1.

The G2 Esports squad is not looking too shabby coming into the Major, disposing of FURIA 13-3. However, they narrowly lost to Natus Vincere in a Best of 1 on Nuke, which isn’t too big of a deal. 

FaZe Clan is known to be very slow starters in tournaments, which was proven after a 13-10 loss to HEROIC on Ancient, 10-13. Still, we can expect karrigan and the boys to pick up the pace in the coming days, especially when Best of 3s start to kick in. 

Not the start we wanted, 1 more game today reset and refocus 💪 GG WP @heroicgg

— karrigan (@karriganCSGO) March 21, 2024

Fun fact: FaZe Clan’s AWPer, broky, has sacrificed his hair to the Gods. He has gone bald in hopes of winning his second Major.

The remaining participants in the 1-1 pool aren’t too surprising, but Imperial has somehow managed to snag a win against Virtus.pro. Most people had the Imperial as their 0-3 choice in the Pick ‘Ems. 

0-2 Pool

Unfortunately, the weakest teams have already been identified before the Opening Stage started, and the expected participants have indeed ended up in the 0-2 pool:

• FURIA
• paiN Gaming
• ECSTATIC
• The MongolZ

FURIA is definitely not one of the worst teams in the Elimination Stage, but FalleN and the team had rather unlucky draws, facing FaZe Clan and G2. They should still be the strongest team in the 0-2 pool, and should look to prove it tomorrow. 

The Asian squad of The MongolZ also fell victim to unfortunate matchups, as they had to play against Natus Vincere and Team Vitality. Like FURIA, they should be able to win their elimination series tomorrow to survive at Copenhagen. 

In the Opening Stage, FURIA and The MongolZ also started their run 0-2, but managed to turn things around once matches started being Best of 3. Can they repeat their reverse sweeps, or will they face early eliminations?

The four teams in the 0-2 pool barely made it out of the Opening Stage, and have struggled against the top ten teams in the world. 

Matchups To Look Forward To In Day 2

The matchup draws for Day 2 of the Elimination Stage have already been decided. All 2-0 and 0-2 matches will be played in a Best of 3 format, while the remaining 1-1 pool matches will remain as Best of 1s.

These are three spicy matchups you should focus on tomorrow:

• G2 Esports vs. Cloud9 (1-1 pool, Best of 1)
• Eternal Fire vs. FaZe Clan (1-1 pool, Best of 1)
• Team Spirit vs. Natus Vincere (2-0 pool, Best of 3)

Despite having their rosters formed for an extended period of time already, G2 and Cloud9 have never played an official LAN match against each other, which is very surprising. 

G2 v Cloud9.

Hardly believe it, but they’ve actually never faced on LAN.

Last time the cores of the lineup faced off was at the PGL Antwerp Major 2022, almost 2 years ago.

— Jacob “Pimp” Winneche (@PimpCS2) March 21, 2024

The matchup between FaZe Clan and Eternal Fire has happened numerous times, and fans are always treated with an explosive series, especially since it’s a Best of 1 this time. 

During Team Spirit’s dominant run at IEM Katowice 2024, the Eastern European squad only dropped one map throughout the event. The team to steal a map from Team Spirit was none other than Natus Vincere. These two teams will brawl for a spot in the Playoffs. 

Header: Team Spirit