CSGO PGL Major: Endgame. We are officially in the Champions Stage. (Thursday)

After weeks of group-play, the CSGO PGL Major is finally ready for its final stage. After starting the tournament with 24 teams from across the globe, 2/3rd of the field has been sent home to watch the tournament as fans like the rest of us. With multiple big upsets over the weeks in group play and untested teams like Imperial stepping over the established elite, some of the best teams in the world have been sent home before the final stage. G2 and Vitality, who are ranked 5th and 8th, both failed to make the top 8 of this tournament as they both bowed out in the round of 16. Cloud9’s roster, ranked 4th in the world, came in 2nd place just 5 months ago at BLAST Premiere in December, yet they were defeated by the aforementioned Imperial in the round of 16 as well. Astralis and Outsiders, #9 and #10, are the other two top 10 teams who failed to make it to the Champions Stage. Here is a look at the final 8 teams:

Despite 5 of the top 10 teams being gadooshed earlier than many hoped, the remaining 8 teams still have some of the best players and teams who at any moment can go ‘fuck you’ mode. The first match today, Thursday, at 10:30 AM is Ninjas in Pyjamas vs FaZe, the number 7 ranked team vs the number 1 ranked team. Many may consider NaVi the best team in the world (myself included), but they came in 5th in the ESL Pro League through March and April, while FaZe earned that #1 ranking by winning the whole damn thing. FaZe has continued their dominance throughout this Major by only losing 2 matches through the first two stages, one of which was a Bo1 instead of a Bo3. NiP on the other hand will be looking to finally stop FaZe in their tracks, with a tournament win of their own in the past year, back at IEM Fall in September/October.

The 2nd and final match today will be between Spirit’s roster of all Russians and FURIA’s roster of all Brazilians, two nations with some of the biggest and most passionate fan-bases in all of CSGO. Team Spirit has been using this tournament to piss on the world rankings, and anyone who likes an underdog should keep an eye on these guys. They came in to the tournament ranked just 23rd, but they paid little attention to what experts claimed about their skill. Spirit proved their mettle by galavanting their way to the Champions Stage, easily cutting through teams like The Fellowship of the Ring slicing through orcs on their way to Mordor. Spirit lost just a single match on their journey to this point, an early Bo1 match that they lost in overtime. Spirit will have to keep up their hot play if they want to move on once more though as they come against Brazil’s power house of FURIA. FURIA played so well before the tournament that they were able to skip the first round, but when they started the 2nd round they just barely escaped elimination. Having been 2-2, FURIA had to pull out another W against Vitality (#5) on the last day to make it in to the Champions Stage. This match is scheduled for 2 PM, but matches will often start as early as they can after the first match ends.

matches can be watched at twitch.tv/pgl