Photo: PGL
CS:GO is one of the heavyweights of esports and despite its old age, the scene continues to be valiant. After a period disrupted by the global pandemic where physical tournaments were greatly missed by players and the public, the competition is gradually returning to a normal rhythm. This year, there will be 2 Majors and the first is already in the sights of the teams! It will take place in May near Antwerp and we now know the qualification procedures.
One would have thought that Navigationdue to its first place in the HLTV rating and his status as the last winner of Major (PGL Stockholm), would have been invited or at least privileged. But with the new regulations of Valveit will not happen and absolutely everyone will have to coal dry.
16 places up for grabs for European teams
The region Europe will have 16 representatives for the next Major. For its part, North America will have 6 and the Asia region only 2. The different formats have been standardized and each region will have the same qualification process via RMR tournaments. Obviously, as Europe has a monster workforce, the region will have two RMR tournaments: Europe 1 and Europe 2. In these RMR tournaments, all teams start on an equal footing, big and small. The big ones will still have a small advantage since they will be directly invited to this qualifying tournament, while the others will have to obtain their place via an Open Qualifier.
- European 1 : Navi, Heroic, Virtus.Pro, Team Vitality, Copenhagen Flames, Astralis, Ence and 9 teams from an Open Qualifier
- European 2 : G2, Gambit, NIP, Entropiq, FaZe, Mouz and 10 teams from an Open Qualifier
Whether in Europe 1 and Europe 2, only the top 8 will qualify for the Major. Depending on his results, however, we can obtain a more or less good seeding (Legends, Challengers, Contenders) to have a more or less easy table. On the other hand, for the teams that finish bottom 8, it is elimination and there is no catching up possible… The “big ones” must therefore be very careful, especially among the teams from an Open Qualifier , we can expect to see customers like OG and BIG, who showed the BLASTs a very good level. We also hope that the French in HEET will manage to pull out of the game.
A busy schedule
We will mainly focus on the European qualification process. European 1 will take place from April 17 to 20 and will be followed immediately by European 2 April 21-24. Teams that are not invited will have to go through Open Qualifiers which will be held at the end of February / beginning of March.
On the American side, we hope that Shox (Team Liquid) and maLeK will succeed in qualifying. Tournament CMA NA will take place from April 11 to 14. Finally, even if we do not have too many illusions for the Asian teams, the R tournamentMR Asia will take place from April 15 to 16 to determine the 2 representatives.