The PGL Major Antwerp is the first Counter-Strike Global Offensive major of the year and will be held in the Antwerps Sportpaleis on May 9 – 22. It features the very best 24 teams in the entire world that had to play through the different qualifiers held in Europe, North America, South America, and Asia-Pacific regions. Just like in previous years, the PGL Major Antwerp will feature the Challengers, Legends, and Champions stage. Let’s see which are some of the teams that will be participating and let’s check out how the different stages work.
The Challengers stage is going to be the first phase of the tournament and will be played on a 16-team Swiss system format over 3 days. This stage would feature the bottom teams in the competition, but that can be a bit deceiving to say, considering that teams like ENCE, G2 Esports, Astralis, and Vitality are starting at this stage. All the matches played are going to be a best-of-1, except for the elimination and advancement matches, those will be best-of-3 series. The bottom 8 teams will get knocked out of the tournament and the top 8 teams will advance onto the next phase, the Legends Stage.
In the Legends Stage, we already have 8 qualified teams from the regional qualifiers. We have Heroic, Copenhagen Flames, BIG, Cloud9, FURIA Esports, FaZe Clan, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and Natus Vincere. Be sure to check out how Copenhagen Flames managed to qualify after getting an upset against Ninjas in Pyjamas. These teams come into the tournament as the strongest ones but we cannot discard the teams coming from the Challengers Stage. Legends Stage format is exactly the same as the Challengers one and the top 8 teams will advance into the Champions Stage which is completely different. The Champions Stage is the last one and it’s going to be a single-elimination bracket. Every single match will be a best-of-3 series, including the grand finals. The playoffs bracket will be played out over 3 days and the winner will be the first Major winner of the year.
Let’s go back to the Challengers Stage where we already have the 16 teams waiting for the tournament to begin. We already have some exciting matches as soon as the event begins. The tournament will open up with Europe’s ENCE facing Argentina’s 9z Team, this match is particularly exciting because this is the first time in the history of CSGO that an Argentinian Team qualifies for a major. For the third match of the Challengers Stage, we have a classic NA vs EU rivalry, Team Liquid vs G2 Esports and you’ll want to keep an eye on how this one goes.
The PGL Major Antwerp 2022 is the most important event of the year so far and the combined caliber of the participating teams is something that we don’t get to see a lot. We had almost a whole month of regional qualifiers and we’re finally reaching the climax. Be sure to keep an eye on the event and stay tuned because we’ll be covering the most important matches!
