CS:GO – PGL Major New Champions Stage Preview

The New Champions Stage of PGL Major is about to start and just 8 teams of the initial 24 are left in the race. The prize pool they will compete for is $1.6 million, the largest in the history of CS:GO. So as you can imagine, the battle will be fierce. Every single competitor is strong but some teams are simply formidable.

PGL Major Partial Results

So far, the PGL Major has had 2 stages: The New Challengers Stage and the New Legends Stage. The results of these stages can tell us a bit more about the 8 competitors that are left in the tournament. Here’s what each of them did so far:

• Natus Vincere: 3 W – 0 L; victories against Heroic, Virtus.pro, and NiP
• Team Vitality: 3 W – 2 L; victories against Evil Geniuses, Astralis, and Entropiq; defeats against Virtus.pro and Heroic
• Gambit Esports: 3 W – 1 L; victories against ENCE, Virtus.pro, and NiP; defeat against Entropiq
• FURIA Esports: 3 W – 1 L; victories against MOUZ, Liquid, and Entropiq; defeat against Astralis
• G2 Esports: 3 W – 0 L; victories against Copenhagen Flames, FaZe Clan, and NiP
• NiP: 3 W – 2 L; victories against MOUZ, Astralis, and Copenhagen Flames; defeats against Na’Vi and Gambit
• Heroic: 6 W – 3 L; victories against TYLOO, MOUZ, Movistar Riders, Vitality, Astralis, and Copenhagen Flames; defeats against Copenhagen Flames, Entropiq, and Na’Vi
• pro: 6 W – 3 L; victories against paiN Gaming, Movistar Riders, Team Spirit, Vitality, MOUZ, and FaZe Clan; defeats against FaZe Clan, Na’Vi, and Gambit

From these results, you can probably tell that the only Challengers left in the tournament are Heroic and Virtus.pro. All the other teams of PGL Major’s New Champions Stage were among the 8 Legends.

PGL Major New Champions Stage Predictions

The New Champions Stage of PGL Major Stockholm looks like a battle between Natus Vincere and G2 Esports. Of course, upsets may happen and because of the single-elimination format, it is possible that the winner will not be one of these two. But combined, these two teams probably have a win rate of over 80%. One of them is almost surely going to win. And based on how things went in the previous stage and throughout the year, Na’Vi is the big favorite.

Apart from G2 and Na’Vi, Gambit and NiP have also looked capable of winning the trophy. Gambit understands Na’Vi and knows how to neutralize s1mple on almost any map, while NiP has already shown that it can beat any of the 3 teams that it will encounter until the Grand Final: G2, Heroic, and Virtus.pro. So it’s not unthinkable that either Gambit or NiP will win the race. But again, the top favorites remain Na’Vi and G2.

With a victory here, at PGL Major Stockholm, Na’Vi would consolidate its position as the number 1 team in the world. And it would also become the most dominant team in CS:GO since the days of Astralis and Team Liquid. No other team has managed to do in the last few years what Na’Vi has done in 2021. This is already the best year in Na’Vi’s history as an esports organization, perhaps with the exception of 2011, when the team won The International 1 in Dota 2.

 

Photo credit: IEM|Timo-VERDEIL