FaZe Clan and Natus Vincere advanced to the finals of the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 playoffs Saturday in Denmark.
FaZe Clan beat Team Vitality 2-1 and Natus Vincere topped G2 Esports by the same score to set up the grand final on Sunday.
FaZe Clan got off to a fast start, winning 13-7 on Nuke. But Team Vitality responded with a 13-5 victory on Vertigo to set up the tiebreaker, which FaZe Clan took 13-8 on Inferno. Havard “rain” Nygaard of Norway led the win with 19 kills, and teammate Robin “ropz” Kool of Estonia had a plus-7 kills-deaths differential.
Natus Vincere faced a similar back-and-forth match with G2 Esports. Natus Vincere jumped ahead with a 16-13 victory on Anubis, only to see G2 Esports respond with a 13-7 win on Nuke. Natus Vincere got the last laugh, eliminating G2 Esports 13-11 on Ancient to advance to the final. Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov of Ukraine led the winners with 24 kills and a plus-10 kills-deaths differential.
Twenty-four teams began the Counter-Strike 2 tournament, 16 of which had to go through the opening stage. Eight advanced to the elimination stage to join eight previous qualifiers. For the first two stages, play was conducted using the Swiss System format.
The playoffs continue with Sunday’s grand final:
–FaZe Clan vs. Natus Vincere
PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 prize pool:
1. $500,000, 3,500 BLAST Premier points, qualification to BLAST Premier World Final, qualification to Esports World Cup 2024
2. $170,000, 2,750 BLAST Premier points
3-4. $80,000, 1,775 BLAST Premier points
5-8. $45,000, 1,050 BLAST Premier points — Team Spirit, Cloud9, Eternal Fire, MOUZ
9-11. $20,000 — Complexity, Virtus.pro, paiN Gaming
12-14. $20,000 — Imperial Esports, ECSTATIC, HEROIC
15-16. $20,000 — The MongolZ, FURIA Esports
17-19. $10,000 — SAW, Legacy, GamerLegion
20-22. $10,000 — Lynn Vision Gaming, ENCE, Apeks
23-24. $10,000 — AMKAL Esports, KOI
–Field Level Media