In the final day of Legends Stage action at the PGL Major Antwerp in Belgium on Tuesday, three teams — the Copenhagen Flames, Heroic and FURIA Esports — earned clutch wins to clinch the final spots in the upcoming Champions Stage that starts Thursday.
Both Heroic and FURIA endured three-map victories. Heroic downed Team Vitality and FURIA beat G2 Esports by 2-1 scores, while Copenhagen swept Imperial Esports 2-0.
Tuesday’s winners claimed the last of eight spots to advance to the looming Champions Stage. Both Natus Vincere and Team Spirit were unbeaten in Legends action and grabbed their spots on Sunday, while ENCE, Ninjas in Pyjamas and FaZe Clan each secured berths on Monday.
The 16-team Legends Stage, which opened Saturday, utilized the Swiss System format to determine which eight teams clinched spots in the Champions Stage. All matches were best-of-one except elimination and advancement matches, which were best-of-three.
Heroic kick-started their day with a dominant 16-7 win on Mirage over Vitality. However, Vitality rallied from an early 6-2 deficit to claim Overpass 16-14, evening the do-or-die match. Vitality almost turned the trick on Inferno with a 7-0 run after trailing 14-5, but Heroic closed out the 16-12 win.
Martin “stavn” Lund carried Heroic’s all-Danish lineup with 83 kills and a plus-29 kills-to-deaths ratio, both match highs. Emil “Magisk” Reif of Denmark led Vitality with 54 kills and a plus-4 K/D differential.
FURIA also grabbed an early lead in their match, winning 16-12 on Vertigo. G2 fought back and came from behind for a 16-14 victory on Inferno. G2 held an 11-6 lead on the final map (Ancient), but FURIA went on a 10-0 run to win the match.
Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato had a team-high 63 kills for FURIA’s all-Brazilian squad, while Yuri “yuurih” Santos posted 60 kills with a match-best plus-10 K/D differential. Bosnia’s Nemanja “huNter-” Kovac notched 63 kills for G2.
The Flames won a lopsided 16-2 match on Inferno before taking Vertigo 22-18 to sweep Imperial. Rasmus “Zyphon” Nordfoss of Denmark had a whopping plus-30 with 54 kills for Copenhagen. Brazilian Vinicius “VINI” Figueiredo tallied 41 kills for Imperial.
The Champions Stage begins Thursday with two quarterfinal battles in a single-elimination format:
–Team Spirit vs. FURIA Esports
–FaZe Clan vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
–Field Level Media