Team Spirit and MOUZ finished 3-0 in the elimination stage at the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 event by winning their matches Friday in Denmark.
Spirit rallied past Natus Vincere 2-1 and MOUZ swept Complexity Gaming 2-0 to advance to the major’s playoff stage.
NaVi opened its match with Spirit by prevailing 16-13 in overtime on Nuke. Spirit answered with a 13-9 victory on Ancient and then took Mirage 13-7 to break the tie. Danil “donk” Kryshkovets had 59 kills on a plus-14 kills-to-deaths differential for Spirit, and fellow Russian Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov tallied 57 kills on a plus-26.
MOUZ had a much easier day, demolishing Complexity 13-1 on Overpass and 13-2 on Ancient. Finland’s Jimi “Jimpphat” Salo led a balanced attack for MOUZ with 34 kills on a plus-23 K-D.
The losing sides will get another chance for the same during Round 4 High Matches on Saturday. Meanwhile, The MongolZ and FURIA Esports were the first two teams knocked out of the stage thanks to losses on Friday.
The MongolZ beat paiN Gaming 13-9 on Mirage and dropped a 13-10 decision on Nuke. On the final map, Inferno, paiN Gaming pulled out a 22-19 overtime victory to stay alive in the tournament.
ECSTATIC sandwiched 13-7 wins over FURIA Esports on Overpass and Ancient around a 16-14 overtime loss on Inferno.
In the best-of-one Round 3 Mid matches, Virtus.pro beat Heroic 13-6 on Ancient, Cloud9 topped G2 Esports 13-9 on Anubis, Eternal Fire routed FaZe Clan 13-1 on Overpass and Team Vitality was a 13-9 winner on Overpass over Imperial Esports.
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 is conducted using the Swiss System format.
Matches in which elimination or advancement is on the line are best-of-three. All others are best-of-one. When moving on to the next round, teams don’t play an opponent that they have already faced.
Elimination-stage action runs through Sunday using the Swiss System, with best-of-three elimination and advancement matches and best-of-one matches in any other scenario.
Playoffs are scheduled for March 28-31. Eight teams will battle in a single-elimination bracket, where all matches are best-of-three.
The elimination stage continues Saturday with Round 4 matches:
–Eternal Fire vs. Virtus.pro (High)
–Complexity Gaming vs. Team Vitality (High)
–Cloud9 vs. Natus Vincere (High)
–Imperial Esports vs. FaZe Clan (Low)
–ECSTATIC vs. G2 Esports (Low)
–HEROIC vs. paiN Gaming (Low)
Elimination standings (match record, round differential):
1. Team Spirit, 3-0, plus-24
2. MOUZ, 3-0, plus-27
3. Eternal Fire, 2-1, plus-13
4. Complexity Gaming, 2-1, minus-17
5. Cloud9, 2-1, plus-8
6. Natus Vincere, 2-1, minus-2
7. Team Vitality, 2-1, plus-5
8. Virtus.pro, 2-1, plus-4
9. Imperial Esports, 1-2, minus-8
10. HEROIC, 1-2, minus-6
11. ECSTATIC, 1-2, minus-2
12. G2 Esports, 1-2, plus-4
13. paiN Gaming, 1-2, minus-6
14. FaZe Clan, 1-2, minus-9
15. The MongolZ, 0-3, minus-9
16. FURIA Esports, 0-3, minus-26
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
9-11. $20,000
12-14. $20,000
15-16. $20,000
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