The playoffs stage of PGL Major Copenhagen will be played this weekend. Only eight of the initial 24 teams are left in the race and they will compete for more than $1 million.
Most of the teams that were expected to get this far did not disappoint. Out of the eight teams that started the tournament in the second stage, six have qualified for the playoffs. Only Complexity Gaming and Virtus.pro failed to do so. In the case of Complexity, the failure was quite dramatic because of the two matches they won at the start of the stage.
Dates
The final stage of the Copenhagen Major takes place between March 28 – 31. The competition starts on Thursday, at 18:00 EET. Each day will feature two matches. The final day will feature only the Grand Final. Every match will be a best-of-three series, including the Grand Final.
Participants
Here are the eight teams that will delight spectators in the playoffs of PGL Major Copenhagen:
- Team Spirit
- Team Vitality
- Eternal Fire
- MOUZ
- FaZe Clan
- Cloud9
- Natus Vincere
- G2 Esports
All of these teams have at least a slight chance of winning the tournament. But based on what we’ve seen so far, Team Spirit and MOUZ are the big favorites. If no major upsets occur, these are the two teams who will meet in the Grand Final.
Team Analysis
Team Spirit qualified with a 3 W – 0 L record and only lost one map, against Natus Vincere. With Dmitriy “sh1ro” Sokolov and Danil “donk” Kryshkovets in top form, it’s hard to believe that anyone will defeat them in a best-of-three at this tournament.
They won 16 of their last 17 matches and the only team who managed to beat them was MOUZ. The match took place in the qualifiers for the Major.
MOUZ are on a 6-win streak at this tournament but they were very close to losing against ECSTATIC and Eternal Fire. They might encounter EF again in the semifinals.
FaZe Clan are nowhere near their former strength and their quarterfinals opponent will be Spirit.
Team Vitality and G2 Esports have formidable players but they too seem to be lacking a key ingredient. In Vitality’s case, however, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut has the potential to hard-carry them to the Grand Final.
Eternal Fire is our dark horse in this race. How far will they go?… It’s hard to predict. But they can certainly beat Na’Vi in the quarterfinals.
Cloud9 looked great in the Elimination Stage and only lost against Spirit. They defeated both G2 and Na’Vi, so they’re not helpless against Vitality either.
Header image credit: PGL
