There was a lot of Counter-Strike played on Day 1 of the Elimination stage of the PGL CS2 Major 2024 taking place in Copenhagen. And, good heavens, there was some nail-biting action that took place as we wandered around the world of CS. Each of the 16 teams playing in the Elimination stage played two games each. While some emerged as flat-out victors, there were some who were left with shattered hearts. So, let’s have a look at how the action unfolded on Day 1 of the Elimination stage of the PGL CS2 Major 2024 –
Playing in the first lot of matches, TheMongolz, who are carrying the hopes and dreams of Asian CS fans at the Major, lost their game on Mirage to NAVI. The CIS powerhouse, draped in yellow and black, thanks to the efforts of Ihor ‘w0nderful’ Zhdanov, Valeriy ‘b1t’ Vakhovskiy, and Justinas ‘jL’ Lekavicius managed to end the game with a scoreline of 13-10 in their favour.
Alongside the NAVI and TheMongolz game, we had MOUZ facing off against ECSTATIC. Every team heading into Day 1 of the Elimination stage at the PGL CS2 Major 2024, wanted to start proceedings on a positive note. And, of the two teams facing MOUZ were the ones who were able to realise their goal of starting their run on a winning note. They defeated ECSTATIC 13-11 on Overpass, with the experienced campaigner, Ludvig ‘Brollan’ Brolin, leading the charge for his team.
The first Brazilian smiles broke out when Imperial defeated Virtus.Pro on Inferno with a 6-13 scoreline in their favour. Eternal Fire surprised many by defeating Vitality, the winners of the last CS:GO Major, and the top-ranked team just a couple of weeks ago. The Turkish squad defeated their French counterparts 13-10. The first North American victory came in the form of Complexity defeating paiN 13-9 on Vertigo. This was the start of something special from Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski, who showed the fans and experts why he is regarded as one of the best CS talents in the world, later in the day.
In a closely contested game between the hometown favourites, Heroic, and FaZe on Ancient, a relatively new addition to the CS map pool, Heroic took home the win 13-10. The hero for them in this game was Rasmus ‘sjuush’ Beck, who ended the game with an HLTV rating of 1.26 out of 2. When it came to the G2 vs. FURIA game, it was easy picking for G2. FURIA had come into the Elimination stage after having a shaky run in the Opening stage, and the slight bit of nervousness showed in their game. Two ACE(s) by Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov were a clear show to domination by the EU powerhouse that is G2. They won the game 13-3.
Team Spirit, who were in the news after the Dmitry ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov acquisition and the recent domination by Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets, showed that their investments in talents was something to never doubt. They stomped over the table toppers from the Opening Stage, Cloud9, in their first game on Ancient. Spirit won the game 13-7, laying the foundation for what looks like a very promising run in the PGL CS2 Major 2024.
TheMongolz were handed their second defeat by Vitality, who walked home to victory in Nuke with a 13-9 scoreline in their favour. MOUZ, in their game against Eternal Fire, scored a 13-11 win on Vertigo, ending their first day on a two-win streak. Virtus.Pro bounced back from their defeat on Inferno at the hands of Imperial, as they beat paiN 13-9 on the same map.
Heroic, who had pipped FaZe in their first game of the day, came into their match against Complexity on Vertigo with a very positive approach. But the Americans were not here to smile and wave. The two teams battled hard on Vertigo giving us, hands down, the best Counter-Strike action from Day 1 of the Elimination stage of the PGL CS2 Major 2024. As both the teams traded blows, the game went into double overtime and ended with Complexity winning the game 19-17. And, the star of the show was Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski who ended his run with 37 frags to his name and some really special plays. Go watch the highlights of the game here –
After this game, it was really hard for any other squad to top off what EliGE and Co. had pulled off. Here’s a quick rundown of what happened in the last four games of Day 1 of the Elimination stage of the PGL CS2 Major 2024 –
Cloud9 beat ECSTATIC 13-3 on Overpass. NAVI had G2 in their control as they beat the EU superquad 13-11 on Nuke. FaZe scored their first win of the day against FURIA, 13-7 on Ancient. And, in the last game of the day, Imperial bit the dust at the hands of Spirit who ended their day with a two-win streak.
Here’s how the points table looked at the end of Day 1 of the Elimination stage of the PGL CS2 Major 2024 –
As we move into the second day of the Elimination stage of the PGL CS2 Major 2024, NAVI, Complexity, Spirit, and MOUZ are the teams to beat. All four teams ended Day 1 with two wins in their bag, and will need some serious firepower to be stopped. Squads like Vitality and Faze, alongside hometown heroes, Heroic, would want to get some more wins under their belt to set the foundations of their first Major Campaign in CS2. Here’s a look at the schedule of Day 2 of the Elimination stage of the PGL CS2 Major 2024 taking place in Copenhagen –
The stage is set for some exciting CS action. In the first half of the day, we will have Best of one games, where we will see G2 taking on Cloud9 and Heroic playing against Virtus.Pro to start the proceedings. So, sit tight, as we might get out first advancers to the playoffs today!
To check out all of our coverage of the PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen, check out this page.
