This article is part of our CS:GO Recap series.
Well, that was an interesting weekend. The PGL Major Qualifier has come and gone, and we now have our full slate of teams that will be battling it out in Poland in two weeks. While there were some expected results, there was of course some surprises as well.
As everyone will recall, I made some predictions on who would be coming out alive over the weekend. I felt pretty confident about most of them, yet I came up a bit short. So let's take a look and see how everything shook out.
G2 Esports (3-0): This was a solid prediction. As expected, the Frenchmen were on top of their game and took care of business with three strong wins. They did have a bit of a scare against Immortals, but they still came out with a hard-fought 22-20 overtime win. It was a strong overall showing, and I knew kennyS' hair wouldn't let me down.
Mousesports (3-0): mouz had probably the smoothest road of anyone at this event, taking wins of 16-1, 16-11, and 16-14. Without their kryptonite of SK Gaming in the way to stop them, they were full speed ahead onto Kraków.
Cloud9 (3-1): Another solid prediction from your's truly. Their lone defeat came at the hands of G2, and that's nothing at all to scoff at. With Team Liquid narrowly missing out on the Major (more on that disappointment later), Cloud9 is now the only hope for North America.
Immortals (3-2): This was a close one. Being paired with G2 put them at a bit of a disadvantage from the start, as they eventually fell to 1-2 and were one game from elimination. They hunkered down and finished things out with strong 16-14 and 16-13 win over GODSENT and HellRaisers, respectively.
This is where things got a bit interesting, as my predictions went completely awry after some unexpected teams cropped up out of nowhere.
PENTA Sports (3-1): Despite not having much of a showing at major events all year, PENTA came out with wins over OpTic Gaming and Team Liquid to start things out with a bang. They lost to mouz, but then easily handled Vega Squadron 16-8 to qualify for the Major.
BIG (3-1): This was a team that I was a bit on the fence about since they have some strong talent, but I wasn't sure if they'd be able to piece it all together. But piece it together they certainly did. They lost to Cloud9 coming out the gate, but then rattled off three straight against Tengri Immortals and Team Liquid to punch their ticket to Poland.
Vega Squadron (3-2) and FlipSid3 Tactics (3-2): Both of these squads are ones that overcame some pretty tough odds over the weekend to squeeze right into the Major. Vega hasn't been at a big event since DreamHack Leipzig (and even that event didn't see very many big names), while FlipSid3 was last seen at the ELEAGUE Major failing to win a game in the group stage. Despite this, Vega took down Team Dignitas and FlipSid3 defeated Team Liquid to find their way to Poland. Look at these teams as dark horse candidates to do damage in Kraków.
Now for the rest of my predictions. OpTic Gaming didn't win a single game, and I don't even want to talk about my others (Editor's note: he has to). GODSENT only won a single game, losing to mouz, Immortals, and Cloud9 (who all qualified). HellRaisers came extremely close, losing a close 16-13 match against Immortals in the final round. Team Liquid had the toughest exit, as they were just a couple rounds away from winning. Despite being up 21-18 in the second overtime of the final game against FlipSid3, they went 2-7 in the last set of rounds to drop the game in triple overtime.
So to recap, your PGL Major Krakow 2017 teams are Astralis, Virtus.pro, Fnatic, SK Gaming, Natus Vincere, Gambit Esports, North, FaZe Clan, G2 Esports, Mousesports, Cloud9, PENTA Sports, BIG, Immortals, Vega Squadron, and FlipSid3 Tactics. This is a tournament that will feature some of the very best and most storied teams in all of Counter-Strike. Sparks will be sure to fly.
July 16 can't come fast enough.
