GamerLegion to compete in Copenhagen tournament
Due to travel issues, 9 Pandas was excluded from the PGL Majors Copenhagen, the PGL has confirmed. The team that will replace the Russian team at the tournament is GamerLegion, the second-placed team in the European Last Chance Qualifier.
PGL began making arrangements for GamerLegion to travel to Copenhagen on Friday, after learning that 9 Pandas may not be able to make up a full lineup.GamerLegion’s players will arrive in the Danish capital today, just 24 hours before their scheduled opening round match against AMKAL.
This change will not affect the seeding for the opening stage: according to Valve’s regional rankings, GamerLegion is the sixth-highest ranked European team in the first stage, as is 9 Pandas.
This is a huge blow for 9 Pandas, especially for Denis “seized” Kostin, who would have returned to a major tournament after six years, and Aleksandr “glowiing “ Matsievich, who would have made his tournament debut at the age of 30.
GamerLegion dropped to the Last Chance Qualifier for the European RMR after losing to Vitality, ENCE and HEROIC. They beat fnatic and Guild Eagles in the first two rounds, but then lost to 9 Pandas in a tight three-map series.
GamerLegion has played just one official match since RMR, where they lost 1-2 to BIG in the first round of the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown.
This will be GamerLegion’s third major tournament, as they went 2-3 in the Challenger stage of IEM Rio before managing to make it to the finals of BLAST Paris, but ultimately losing to Vitality.