PGL are handing out $1.25m to 16 teams in their first tier one standalone event since 2015.
Teams and format
16 teams are heading to Romania, with FaZe and Eternal Fire being the highest-ranked teams to accept invitations after Natus Vincere, Spirit, Vitality, and G2 opted to skip.
We will also see the debut of MOUZ with Lotan “Spinx” Giladi in place of Kamil “siuhy” Szkaradek, and the return of Timur “FL4MUS” Marev to Virtus.pro after visa issues ruled him out of Katowice’s playoffs.
Imperial Valkyries were a late addition to the team list after FURIA’s withdrawal, and need to make the most of the opportunity in order to climb back into the top 25 of the Valve Global Standings.
PGL are running a bold all best-of-three Swiss system as the tournament format with eight series a day for the first three rounds. We’ve not seen anything similar at a top LAN since 2019’s StarSeries S7 in 2019, where Natus Vincere beat fnatic in the final.
They are also hosting a third-place decider with an extra $63,500 (and the VRS points that money brings) up for grabs.
Team list
Eternal Fire
The MongolZ
Virtus.pro
Falcons
3DMAX
BIG
FlyQuest
SAW
FaZe MOUZ
Astralis
paiN MIBR
Wildcard
Complexity Imperial Valkyries
Schedule and venues
The Swiss group stage will take place at PGL’s studios in Bucharest before the eight playoff teams move to the 10,000 seater BT Arena in Cluj-Napoca — the same, albeit renamed, venue DreamHack used for their 2015 Major.
Matches start on Valentines Day, February 14, with five days of groups, two days off, and then three days of playoffs (with all four quarter-finals on February 21) to conclude.
Because of the volume of matches, it’s an early start time of 16:00 (10am local) for the first few rounds of Swiss. Here are the day one matchups in full:
Prizes
All $1,250,000 on offer will be distributed via the prize pool, with no BLAST or ESL style club rewards.
1. $400,000
2. $187,500
3. $150,000
4. $87,500
5-8. $62,500
9-11. $31,250
12-14. $18,750
15-16. $12,500
Broadcast team
Desk Hosts:
Richard “Richard Lewis” Lewis Tres “stunna” Saranthus
Analysts:
Alex “Mauisnake” Ellenberg Jacob “Pimp” Winneche
Sudhen “Bleh” Wahengbam Dustin “dusT” Mouret
Commentators:
Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill (On site) Alex “Machine” Richardson (On site)
Mohan “launders” Govindasamy (On site) Conner “Scrawny” Girvan (On site) Jason “moses” O’Toole (Remote) Adam “Dinko” Hawthorne (Remote) Hugo “Hugo” Byron (Remote) Harry “JustHarry” Russell (Remote)
Content/Interviews:
James “BanKs” Banks
Fantasy
Fantasy is live for the group stage now, with users making Engin “MAJ3R” Küpeli the most-picked player. The game will have season points and the following prizes by Chicken.GG:
1st. Hydra Gloves | Mangrove (Field-Tested)
2nd. AK-47 | Neon Rider (Field-Tested)
3rd. M4A1-S | Atomic Alloy (Field-Tested)
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