PGL Major Stockholm 2021

The PGL Major Stockholm 2021, also known as PGL Major 2021 or Stockholm 2021, was the sixteenth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Major Championship. It was held in Stockholm, Sweden at the Avicii Arena from October 26 to November 7, 2021. Twenty-four teams qualified via regional major rankings. It featured a US$2000000 prize pool, a rise from the US$1000000 of previous Majors due to the absence of offline competition amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the second Major hosted by the Romanian organization PGL, after PGL Major: Kraków 2017. Stockholm 2021 was the first Major after a break caused by the COVID-19 pandemic following the StarLadder Major: Berlin 2019. The Major was won by Natus Vincere, who did not lose a single map throughout the tournament.

Background
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve Corporation. It is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series. In professional CS:GO, the Valve-sponsored Majors are the most prestigious tournaments.

The Stockholm Major was the first Major in two years following an absence in offline play in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, the ESL One Rio Major 2020 was planned for May 2020, but was postponed to November, before later being canceled in September.

The defending champions were Astralis, who won their fourth Major at Berlin 2019. They were eliminated in the Legends stage after their loss to Team Vitality.

Map Pool
Between the Berlin 2019 Major and the Stockholm 2021 Major, Valve replaced Train in the active duty map pool with Ancient.

Regional Major Ranking
On April 2, 2020, Valve revised the former major qualification system which featured direct qualifiers called minors, for a yearly circuit where teams had to earn Regional Major Ranking Points (RMR) in a series of tournaments. The system was revised in scope of the first postponement of the Rio Major. In early January 2021, Valve reached out to organizers for proposals of three RMR events per region–Asia, CIS, Europe, North America, South America and Oceania. Five days later, the corporation released the 2020 RMR Sticker capsule as an in-game item, including the team's logos as sticker who qualified for Rio. They furthermore reset all the points acquired and reset the leaderboard. As a compensation, teams who qualified as a Legend for the Rio Major were awarded with 600 points, Challengers with 300 and Contenders with 100. Through the rules laid out by Valve, teams were able to replace up to two members of their roster at a time for a penalty. Teams lost 20% of their points per player change. If three or more players were removed from the team, the points would be reset. At least two RMR events per region were required with an optional third one being possible. The only regions to have three RMR events were CIS and South America.

Teams competing

 * Legends


 * Evil Geniuses
 * FURIA Esports
 * G2 Esports
 * Gambit Esports
 * Natus Vincere
 * Ninjas in Pyjamas
 * Team Liquid
 * Team Vitality


 * Challengers


 * Astralis
 * BIG
 * ENCE
 * Heroic
 * MOUZ
 * Movistar Riders
 * paiN Gaming
 * Team Spirit


 * Contenders


 * Copenhagen Flames
 * Entropiq
 * FaZe Clan
 * GODSENT
 * Renegades
 * Sharks Esports
 * TYLOO
 * Virtus.pro

New Challengers Stage
The New Challengers stage took place from October 26 to October 29, 2021, at the Avicii Arena. The Challengers stage, also known as the Preliminary stage and formerly known as the offline qualifier, is a sixteen team swiss tournament. Initial seeding was determined using RMR srandings, from the 3rd round forward the Buchholz system was used.

New Legends Stage

 * Top 8 Teams proceed to New Champions Stage
 * Bottom 8 Teams are eliminated

New Champions Stage
With eight teams remaining, the final stage of the Major is a single-elimination bracket, with all matches played as best-of-3 maps.

Heroic vs. Virtus.pro
Casters: Semmler & moses

G2 Esports vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
Casters: Semmler & Anders

FURIA Esports vs. Gambit Esports
Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

Natus Vincere vs. Team Vitality
Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

Heroic vs. G2 Esports
Casters: Semmler & Anders

Natus Vincere vs. Gambit Esports
Casters: Semmler & Moses

Natus Vincere vs. G2 Esports
Casters: Machine & SPUNJ

Final standings
The final placings are shown below. In addition, the prize distribution, seed for the next major, roster, and coaches are shown.