The coronavirus pandemic took away CS:GO Majors in 2020, but that won't be the case in 2021. After over two years, Majors should make their official return this October with PGL Major Stockholm. The tournament, should it materialize, will break the record of highest prize pool in CS:GO history.
We had hoped 2021 will be a lot better than 2020 and in our hopes predicted a CS:GO Major to be anounced for later this year. Valve and PGL have proven us right. The PGL Major Stockholm with a record prize pool has been officially announced. Time to get hyped for pro CS:GO again!
PGL TO HOST THE FIRST CS:GO MAJOR AFTER A TWO-YEAR BREAK Read more -> https://t.co/V7nBgesXnf#PGLMAJOR pic.twitter.com/qexpQgeTRo
— PGL (@pglesports) January 14, 2021
PGL Major Stockholm: What and When
The 16th Major in CS:GO history will be organized by Romanian company PGL. While Romania is not unfamiliar with CS:GO Majors, having previously hosted DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca, the tournament itself will be held in the Swedish capital Stockholm.
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This marks the return of the largest CS:GO stage to the Scandivanian country after a seven-year exile. The last Major held in the Mecca of Counter-Strike was DreamHack Winter 2014. A bit of a trivia fact is that Cluj-Napoca was managed by DreamHack - a Swedish company, and now a Romanian company will govern a Major in Sweden.
Back to the relevant facts now: the prize pool of $2 million doubles the previous Major record of $1 million - the standard prize pool ever since MLG Columbus 2016. We don't know if this figure will remain post-Stockholm. We do know that funds accumulated to $2 million because of the lack of Majors last year. We wouldn't want to be in the room if and when players are informed that the money is back down for the 2022 Majors.
The PGL Major Stockholm playoffs will be played in front of a live audience at the Ericson Globe on November 4-7. The whole event, including group stages, will extend back to October 23. PGL promise some pleasant surprises such as Augmented Reality and the first ever 4K, 60 fps broadcast of a CS:GO Major.
CS:GO Majors return this October when @pglesports hosts our first Major in two years from Stockholm, Sweden. Read about the 2021 Major Championship in today's Blog Post: https://t.co/RMZAVlxq7R pic.twitter.com/U6cxq8JRgP
— CS:GO (@CSGO) January 14, 2021
Valve added in a separate post that the 24 participating teams will be decided upon by a series of online Regional Major Ranking events culminating in "at least one" offline event per region.
All of this - the RMRs and the Major itself, is of course subject to global health conditions. In the unimaginable event that COVID-19 is still going strong in the second half of the year, all bets are off.
Please don't, virus, be a good boy!
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