{"id":13754,"date":"2022-05-15T05:21:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-15T05:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/news\/cs-2\/pgl-major-antwerp-4-takeaways-from-day-one-of-the-legends-stage"},"modified":"2022-05-15T05:21:00","modified_gmt":"2022-05-15T05:21:00","slug":"pgl-major-antwerp-4-takeaways-from-day-one-of-the-legends-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/news\/cs-2\/pgl-major-antwerp-4-takeaways-from-day-one-of-the-legends-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"PGL Major Antwerp: 4 Takeaways from Day One of the Legends Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

The opening day of the PGL Major Antwerp Legends Stage featured competition among the established Legends and the top 8 of the Challengers stage. Action-packed matchups led to viewership highs<\/a> and underdog upsets during sixteen best-of-ones across two rounds. Here is a recap of the day’\u0099s events:<\/p>\n

Spirit, Copenhagen Flames Defy Expectations<\/h2>\n

Team Spirit ‘\u0094 the third lowest-ranked team in the Legends Stage ‘\u0094 beat the odds and set themselves up for a solid chance at playoff qualification. The promoted academy duo<\/a> Robert ‘\u009cPatsi’\u009d Isyanov and Pavel ‘\u009cs1ren’\u009d Ogloblin led the charge with their respective 1.33 and 1.17 ratings across the team’\u0099s two matches.<\/p>\n

The opponents that attempted to block Spirit’\u0099s path to the 2-0 pool were not weak ‘\u0094 but the young underdogs came out on top against top-7 team FURIA and top-5 team Heroic. Defying expectations, both bouts ended in a 16-12 victory on Nuke in Spirit’\u0099s favor.<\/p>\n

A similar upset occurred to the benefit of Copenhagen Flames. The day started off strong for the Danes over the Bad News Bears with a 16-14 victory on Ancient, following a 32-kill game from Fredrik ‘\u009croeJ’\u009d J\u00c3\u00b8rgensen. Their following matchup had them face-off against an in-form ENCE, with the Flames as heavy underdogs. Ancient was chosen as the battleground, and Copenhagen Flames effortlessly beat the top-3 team in a 16-8 shutout.<\/p>\n

The two previously-underestimated teams will battle it out in the 2-0 pool, with the victor proceeding to playoffs in Sportpaleis Antwerpen in front of the Belgian crowd.<\/p>\n

Big Names Fill the 1-1 Pool<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\"\" <\/span><\/div>\n

FaZe was stunned by ENCE but quickly bounced back against bNE | Photo via PGL<\/a><\/p>\n

While the expectation was for the likes of FaZe and Heroic to win all their games, strong opposition denied such a result. A mix of the favorites losing either their round one or round two matchup led to many of the big names ending up in the 1-1 pool.<\/p>\n

FaZe Clan started off on the wrong foot at Antwerp with a disastrous 16-8 loss on Mirage against ENCE. FaZe had beaten their Danish-led adversary on the same map in the Grand Final of the previous international tournament. Despite their opening defeat, the international squad bounced back with a convincing 16-4 blowout on Ancient against Bad News Eagles.<\/p>\n

Both Cloud9 and G2 faced some opposition in their day-one matches, which led both the title-contending teams to end up 1-1. The former Gambit squad beat their Russian counterpart Outsiders on Mirage, but lost against NIP’\u0099s superior T-side executes on Inferno. G2 was narrowly bested by current Major Champion NAVI in an overtime affair on Mirage, and avoided an Imperial upset on the same map shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n

Heroic was in a similar win\/loss boat, having bested Liquid on Vertigo 16-11, but failed to beat the underdog Spirit on Nuke 12-16. With many of the title contenders resting in the 1-1 pool, heartbreak is on the horizon as a few of these teams may now fall short of playoffs.<\/p>\n

The Americas Face Hardship<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\"\" <\/span><\/div>\n

Team Liquid is in a similar position to their Challengers debut | Photo via PGL<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

FURIA, Team Liquid, and Imperial ‘\u0094 the three Legends Stage Americas teams ‘\u0094 lost their opening games. Liquid, the lowest-seeded team out of the sixteen rosters, was brushed aside by a confident Heroic to start the day. Imperial lost to BIG 16-11 and was denied a CT comeback after being down 13-2 on the T side. FURIA, who looked strong in the Americas RMR, was upset by the young Spirit squad after a best-of-one on one of the Russian team’\u0099s strongest maps, Nuke.<\/p>\n

The string of losses led to Liquid facing off against FURIA, with the latter emerging victorious on Ancient 16-9 after a flurry of eco wins and coordinated aggressions. Imperial went head-to-head with G2 and put up a valiant effort but ultimately fell to the European superteam with a 16-12 loss on Mirage. Both Liquid and Imperial now sit in the 0-2 pool, facing imminent elimination if their poor form continues.<\/p>\n

Vitality Flatline<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\"\" <\/span><\/div>\n

Vitality are one map away from elimination after Day One | Photo via PGL<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A strong showing in the Challengers stage was quickly silenced by a troubling Legends debut for the team. The French-Danish mix had qualified 3-0 to the current stage after beating Complexity, Astralis, and forZe ‘\u0094 three teams that failed to reach the top 8 of Challengers. With big names yet to be beaten, Vitality had a lot to prove coming into Legends.<\/p>\n

Any hope for Vitality was quickly dispelled after a 16-4 stomp by NIP on Overpass. They failed to reach double digits once more against Outsiders, going down 16-8 in a brutal Mirage affair. Mathieu ‘\u009cZywOo’\u009d Herbaut was silenced on Day One, displaying a pitiful 0.88 rating over his two map losses. The star AWPer will need to step up if the team is to hope to qualify for playoffs.<\/p>\n

Day Two PGL Major Antwerp Matches<\/h2>\n

The advancement and elimination matches headline tomorrow in best-of-threes ‘\u0094 two teams will proceed to playoffs undefeated, while two teams will be sent home early without a win. Teams in the 1-1 pool will play best-of-ones as the Legend Stage continues to develop. The matchups for Day Two will be:<\/p>\n

2-0 Teams:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. NAVI vs. NIP<\/li>\n
  2. Team Spirit vs. Copenhagen Flames<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    1-1 Teams:<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Cloud9 vs. FaZe Clan<\/li>\n
    2. ENCE vs. Outsiders<\/li>\n
    3. Heroic vs. G2<\/li>\n
    4. BIG vs. FURIA<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      0-2 Teams:<\/strong><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The opening day of the PGL Major Antwerp Legends Stage featured competition among the established Legends and the top 8 of the Challengers stage. Action-packed matchups led to viewership highs and underdog upsets during sixteen best-of-ones across two rounds. Here is a recap of the day’\u0099s events: Spirit, Copenhagen Flames Defy Expectations Team Spirit ‘\u0094<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":13755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cs-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}