G2 star player Aleksi “Aleksib” Estonian and ENCE coach Eetu “sAw” Saha are the only Finns in the million tournament. will be showing the Major of Antwerp live on Arena and Twitch from 9 May.
One of the biggest e-sports tournaments of the year, the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major tournament kicks off on Monday in Antwerp, Belgium.
Among the Finnish players in the tournament will be G2 Aleksi “Alexib” Estonian. In addition, the team of the Finnish e-sports organization ENCE is being coached Eetu “sAw” Saw.
CS: GO is one of the most watched e-sports games in the world and in Finland tactical shooting is undoubtedly the most popular of all. Majors, on the other hand, are major tournaments organized by Valve, the American who developed the game, and are played only 1-2 times a year. This time, the majors are handing out a million-dollar prize pool.
Two weeks of e-sports celebration
The 24 teams in the tournament have been selected through continental qualifiers. The top 8 teams in the qualifiers will advance directly to the second round of the tournament, while the rest will start their match as early as Monday.
The tournament kicks off with a four-day Challenger Stage involving 16 teams from the Challengers and Contenders teams. The teams play the group stage on the Swiss chart, which is followed by three wins. Three losses, in turn, end the tournament already in the challenger phase.
The Estonian G2 and the ENCE coached by Saha are also involved in the challenging phase. The Finnish teams have been ranked the toughest in the challenger stage in advance, so the teams against them are weaker in advance.
Teams advancing from the challenger stage will face Legends basketball teams in the legend stage starting on Saturday, May 14, such as NAVI, which celebrated the Stockholm Major Championship in November. Another Swiss chart is in the offing, with the top eight teams advancing to the playoffs.
The playoffs at the Sportpaleis Hall will begin in the semi-finals on Thursday, May 19, and the final of the tournament will be played on Sunday, May 22.
Is it time for a Finnish champion now?
The Finnish player has been seen twice in the final of the major tournament: Aleksi “allu” Jalli with the Swedish Ninjas in Pajamas in Katowice in 2015 and ENCE’s Jalli, Estonian, Jere “Sergei” Sliver, Jani “Aerial” Jussila mixed Sami “xseveN” Laasanen In Katowice in 2019. Both finals ended in a loss.
In the previous major tournament in Stockholm in 2021, the final was lost to the G2, which added an Estonian and a young Russian star Ilja “m0NESY” Osipovin into their ranks this spring. The sixth-ranked team on the world list will go to the tournament as one of their pre-favorites.
Before the tournament, the Estonian told that the team’s preparations for the tournament had gone well. Although G2 did not make it to the legendary stage of the tournament directly from the qualifiers, according to Virolainen, the challenger stage is also an opportunity for the team to have their game run well in advance.
The team of the Finnish organization ENCE is also aiming for success in the playoffs from Antwerp. The team has switched to Stockholm after 15th place Jonah “doto” Forssin to Montenegro Pavle “Maden” To Boskovic, so there are no more Finnish players in the team. The team coached by Eetu Saha is ranked 4th in the world.