NA CS at the Majors: PGL Major Stockholm 2021

As we near closer and closer to the BLAST.tv Paris Major, the final CS:GO Major Championship, Dust2.us is walking down memory lane to relive North America’s Counter-Strike history at the Majors. Over two years after North America fell short of a Major-winning run at the StarLadder Major Berlin, the Major circuit would return with the PGL Major Stockholm 2021, where North America would have to salvage what remained after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

PGL Major Stockholm, as a result of being the first Major to be played in over two years, saw a number of sweeping changes to the format. Most notably, qualification was now no longer entirely based on placings at previous Majors; instead teams now had to compete in Regional Major Ranking events, or RMRs for short, where they would compete to earn points that would secure them a place at the Major as either a Contender, a Challenger, or a Legend team.

As a result of this new system, North America was allocated five slots, with points up for grabs from the 2020 RMR events, cs_summit 8, and IEM Fall. Following the conclusion of IEM Fall, North America was represented with the Legends teams of FURIA, Liquid, and Evil Geniuses, while paiN and GODSENT would be Challengers and Contenders squads, respectively.

While Liquid and Evil Geniuses both had solid results in the previous Major, albeit somewhat below expectations for Liquid, with over a two-year gap since the last Major, the two squads hardly resembled their Berlin lineups. A dry spell for Liquid would see the departures of both Nick "nitr0" Canella and Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken, both key components of the team's record-breaking Intel Grand Slam run. In their steed, the North American organization picked up legendary Brazillian IGL Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo, and young gun Michael "Grim" Wince, who had impressed in North America's tier-two scene on Triumph.

Evil Geniuses similarly lost two players between the Berlin and Stockholm Majors, as the squad lost both Tarik "tarik" Celik and Ethan "Ethan" Arnold to Riot Games' VALORANT, leaving them with the core of Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz, Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov, and Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte. To complete the squad, Evil Geniuses acquired Owen "oBo" Schlatter as well as Michał "MICHU" Müller, with the two players having previously played for Complexity and Envy, respectively. With these revamped lineups, North America was now on the hunt for a respectable finish after the two-year-long Major drought. Would it come to fruition?

Liquid and Evil Geniuses had the luxury of bypassing the Challengers Stage, but things would still not be easy for the two teams. Opening matchups against Russian side Entropiq for Liquid, and international side FaZe for Evil Geniuses proved to be too much to handle for the two squads, with 9-16 and 6-16 scorelines, respectively. Liquid managed to bounce back after this opening loss with a comfortable 16-8 win over ENCE to equalize their record 1-1. Evil Geniuses would not be as fortunate, suffering an even more embarrassing 16-2 loss at the hands of Copenhagen Flames to be shipped to the 0-2 elimination pool.

Liquid hoped to put themselves within touching distance of playoffs after their 1-1 match against FURIA, but things would go awry after the American side went from a 7-8 halftime on Inferno, to a 9-16 loss, with the team procuring only two rounds on the defense. This unfortunate result would now put Liquid on the brink of elimination, sending them to the 1-2 pool.

Meanwhile, Evil Geniuses fought tooth and nail against their 0-2 matchup of Vitality, a playoff-favorite squad that had so far struggled in the Legends stage. Evil Geniuses rebounded from a first-half deficit on their pick of Inferno to take a lead in the series, but they were unable to replicate that success on the remaining maps of Vertigo and Dust2, leaving Evil Geniuses to pack their bags just as they were starting to get warmed up.

If Liquid were to have any hope of reaching playoffs, they would need to take down FaZe in a BO3, and eliminate their former teammate Twistzz in the process. The result on Liquid's pick of Inferno, a straightforward 16-8 for FaZe, did not inspire confidence in Liquid's ability to contend against the international side. Despite the unfortunate deficit, Liquid went down kicking and screaming on FaZe's pick of Mirage, dragging the map into a hotly-contested double overtime where FaZe would only barely come out on top. While there could be some solace in taking FaZe close on their map pick, nothing could cover for the shame of now being eliminated from the Stockholm Major 1-3, a far cry from their showings in 2019.

PGL Major Stockholm proved that the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences were especially unkind to North America, manifesting in a struggling tier-two scene but with reverberating effects even at the top level. If Liquid and Evil Geniuses wanted to replicate their pre-pandemic form, things were going to need to change quickly. North America's next chance to prove itself would be nearly six months later, at PGL Major Antwerp, which Dust2.us will be recounting tomorrow.