Only 16 teams remain in the fight for the biggest Counter-Strike: Global Offensive prize pool of all time.
The Stockholm Major Legends stage is the second proving ground for the event’s record-setting $2 million prize pool. The Challengers stage was full of exciting matches and surprising upsets, and that trend should continue into the next phase of the tournament. The Stockholm Major Legends stage will decide which teams make the playoffs at the biggest CSGO tournament in the game’s storied history.
Stockholm Major Legends stage teams
Listed below are all of the CSGO teams competing in the Legends stage. They are listed in descending order according to seeding.
Ninjas in Pyjamas
FURIA Esports
Natus Vincere
Team Vitality
Team Liquid
Gambit Esports
G2 Esports
Evil Geniuses
FaZe Clan
Copenhagen Flames
Entropiq
Virtus.pro
ENCE
Heroic
Astralis
MOUZ
The top eight seeded teams directly qualified for the Stockholm Legends stage by performing well in the Regional Major Rankings circuit. The bottom eight seeds started in the Challengers phase and advanced by winning three matches there. The seeds for the Stockholm Major are entirely decided by RMR rank, which is then converted based on region. This results in some rather
strange seeding placements.
Favorites and dark horses for Stockholm Major Legends
The favorite for PGL Major Stockholm is Natus Vincere. Na’Vi won IEM Cologne in commanding fashion and dominated the CIS Regional Major Rankings. The team is centered around superstar AWPer Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, but all five players on the Na’Vi roster can shine under the right circumstances. Natus Vincere is almost guranateed to advance to the Champions stage.
Other trophy contenders include Ninjas in Pyjamas, Team Vitality, and Gambit Esports. All three of those teams have put up good results in late 2021, and Gambit even won IEM Fall CIS by defeating Na’Vi in the final.
There are several teams just under that level that could make a surprise podium run. Copenhagen Flames defied the odds to finish the Challengers stage 3-0. The same is true for FaZe Clan, which overcame its dead-last seeding to advance at the top of the stage.
Perhaps the biggest Stockholm Major dark horse of them all is Astralis. The three-time defending champion ran 3-2 in the Challengers stage after dropping
both day one matches
and having to stave off elimination in three consecutive matches. If the squad’s major experience kicks into gear, the team could go deep in the Champions stage playoffs bracket despite its early struggles.
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