Natus Vincere defeated Gambit Esports 2-0 and G2 Esports beat Heroic 2-1 to each advance to the Grand Final at the Champions Stage of the PGL Major Stockholm Saturday.
Natus Vincere and G2 Esports will now face off for the chance to win $1 million plus 4,000 Blast Premier points and an automatic bid to the World Final 2021 in December.
NaVi faced little trouble in dispatching Gambit 16-8 on Overpass and 16-3 on Mirage.
In the first game, Aleksander “s1mple” Kostyliev paced the winners with 23 kills and a plus-11 kills-to-deaths ratio. Teammates Denis “electronic” Sharipov and Kirill “Boomb14” Mikhailov joined him by having 21 and 20, respectively. Abay “Hobbit” Khasenov scored 21 kills for Gambit.
The second game was a more one-sided affair, with all five of NaVi’s players finishing with positive K-D ratios. S1mple again led the way posting a ratio of 27-8 (plus-19), while Boomb14 finished plus-14 and Valeriy “B1T” Vakhovskiy was plus-10.
On the other side of the bracket, Heroic jumped out to a 1-0 lead by winning the first game 16-12 on Nuke. G2 responded with two straight wins, prevailing 16-10 on Mirage before holding on in overtime 19-15 on Inferno.
Two players notched over 20 kills for Heroic in the first game, with Martin “stavn” Lund getting 23 and Rene “TeSeS” Madsen grabbing 22. Nikola “NiKo” Kovac had a K-D ratio of 25-18 (plus-7) for G2.
It was a reversal of fortunes on the second map, as NiKo once again led the way for G2 with 24 kills. This time, however, he was helped along by Nemanja “nexa” Isakovic, who finished 23-16 (plus-7).
In the final game, NiKo posted a whopping 32 kills (plus-12) to help G2 secure the win. Rasmus “sjuush” Beck racked up 27 kills (plus-4) for Heroic in the defeat.
The Grand Final between Natus Vincere and G2 Esports will take place Sunday and will be a best-of-three.
The PGL Major Stockholm 2021 is a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major championship with a total prize pool of $2 million.
Sixteen teams competed in the Legends Stage, which ran through Tuesday. Elimination and advancement matches were best of three, while all other matches were best-of-one.
PGL Major Stockholm prize pool:
1. $1 million — TBD
2. $300,000 — TBD
3-4. $140,000 – Gambit Esports, Heroic
5-8. $70,000 — Virtus.pro, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Team Vitality, FURIA Esports
9-11. $17,500 — Entropiq, FaZe Clan, Copenhagen Flames
12-14. $17,500 — Team Liquid, Astralis, MOUZ
15-16. $17,500 — Evil Geniuses, ENCE
17-19. No prize money — Movistar Riders, BIG, Team Spirit
20-22. No prize money — TYLOO, Renegades, paiN Gaming
23-24. No prize money — Godsent, Sharks Esports
–Field Level Media
