The grand final of the PGL Major Copenhagen in Denmark featured some swings in momentum as Natus Vincere and FaZe Clan traded blows through three maps, but in the end, Natus Vincere emerged with a 2-1 victory and the championship on Sunday.
With the win, Natus Vincere earned the $500,000 grand prize, 3,500 BLAST Premier points, qualification to the BLAST Premier World Final and qualification to the Esports World Cup 2024.
Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy grabbed 51 kills for Natus Vincere, while teammate Jutinas “jL” Lekavicius recoded 46 and both players finished plus-17 in kills to deaths on the day.
FaZe was paced by David “frozen” Cernansky, who finished plus-4 with 43 kills.
Natus Vincere took the opening game 13-9 on Ancient, with jL leading the team with a plus-8 kills-to-deaths ratio. B1t grabbed 19 kills, as did teammate Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen.
In Game 2, FaZe rallied for a 13-2 win on Mirage. Four of their five players finished with positive K-D ratios, paced by frozen and Robin “ropz” Kool at plus-12 apiece.
The final game was all Natus Vincere, as they closed out the championship with a 13-3 win on Inferno. B1t recorded 23 kills (plus-16) while jL had 20 (plus-15) in a dominant performance.
Twenty-four teams began the Counter-Strike 2 tournament, 16 of which had to go through the opening stage. Eight advanced to the elimination stage to join eight previous qualifiers. For the first two stages, play was conducted using the Swiss System format.
PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 prize pool:
1. $500,000, 3,500 BLAST Premier points, qualification to BLAST Premier World Final, qualification to Esports World Cup 2024 — Natus Vincere
2. $170,000, 2,750 BLAST Premier points — FaZe Clan
3-4. $80,000, 1,775 BLAST Premier points — Team Vitality, G2 Esports
5-8. $45,000, 1,050 BLAST Premier points — Team Spirit, Cloud9, Eternal Fire, MOUZ
9-11. $20,000 — Complexity, Virtus.pro, paiN Gaming
12-14. $20,000 — Imperial Esports, ECSTATIC, HEROIC
15-16. $20,000 — The MongolZ, FURIA Esports
17-19. $10,000 — SAW, Legacy, GamerLegion
20-22. $10,000 — Lynn Vision Gaming, ENCE, Apeks
23-24. $10,000 — AMKAL Esports, KOI
–Field Level Media