The most important CS: GO tournament of the year has begun! We'll show you how to attend without buying a ticket and how the tournament works.

To the joy of all CS: GO fans, the PGL Major in Stockholm will once again be a LAN event with an audience, following a good two years of corona-related online competitions. Those who were unable to obtain a ticket still have a few options for following the mega-event.

The PGL Major takes place in Stockholm for the first time since 2019. A total prize pool of US $2 million is up for grabs with 24 teams competing. The winning team receives a one-million-dollar prize. The tournament will take place from October 26th through November 7th.

Official stream

If you want to view the original broadcast in English, go to this link to watch the entire tournament on the official Twitch channel:

https://www.twitch.tv/pgl

Format

A total of 24 teams participate for the CS: GO major, having qualified by their rankings in several regional major ranking contests during the season (RMR).

While eight teams have already qualified for the second tournament phase, the "New Legends Stage," because of their high RMR rankings, the remaining 16 teams must prove themselves in the first tournament phase, the "New Challengers Stage."

Stage of the New Challengers: (October 26th to October 29th, 2021)

The best-of-one format (Bo1) is used in the first five games of the New Challengers Stage. Only the final matches of this phase, which determine whether the competition will continue or be eliminated, will be played in a best-of-three format (Bo3). The Buchholz format is the format in which it is played. The top eight teams from each of the 16 groups will advance to the next round.

A thorough explanation of the Buchholz format can be found here!

New Legends Stage( October 30th to November 2nd, 2021) The Buchholz format is used for this phase as well. Only the eight winning teams from the first phase are added to the eight teams who had already qualified. The tournament's final phase begins with the eight winners of the New Legends Stage.

The Champions Stage will take place from November 4th to November 7th, 2021.

The Champions Stage follows the traditional "single elimination bracket" competition format. Every winning team advances to the next round, while every losing team is eliminated. There is a tournament tree with quarter-finals, semi-finals, and the final in this case.