PGL Major Krakow preview: The Underdogs (1/3)

It has been six months since the ELEAGUE Major, and now it is that time again as we areapproaching PGL's first Major, which is taking place at Krakow's Tauron Arena from July 16-23, with the popular Swiss format in use for the group stage during the first four days.

Eight Legends, who earned their spot by placing in the top eight at the ELEAGUE Major, and eight Challengers, who came from the Main Qualifier at the beginning of July, are now ready play at the prestigious event. 

We separated the 16 teams into three groups as usual, based on their recent results and, incidentally, our ranking: the Underdogs, the Mid-tier, and the Favorites. Here's what those three groups look like:

Underdogs	Mid-tier	Favorites
BIG	G2	SK
PENTA	Cloud9	FaZe
FlipSid3	Natus Vincere	Astralis
Vega Squadron	North
	Immortals
	fnatic
	MOUZ
	Virtus.pro
	Gambit

As a comparison, here's what EGB.com's, the Major's partner, betting odds look like as of July 13:

Team	Rate	Ratio
SK	2.755	32.67%
Astralis	3.910	23.02%
FaZe	7.246	12.42%
G2	10.896	8.26%
Cloud9	18.634	4.83%
Natus Vincere	20.785	4.33%
fnatic	24.931	3.61%
North	27.523	3.27%
MOUZ	46.392	1.94%
Other teams	15.901	5.66%

We begin our series of previews with the Underdogs — BIG, PENTA, FlipSid3, and Vega Squadron —, all of whom secured Challengers status earlier this month in Bucharest. Tomorrow, we will present to you the Mid-tier, featuring nine teams that we expect to fight tooth and nail for a playoff finish, and Saturday, the day before the Major kicks off, will bring the three Favorites.

BIG (#17)	Age	Rating 2.0	Highest placing at Majors
Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz	22	1.35	Group stage (Katowice '14)
Johannes "⁠nex⁠" Maget	25	1.14	Quarter-finals (Katowice '15)
Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik	30	1.03	Group stage (2x)
Kevin "⁠keev⁠" Bartholomäus	25	1.02	Rookie
Nikola "⁠LEGIJA⁠" Ninić	26	0.97	Group stage (Katowice '14)
Alexander "⁠kakafu⁠" Szymanczyk (coach)

Offline placings in the last three months
3rd-5th	PGL Major Krakow Main Qualifier
1st	Europe Minor - PGL Major Krakow
2nd	ESEA S24 Global Challenge
1st	ESL Meisterschaft Spring Finals
3rd-4th	Copenhagen Games

While BIG are a new team formed at the beginning of the year, their players are not complete strangers to Majors, save for keev, who will be one of the 16 rookies at PGL Major Krakow.

nex is by far their most experienced player at events like this, with six Majors under his belt since his first appearance at DreamHack Winter 2014, while tabseN and LEGIJA played at just one each (together under mousesports) and gob b returns to the Major scene after having played at ESL One Cologne 2015 and DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca.

Similarly to two other Underdogs, PENTA and Vega Squadron, BIG had to take the long route to the Major — through the Minor system and the Main Qualifier. After getting knocked down to the lower bracket of the Minor playoffs by Dignitas, the German squad secured Europe's third spot at the offline qualifier after defeating Envy, and they went on to win two more matches to win the event.

tabseN will draw focus at the PGL Major

At the Minor, as well as their previous tournaments, BIG mostly played teams below the top 20, but gob b's men got a taste of top-tier Counter-Strike at the Main Qualifier, where they conceded Cobblestone to Cloud9 before clinching three wins in a row for their spot at the Major — against Tengri, Immortals, and Liquid.

Alongside their rivals PENTA, BIG have risen up the ladder since their creation, and are hoping to continue down that path in PGL Major Krakow's group stage. As Underdogs, they're naturally not expected to go through to playoffs, but who knows what can happen if LEGIJA and company get the right match-ups and tabseN turns up the heat as they progress through the Swiss format.

Why follow BIG at the Major: The tabseN-gob b combination. The in-game leader brings a methodical, well thought-out playstyle, with the 22-year-old star at the forefront, tearing his opponents apart every step of the way.

PENTA (#20)	Age	Rating 2.0	Highest placing at Majors
Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi	22	1.21	Rookie
Kevin "⁠HS⁠" Tarn	20	1.11	Rookie
Paweł "⁠innocent⁠" Mocek	23	1.09	Group stage (DHW '14)
Jesse "⁠zehN⁠" Linjala	25	0.96	Rookie
Kevin "⁠kRYSTAL⁠" Amend	23	0.94	Quarter-finals (2x)

Offline placings in the last three months
3rd-5th	PGL Major Krakow Main Qualifier
2nd	Europe Minor - PGL Major Krakow
5th-8th	GeForce Cup
1st	ESEA S24 Global Challenge

With three rookies and three Majors among the remaining two players, PENTA are the second least experienced teams when it comes to the biggest events in CS:GO. What's more, the last time we saw either kRYSTAL or innocent play at the Majors was over two years ago, at ESL One Katowice 2015, when the former made the playoffs with PENTA's then-German squad for the second time in a row.

The Polish tournament was also the last Major for the German organization, who lost its trio of Timo "⁠Spiidi⁠" Richter, Denis "⁠denis⁠" Howell, and nex to mousesports not long afterwards and went missing from the Major map until now.

After countless struggles with his old lineup, kRYSTAL made the impossible happen, putting together a roster full of leftovers this March and going on a 28-map journey through all four stages of the qualification process to clinch a spot at the PGL Major Krakow.

Due to how new the team still is, it's hard to put them anywhere but in the Underdogs group, although PENTA already defied any standards of how quickly a team should be able to progress and are aiming to do so again in the groups at the Major. 

Niko "⁠naSu⁠" Kovanen opting out of the Major due to a scheduling conflict comes as a blow, though, as kRYSTAL will have to put in double the work in between matches to make up for the missing coach, who was a big help in analysing opponents at their previous tournaments.

This time the challenge might just prove too difficult, but facing the best teams in the world will be a welcome experience for innocent and company, and a chance to move up the rankings and boost their exposure.

Why follow PENTA at the Major: The unbelievable story of PENTA, who made it to a Major within four months of existence, goes on to show that hard work pays off and should come as serious inspiration for all aspiring players out there. 

FlipSid3 (#23)	Age	Rating 2.0	Highest placing at Majors
Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov	18	1.22	Group stage (ELEAGUE '17)
Yegor "⁠markeloff⁠" Markelov	29	1.07	Quarter-finals (4x)
Georgi "⁠WorldEdit⁠" Yaskin	25	1.00	Quarter-finals (Cologne '16)
Jan "⁠wayLander⁠" Rahkonen	23	0.90	Quarter-finals (Cologne '16)
Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy	30	0.84	Quarter-finals (Cologne '16)

Offline placings in the last three months
6th-8th	PGL Major Krakow Main Qualifier
3rd-4th	Adrenaline Cyber League

It should come as no surprise to see FlipSid3 among the Underdogs. After all, B1ad3's men have always been able to qualify, but anything beyond that seems out of reach. Outside of that one memorable playoff appearance at ESL One Cologne at the expense of Ninjas in Pyjamas — which likely haunts the Swedes to this day, seeing as they've missed two Majors since —, FlipSid3 flunked out of every group stage.

PGL Major Krakow will be the core trio's (B1ad3, WorldEdit, markeloff) seventh Major in a row together but only the second for ELEAGUE Major rookie electroNic, who boosted FlipSid3's firepower in late 2016.

electronic powered FlipSid3 to a Challengers status

The newest member — who is also the second youngest player at the upcoming Major after Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool — played a massive part in FlipSid3's successful journey towards this Major, which seemed all but out of their hands when they faced elimination numerous times in their triple-overtime deciding battle against Liquid. electroNic posted a 1.51 rating in that marathon and an overall 1.38 rating across the Main Qualifier (fourth highest).

It will be up to him and WorldEdit, whom FlipSid3 looked to the most before electroNic came into the picture, to put up the numbers as they attempt to repeat their ESL One Cologne 2016 feat.

Why follow FlipSid3 at the Major: Despite FlipSid3's poor track record at Majors, B1ad3's squad seem to always play tight matches and pull off an upset, or at least come close to one.

Vega Squadron (#24)	Age	Rating 2.0	Highest placing at Majors
Nikolay "⁠mir⁠" Bityukov	21	1.29	Rookie
Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov	20	1.21	Rookie
Pavel "⁠hutji⁠" Lashkov	21	1.13	Rookie
Dmitriy "⁠jR⁠" Chervak	23	1.10	Rookie
Sergey "⁠keshandr⁠" Nikishin	23	0.98	Rookie

Offline placings in the last three months
6th-8th	PGL Major Krakow Main Qualifier
1st	CIS Minor - PGL Major Krakow

Vega Squadron are the only team with no Major experience whatsoever, as all five players come into the PGL Major Krakow as rookies.

This exact same five came close to qualifying for the ELEAGUE Major, when the Russian-Ukrainian side made it to the fifth round of the Main Qualifier by causing the famous Ninjas in Pyjamas upset, before taking Envy to their limit.

Vega's shoot-first-think-second approach will probably come back to bite them

This time they took it one step further and qualified after five maps, losing to HellRaisers and PENTA and defeating OpTic, TYLOO, and Dignitas, with mir proving himself as one of the CIS region's up-and-comers following superstar-like showings across the board.

Vega Squadron's surprising run is likely to come to a stop, however, as their shoot-first-think-second approach won't work three times against teams of the Major's stature. As with PENTA, the experience should be enough of a prize for a team that desperately lacks pedigree, with just a handful of international events to their name.

Why follow Vega Squadron at the Major: While reckless, Vega's ballsy approach to the game is quite exciting to watch, especially when the players are in form.