PGL, the tournament organizer tasked with organizing the first CS:GO Major in more than two years, has confirmed that the $2 million tournament will be held in Stockholm, Sweden as originally planned, following months of uncertainty and several talks with the Swedish government.
The confirmation comes after Sweden removed all possible restrictions for esports events in the country, allowing a full house for indoor events and relaxing the travel restrictions for esports players. There has been a slight change of dates as the Major was previously scheduled to kick off on Oct. 23, and now it will run from Oct. 26 to Nov. 7, with the last four days of play taking place at the Avicii Arena.
The tickets for the PGL Major Stockholm will go on sale starting on Wednesday, Sept. 22 at 3am CT. The Avicii Arena approximately has a 14,000 capacity and PGL aims to have a full house. The Major will be the first CS:GO event played in front of a large crowd since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The last Valve-sponsored event took place in September 2019 in Germany.
“I firmly believe the only way to bring back massive LAN events is to require complete vaccination of attending players, talent, spectators,” PGL’s CEO Silviu Stroie said. “This will be a requirement for all upcoming PGL 2022 events.”
The PGL Stockholm Major will kick off with the New Challengers stage where eight of 16 teams will proceed to the New Legends stage. They’ll be joined by eight teams with Legend status and only eight will progress to the playoffs, called the New Champions stage.
There will be 11 teams from Europe, five from North America, five from CIS, and one from Asia, Oceania, and South America. All the spots will be determined following the end of the last Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournament — IEM Fall — which will run from Sept. 29 to Oct. 10.
