A Recap of the PGL European RMR Group A Qualifier
The first European RMR finished earlier this week with eight total teams qualifying for the first Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) major the PGL Copenhagen 2024.
The eight teams consist of G2, Virtus.Pro, Natus Vincere, FaZe, KOI, Eternal Fire, SAW and AMKAL.
For teams that placed in the ninth, tenth and eleventh spots respectively are put into a Last Chance Qualifier where only one of six teams will get to advance to the major. The second European RMR will finish, and the final three teams will be decided upon for the Last Chance Qualifier.
The biggest winners in this RMR were Eternal Fire, AMKAL and SAW. These three teams were not viewed highly due to the region that they come from with SAW being a full Portuguese team and Eternal Fire being an entire Turkish team. These are two countries not known for their pro players and Eternal Fire especially showed great improvement finally making it to their first Major since Antwerp in 2022 where they were eliminated in the Challengers Stage. AMKAL, a full Russian team is not one of the highly touted Russian organizations currently in CS2 and were seen by most to be an early elimination going into their matches.
The biggest disappointments of the qualifier were Falcons and Ninjas in Pyjamas (NIP).
The Falcons, who are one of the highest paid teams in the world were eliminated from contention for the major after going 1-3 overall. The only win they could get was their first match versus 3DMAX before losing to FaZe, Eternal Fire and AMKAL to be eliminated from the major. This poor showing resulted in Mohammad “BOROS” Malhas being benched and the team bringing in a surprising new addition in one of the greatest pros in Counter Strike history Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev. The Falcons have a lot of work to do before the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown that starts March 6.
NIP on the other hand has had zero success for almost the entirety of CS2’s life cycle so far. This recent defeat placing dead last in the qualifier resulted in three out of their five-man roster being benched. They went 0-3 in the qualifier losing every single map that they played. This was coming off of another disappointing finish in the BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2024 finishing in eleventh place and only winning one series against the last place finishing Complexity.
