IEM Katowice Major 2019

IEM Katowice 2019

2019
The Intel Extreme Masters logo
Tournament information
Sport	Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Location	Katowice, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland
Dates	February 13–March 3, 2019
Administrator	Valve ESL
Tournament format(s)	Two 16 team swiss-system group stages 8 team single-elimination playoff
Venue	ESL Arena Katowice MCK Spodek
Teams	24 teams
Purse	$1,000,000 USD
Final positions
Champions	Astralis
1st runners-up	ENCE
2nd runners-up	MIBR Natus Vincere
MVP	Emil "Magisk" Reif

The Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII – Katowice Major 2019, also known as IEM Katowice Major 2019 or Katowice 2019, was the fourteenth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship and the world championship for the thirteenth season of the Intel Extreme Masters. It was held in Katowice, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland from February 13 – March 3, 2019. Fourteen teams would qualify for the IEM Katowice Major 2019 based on their top fourteen placements from the last Major, the FACEIT Major: London 2018, while another ten teams would qualify from their respective regional qualifiers. The top eight teams from the London Major (Legends) received a bye to the second phase of the group stage while the other sixteen teams (Challengers) had to go through the first and second group stages in order to reach the playoffs. It featured a $1,000,000 USD prize pool and twenty-four professional teams from around the world as within previous Majors. It was also notably being held by ESL, whose last Major was in 2016. The IEM Katowice Major 2019 was the seventh consecutive major with a prize pool of $1,000,000 since Valve announced the prize pool increase from $250,000 at MLG Columbus 2016. This event was the start of the second season of the Intel Grand Slam.

Astralis, Team Liquid, MIBR, Natus Vincere, and FaZe Clan were returning Legends. BIG, HellRaisers, and compLexity Gaming were knocked out in the New Legends stage, thus losing their Legends status. Renegades, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and ENCE were new Legends.

The grand finals pitted the world's number one Astralis, which defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas and MIBR, and the underdog ENCE, which defeated the world's number two in Team Liquid and the world's number three in Natus Vincere. Astralis swept ENCE in two maps to take its third Major title to tie Fnatic for most Majors titles. In addition, it became just the third team after Fnatic and the current roster of MIBR to win consecutive Majors.

This major is also notable in that this was one of the first tournaments in which the usage of the AUG surpassed the usage of the M4, which had been the main rifle used by the CTs in all previous tournaments dating back to Counter-Strike 1.6. According to some analysts and players, this switch increased the ability to play on the CT-side, in turn reducing the efficiency to play in the T-side. Most notably this affected the maps already favoured for the CT-side defences, such as Train, which was played three times in the final stage of the tournament.

Background

See also: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII – World Championship

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve. It is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series. In competitive play, the game pits two teams against each other: the Terrorists and the Counter-Terrorists. Both sides are tasked with eliminating the other while also completing separate objectives. The Terrorists must either plant a bomb or kill the entire Counter-Terrorist team, while the Counter-Terrorists must either prevent the bomb from being planted by killing the entire Terrorist team or defusing the bomb. Once the bomb is planted, counter-terrorists have forty seconds to defuse the bomb; under normal circumstances, it takes ten seconds to defuse the bomb, but purchasing a defuse kit reduces the defuse time to five seconds. At the end of each round, players are rewarded based on their individual performance with in-game currency to spend on more powerful weapons in subsequent rounds. Winning rounds results in more money than losing, and completing objectives such as killing enemy players gives cash bonuses. However, the more consecutive rounds a team loses, the more money the losing team earns, with the loss bonus capping after five rounds; once that team wins a round, the loss round bonus resets to the minimum amount each player could earn after a round.

The current defending champions are Astralis, after winning their second championship at the FACEIT Major: London 2018. At the time, Fnatic had the most Major titles with 3.

Format

There are four regional qualifiers – Americas, Asia, CIS, and Europe. Two teams from each qualifier move on to the New Challengers stage. Each Minor will feature eight teams. In addition, the teams that placed third in their respective Minors will have another shot at the Major as since Valve reduced the number of direct invites from sixteen to fourteen, the last two spots will be decided through a third place qualifier, in which the teams that placed third at each Minor will play until two teams remain.

The Major will feature twenty-four teams. The top eight teams from the FACEIT Major: London 2018 are known as Legends. The remaining sixteen teams are known as Challengers. The Major is split up into three stages. The first stage is the New Challengers stage, which features all the Challengers, which includes the teams that placed ninth through fourteenth at the FACEIT Major and the ten teams that came through the Minors system.; the top eight teams advance to the next stage and the bottom eight teams are sent home. The second stage is the New Legends stage. This stage features the eight Legends from the London Major and the eight teams from the New Challengers stage. Like the New Challengers stage, the New Legends stage will also have the top eight teams move on to the next stage and the bottom eight teams eliminated. However, the top six teams from the bottom eight teams are automatically invited to the next Major. The final stage is the New Champions stage. This stage features an eight team, best of three, single elimination bracket. Teams play until a winner is decided.

Changes were announced for this Major format for the New Challengers and the New Legends stage. Rather than only featuring best of threes in the fifth round for the group stages, ESL announced that any progression or elimination matches would feature a best of three series. Therefore, the high and low matches of round three and all the matches for rounds four and five will be a best of three. Due to time constraints, some matches will be played at the same time when, in the past, every match would be shown on the main stream. Seeding will also be different. Rather than having a determined seeding by placement from the last Major and the Minors, teams will take time to rank the teams they will be playing; the scores will be combined and create the final seeding for the first round. ESL moved away from FACEIT's Buchholz system and instead will use an Elo rating system. Teams will be assigned Elo ratings that match their seeding and the Elo will change after every win or loss, as the winner will take some of the loser's points. Each team's Elo will determine its next matchup rather than having a random draw, as it was done in the past.

Map Pool

The map pool will be kept the same as the previous major.

Maps Cache Dust II Mirage Inferno Nuke Train Overpass

Minors

Each regional qualifier, called "Minors", featured eight teams. Each Minor also had a US$50,000 prize pool, with first place receiving US$30,000, second place taking in US$15,000, and third place raking in the last US$5,000. Unlike past Minors, no teams was directly invited to the Minors. All Minors take place in Katowice to avoid visa issues, just like the FACEIT Major approach.

Each Minor's format was similar to past Minors, but with a couple small changes. The group stages would be a GSL, double elimination format with each group featuring four teams. The opening matches would be a best of one. A new change came along with the winner's set being a best of three instead of the usual best of one. The loser's and decider's matches would also be best of three sets. The top two teams in each group would move on to a four team, best of three, double elimination bracket. The top two teams would move on to the Major. In addition, the Minor finals that used to determine seeding would be eliminated; instead, the winner of the winner's match would be the first seed going into the New Challengers stage and the winner of the loser's match would be the second seed.

CIS Minor

The CIS Minor qualifier featured sixteen teams. Winstrike Team was automatically invited based on its top sixteen placement at the FACEIT Major and another seven teams were invited. Eight more teams qualified through four online qualifiers. The qualifier will have a sixteen team, double elimination bracket and teams will play until eight teams qualified CIS Minor.

The CIS Minor took place from January 16 to 20, 2019.

Teams

• AVANGAR (Closed #1-4)
• Nemiga Gaming (Closed #1-4)
• Team Spirit (Closed #1-4)
• Winstrike Team (Closed #1-4)
• Gambit Esports (Closed #5-8)
• pro100 (Closed #5-8)
• Syman Gaming (Closed #5-8)
• Runtime.gg (Closed #5-8)

First round

Semifinals

IEM Katowice 2019

A1

Team Spirit

0

B2

AVANGAR

2

B2

AVANGAR

2

B1

Winstrike Team

1

B1

Winstrike Team

2

A2

Gambit Esports

1

B2

AVANGAR

Q

A1

Team Spirit

Q

A1

Team Spirit

2

A2

Gambit Esports

0

B1

Winstrike Team

1

A1

Team Spirit

2

CIS Minor summary; Katowice, Poland

Gambit Esports and Syman Gaming kicked off the CIS Minor in Poland. Even after Gambit's shakeups after releasing two of its star players, it was still a stunning upset that Syman was able to knock down Gambit in the opening match. Team Spirit had a 12-5 lead against Nemiga Gaming, but the team from Belarus was able to take it to overtime; however, Spirit able to deny the comeback victory by sweeping the overtime, thanks to Vadim "DavCost" Vasilyev's dominant 35 kills. AVANGAR easily took care of pro100 16-5 as the Kazakh team looked to go back to a Major after over a year. Winstrike Team also looked to head back to the Major after being Legends for one tournament before bombing out at the London Major as the Russian team easily took down a Runtime that was a mix of former top professional players and unproven talent. In the first best of three, Syman and Spirit had a tough battle, but Spirit managed to pull away as Pavel "COLDYY1" Veklenko in the two-game sweep, one of which went to double overtime, to secure a spot in the CIS Minor playoffs. Winstrike also secured a spot after taking two of three over AVANGAR. In the first elimination series, Gambit easily took down Nemiga. In group B, pro100 was able to eliminate Runtime after losing the first map to stay alive. Syman looked to upset Gambit once again and it looked possible after taking the first match. However, Gambit adjusted and cruised to victory in the next to maps to secure a top four spot. In a much closer series, AVANGAR swept pro100 and eliminated the Ukrainian team.

What was supposed to be a fairly even matchup turned into a dominating performance by AVANGAR, winning by at least ten rounds in the 2-0 sweep over Team Spirit. In the second set, Winstrike and Gambit split two maps, both of which were close. On the third map on Dust II, Winstrike looked to take the game after being up 15-12. However, Gambit came back to tie the game and go into overtime. However, Winstrike quickly responded by taking the overtime and guaranteed at least a third place. AVANGAR easily skipped past Winstrike in the first map, but a big comeback win in the second map by Winstrike gave the Russian team a lot of momentum. However, AVANGAR was able to turn things around and put up a similar scoreline as the first map to claim its spot at the Major. In the loser's side, Mikhail "Dosia" Stolyarov and Rustem "mou" Telepov were Major champions just over a year and a half ago, but not they could not get out of the CIS Minor as Spirit put Gambit away for good. Spirit finally qualified for a Major after years of falling short while Winstrike had one more chance to qualify.

Europe Minor

The Europe Minor qualifier featured sixteen teams. mousesports were automatically invited based on their top sixteen placement at the FACEIT Major and another seven teams were invited. Eight more teams qualified through four online qualifiers. The qualifier had a sixteen team, double elimination bracket and teams played until eight teams qualified for the Europe Minor.

The Europe Minor took place from January 16 to 20, 2019. ENCE eSports and Team Vitality qualified for the main qualifier.

Teams

• mousesports (Closed #1-4)
• North (Closed #1-4)
• OpTic Gaming (Closed #1-4)
• Windigo Gaming (Closed #1-4)
• ENCE (Closed #5-8)
• ex-Space Soldiers (Closed #5-8)
• Team Vitality (Closed #5-8)
• Valiance (Closed #5-8)

First round

Semifinals

IEM Katowice 2019

A1

Team Vitality

0

B2

North

2

B2

North

0

B1

ENCE

2

B1

ENCE

2

A2

Valiance

1

B1

ENCE

Q

A1

Team Vitality

Q

A1

Team Vitality

2

A2

Valiance

1

B2

North

1

A1

Team Vitality

2

Europe Minor summary; Katowice, Poland

Team Vitality and OpTic Gaming kicked off the Europe Minor in a match in which neither team had proven itself on the international stage, as Vitality was a fairly newly formed lineup and OpTic was inconsistent even on the smaller stages. After a close first half, Vitality pulled away to take the opening match. In a huge upset in the next match, Valiance took down mousesports on mousesports's signature map of Mirage. Despite Chris "chrisJ" de Jong's 32 kills, Valiance's team effort pulled ahead to take down the favorite to win the Minor. Yaman "yam" Ergenekon made his debut with the former roster of Space Soldiers by top fragging for his team. However, the team itself needed to fix a lot of issues as it was dominated by ENCE. The last initial match was Windigo easily taking down North. A close first half was made possible by Nicklas "gade" Gade, but Windigo's defense seemed impenetrable as North won zero rounds on its terrorist side. On the winner's side, ENCE was able to move past Windigo with relative ease as Aleksi "allu" Jalli was one step closer to heading back to a Major with his young team. On the other side of the winner's matches, Valiance had a 15-13 lead late into the first map, but Vitality took over the game and pulled off a win in overtime. Valiance responded with a win on Inferno, but Vitality demolished Valiance in the decider to book a playoff spot for the Minor. The first match of the second day took mousesports squeezing past OpTic as the Danes were eliminated in a competitive Minor. North was able to take down the struggling ex-Space Soldiers and the Turks were eliminated. Valiance proved that its upset win over mousesports was no fluke as the majority-Serbian team took down the international squad again and eliminated mousesports. The rising Windigo was able to take the first map and North took the second map in the final group stage series. In the decider game, Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså carried his team to victory and North avoided another disappointment.

Vitality looked to continue to put on a good performance lead by their promising young star Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut while North only looked to head back to the Major and regain a Legends spot. In a close best of three, North swept Vitality as North needed to make two big comebacks. Valiance looked to continue its strong momentum and Valiance proved it was prepared after taking the first map and it looked like Valiance's plan of countering the enemies' strategies was working. However, ENCE came back, lead by Jere "sergej" Salo and Jani "Aerial" Jussila, to take the series and move on. A fan favorite, but underdog, of the community, ENCE finally booked a ticket to the Major as the team defeated North. The first map required a small, but tense comeback, as ENCE was down 14-11, but was able to take the game in double overtime. The loser's semifinals was the closest series of any of the Minors at this point. On the first map, Valiance had a 14-5 lead, but eight unanswered rounds from Vitality suddenly made it 14-13. Fortunately for Valiance, it was able to scrape together two more rounds to give the team the map advantage. However, it looked like that Vitality was able to make some adjustments as it took an early 9-2 lead. Despite this, Valiance mad it 11-9 and then 15-13, but the French made it out alive and took the last round to tie up the series. The third map was close all around. Vitality had a 9-6 lead before Valiance swung the score to its favor at 13-11. However, four rounds in a row gave Vitality the lead before Valiance took one more at 15-14. In the thirtieth round, Vitality found an open B bombsite and planted the bomb. While Valiance was able to sweep up the five members of Vitality, the European team went in with the bomb timer ticking down and Vitality won the series with under two seconds to go on the defuse. The decider series had a similar feel to the CIS decider, as North took the first map in a close game, but Vitality bounced back to trample North and qualified for the Major.

Asia Minor

The Asia Minor featured two teams from Oceania, two teams from China, two teams from East Asia, one team from Southeast Asia, and one team from the Middle East. Each qualifier featured four invited teams and another four teams through two online qualifiers. Each qualifier consist of an eight team, double elimination, best of three bracket. MVP PK was the first team to qualify for any Katowice 2019 Minor after defeating compatriot GOSU and Renegades rounded up the Asia Minor lineup after defeating Tainted Minds.

The Asia Minor will take place from January 22 to 26, 2019.

Teams

• Grayhound Gaming (Oceania #1)
• Renegades (Oceania #2)
• ViCi Gaming (China #1)
• CyberZen (China #2)
• MVP PK (East Asia #1)
• GOSU (East Asia #2)
• Beyond Esports (Southeast Asia)
• Aequus Club (Middle East)

First round

Semifinals

IEM Katowice 2019

A1

Renegades

2

B2

ViCi Gaming

1

A1

Renegades

2

A2

Grayhound G.

1

B1

MVP PK

1

A2

Grayhound G.

2

A1

Renegades

Q

A2

Grayhound G.

Q

B2

ViCi Gaming

2

B1

MVP PK

0

A2

Grayhound G.

2

B2

ViCi Gaming

1

Asia Minor summary; Katowice, Poland

The Asia Minor began with the heavy favorites Renegades facing off against the unknown Aequus Club from Israel, and Renegades easily took care of business there 16-7. The other Australian team, Grayhound Gaming, faced off against the dark horse team in CyberZen. After Grayhound took a comfortable lead, CyberZen started to mount a comeback; however, some mistakes by CyberZen in round 26 against a Grayhound team that barely bought into the round lead the Chinese team to stumble and Grayhound secured the win. In group B, GOSU surprisingly took a huge lead against ViCi Gaming 12-3. ViCi finally started to get into a rhythm, but it was too late as GOSU was able to pull off the upset win. In the last opening match, Beyond Esports looked to also pull off an upset over MVP PK, but MVP PK pulled ahead in the second half to easily take the victory. In group A's winner's match, Renegades barely took the win over its compatriots in Grayhound, as both games were decided by two rounds. On the other side, MVP PK took down its own compatriots in GOSU after a very close first game; in the second game, however, MVP easily won to move on to the top four. Aquees looked to surprise the scene after taking a massive lead over CyberZen, but the Chinese team turned on the jets and brought the game all the way back; despite this, Aquees closed out the game. However, CyberZen took the momentum from the almost-comeback and took the next two games with relative ease. Beyond could not get anything going with its redesigned lineup as ViCi easily moved on to the decider's series. Grayhound and CyberZen split the first two maps, both close games. The third map was also close, but after CyberZen tied the game up at 11, Grayhound pulled away, winning the next five of six to face off against MVP PK in the bracket. GOSU looked to upset ViCi again, and the Korean team almost did it again, but ViCi winning a series of unanswered rounds hurt GOSU, including being up 14-5 on the second map at one point, and ViCi would close out the series just barely.

ViCi started the playoffs with a win over the Renegades lead by Zhihong "aumaN" Liu. However, Renegades did not have any problem in the following two maps as the Renegades guaranteed a top three spot in this Minor. What was supposed to be an evenly matched set did not turn out as expected. MVP PK comfortably took the first map, but Grayhound did the same in the next two maps, as neither team struggled too much in its victory. In the loss, only Keun-chul "solo" Kang had a positive kill-death differential. The battle for top three ended in the loser's semifinals. ViCi took an early lead, but MVP PK was able to bring the score back by the end of the first half. ViCi then took match point with a comfortable lead, but MVP PK started to mount a comeback; however, that comeback fell just short and ViCi took the first map. The next map would go in favor of ViCi strongly and the MVP organization's frustrations continued as it ended in another fourth-place finish. Grayhound easily took the first map off of Renegades, but Renegades took the second map as Grayhound looked for the upset. Renegades took a massive 12-3 and then 15-6 lead, but a sudden surge from Grayhound got the team within two rounds. Nevertheless, Renegades managed to find a round to take the top seed at the Minor. ViCi easily took the first map against Grayhound, but the Australians returned the favor with a win of their own. The third map would end up being a close one based on the score, but a dominant win based on the performance. ViCi took a 9-6 lead and then a 12-6 lead. However, Grayhound would then win the next ten of eleven rounds, shutting down ViCi's terrorist side to join Renegades at the Major.

With Renegades and Grayhound qualifying, this would mean that Sean "Gratisfaction"' Kaiwai was the first New Zealander and Erdenetsogt "erkaSt" Gantulga was the first Mongolian to play at a Major. Euan "sterling" Moore also joined Gratisfaction as a New Zealander to play at a Major.

Americas Minor

The Americas Minor featured two qualifiers, one from North America and one from South America. The North America qualifier featured sixteen teams. Eight teams were invited and another eight teams qualified through four online qualifiers. The qualifier would have a sixteen team, double elimination bracket and teams would play until six teams qualified for the Americas Minor. The South America qualifier featured eight teams. Four teams were invited and another four teams qualified through two online qualifiers. This qualifier have an eight team, double elimination, best of three bracket. Teams would play until two teams qualified for the Minor.

The Americas Minor took place from January 22 to 26, 2019, the same dates as the Asia Minor.

Teams

• eUnited (NA #1-4)
• FURIA Esports (NA #1-4)
• NRG Esports (NA #1-4)
• Team Envy (NA #1-4)
• Bravado Gaming (NA #5-6)
• Team One (NA #5-6)
• INTZ eSports (SA #1)
• Imperial e-Sports (SA #2)

First round

Semifinals

IEM Katowice 2019

A1

NRG Esports

2

B2

Team Envy

0

A1

NRG Esports

2

B1

FURIA Esports

0

B1

FURIA Esports

2

A2

INTZ eSports

1

A1

NRG Esports

Q

B1

FURIA Esports

Q

B2

Team Envy

2

A2

INTZ eSports

1

B1

FURIA Esports

2

B2

Team Envy

0

Americas Minor summary; Katowice, Poland

NRG Esports easily took down Imperial e-Sports 16-8 to start off the Americas Minor. Bravado Gaming was able to upset INTZ eSports after a fairly close game as the South African team looked to head back to a Major. Team Envy won its first Major-related game after its new branding as the Americans completely shut down Brazil's Team One. FURIA Esports was able to upset the favorite to win the group eUnited as FURIA looked to join MIBR at the Major to represent Brazil. In the first winner's match, NRG easily took down Bravado to head to the top four as NRG looked to make its first Major despite being a top American team for a while. In group B's winner's match, FURIA took down Envy after some close games to make it to the playoff stage. After dominating the Minor qualifier, eUnited's run to the Major ended in a letdown as Team One was able to come back from a nine-round deficit in the first map and then used that drive to easily take the second map as eUnited were sent home. Meanwhile, INTZ was able to take down Imperial, but the victory came at more of a struggle than anticipated as Imperial was able to take a map. In group A's decider, INTZ had a fairly easy time taking down Bravado as the South African dream came to an end amidst Bravado's financial troubles of keeping the team in the United States. The last Katowice Minor group stage set was an extremely close one. The first map went in favor of Team One cleanly. In the second map on Dust II, Envy's new in-game leader Finn "karrigan" Andersen was about to lead Envy to evening the series, but a small and sudden surge from Team One sent the game to overtime. After the game was tied at 17, Envy was able to clutch it out to send it to a third map. At first, Team One's 13-9 lead seemed to be sufficient, but Envy was able to bring it back to tie the game at 14. After some very close rounds, Envy's persistence beat out that of Team One and Envy moved on.

The favorites to win the Minor, NRG Esports, took one step closer to the Major after defeating Team Envy after Cvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov went big for his team. In the Brazilian battle, FURIA joined NRG after defeating INTZ in three maps. Kaike "kscerato" Cerato, after being rumored of being transferred to MIBR, had 14 more kills than the next closest player's kill count. After struggling for much of ESL Pro League Season 8, Team Envy looked like it found its groove as it demolished INTZ 16-2 on the first map, but in the second map, after a 11-4 lead, INTZ scored 12 unanswered rounds to take the second map. The third map featured a close first half, but Tayler "Drone" Johnson's 25 kills helped Envy send INTZ back home. NRG finally secured a Major spot after many unsuccessful attempts after taking down FURIA in two maps as it was led by Ethan "nahtE" Arnold. FURIA easily took down Envy in the decider set with the score of 16-2. The second map proved to be a lot closer, but Rinaldo "AbleJ" Moda Junior's 24 kills lead FURIA to close out the map with ten rounds in a row to become just the third South American team to play at a Major.

With NRG Esports qualifying, this meant Cvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov was the first Bulgarian to play at a Major.

Minor play-in

This qualifier featured the teams that placed third in their respective Minors. This phase was a four team, best of three, double elimination bracket. The opening matches were the Asia Minor representative against the Europe Minor representative and the CIS Minor team versus the Americans Minor team.

The Minor play-in took place on January 27, 2019.

Teams

• Winstrike Team
• North
• ViCi Gaming
• Team Envy

First round

Semifinals

IEM Katowice 2019

AS

ViCi Gaming

1

EU

North

0

AS

ViCi Gaming

0

CIS

Winstrike Team

1

CIS

Winstrike Team

1

AM

Team Envy

0

CIS

Winstrike Team

Q

AS

ViCi Gaming

Q

EU

North

2

AM

Team Envy

0

AS

ViCi Gaming

2

EU

North

0

Minor play-in summary; Katowice, Poland

The first game of the day featured a major upset, with ViCi taking down North 16-8 as Philip "aizy" Aistrup struggled massively for his team with just eight kills. Winstrike demolished Team Envy 16-4 as the veteran Jan "wayLander" Rahkonen had 29 kills to lead the Russian team. The winner's match was a very close one as both teams knew one more win would send them to the top twenty-four at the Major. In the back and forth affair, Winstrike came out on top 16-14 Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov and his team were able to outlast the impact Zhihong "aumaN" Liu had for ViCi and Winstrike headed to its third consecutive Major. North was able to take a 13-2 lead against Envy in the first best of three in the elimination match and was able to close out the map despite a small comeback attempt from the American side. The second map was fairly close, but Envy could not get its foot completely off the ground as North looked to seek revenge against ViCi. The first map was a close one. After falling behind 9-6 after the first half, North was able to take a 12-10 lead. However, ViCi's star Wing Hei "Freeman" Cheung was able to lead his team to take the final six rounds and the Chinese team looked to join TyLoo as Asia's representatives. North got off to a very good start in the first half of the second map, ending the score with 11-4, including taking 11 of the last 12 rounds. That lead turned into 12-6, but ViCi were suddenly able to tie it up at 12 and then the game went to overtime at 15-15. More back and forth ensued until the game reached double overtime. Lead by Freeman and Andrew "kaze" Khong, ViCi were able to barely pull out the victory and send North home. Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså and Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye tried to carry North to a win, but the rest of their team fell behind.

With ViCi Gaming qualifying, this meant Wing Hei "Freeman" Cheung was the first player from Hong Kong to play at a Major.

Broadcast talent

Desk hosts

• Alex "Machine" Richardson
• Tres "stunna" Saranthus

Stage host

• OJ Borg

Reporter

• Frankie Ward

Commentators

• Henry "HenryG" Greer
• Vince Hill
• Jason "moses" O'Toole
• Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett
• Analysts and desk hosts also filled in as commentators

Analysts

• Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill
• Sean "seang@res" Gares
• Jacob "Pimp" Winneche

Observers

• Connor "Sliggy" Blomfield
• Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo
• David "Prius" Kuntz
• Alex "Rushly" Rush

Broadcasts

The major is streamed in various languages across Twitch. It is also streamed on ESL's YouTube channel, Steam.tv, and on CS:GO's in-game viewing client GOTV.

ESL CSGO ESL CSGOb ESL Brazil ESL France ESL Poland ESL Spain ESL 99Damage ESL Czech Republic ESL Hungary ESL Turkey ESL Latin America ESL Supreme League csruhub rtparenacsgo HFTVRed 500BROS Huomao

Teams competing

Legends

• Astralis
• Natus Vincere
• MIBR
• Team Liquid
• BIG
• compLexity Gaming
• FaZe Clan
• HellRaisers

London 2018 9th-14th

• Fnatic
• G2 Esports
• Ninjas in Pyjamas
• Cloud9
• TyLoo
• Vega Squadron

Regional Qualifiers

• AVANGAR (CIS Minor #1)
• Team Spirit (CIS Minor #2)
• ENCE (Europe Minor #1)
• Team Vitality (Europe Minor #2)
• Renegades (Asia Minor #1)
• Grayhound Gaming (Asia Minor #2)
• NRG Esports (Americas Minor #1)
• FURIA Esports (Americas Minor #2)
• Winstrike Team (Play-in #1)
• ViCi Gaming (Play-in #2)

Top twenty players in the tournament

The top 20 players of 2018 were ranked by HLTV.org. Below is the list of players in the top 20 who are participating in the Major. This list was significant in that it was the first time that all five players from the same team were ranked in the top 20, as Astralis dominated 2018. Of the top twenty, Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný (#14), Miikka "suNny" Kemppi (#16), and Robin "ropz" Kool (#19), all from mousesports, did not qualify for the Major. Players who dropped out of the top 20 from 2016 include Fernando "fer" Alvarenga (#3, Brazil, SK Gaming/MIBR), Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo (#6, Brazil, SK Gaming/MIBR), Kenny "kennyS" Schrub (#7, France, G2 Esports), Abay "Hobbit" Khasenov (#11, Kazakhstan, Gambit Esports), Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke (#14, Denmark, OpTic Gaming), Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye (#15, Denmark, North), Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev (#17, Kazakhstan, Gambit Esports), Ricardo "boltz" Prass (#18, Brazil, Immortals/SK Gaming/MIBR), Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer (#19, Sweden, FaZe Clan), and Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski (#20, Poland, Virtus.pro/mousesports)

Most achievements have whether the player was the most valuable player of the tournament (MVP) or an extremely valuable player in the tournament (EVP).

HLTV.org Top 20 Players of 2018

World Ranking
Rank	Name	Age	Team†	Move‡	Highest rank	Achievements
1	s1mple	21	Natus Vincere	7	1 (2018)	Six time MVP (ESL One Cologne, StarSeries S4 and S5), four time EVP
2	device	23	Astralis	3	2 (2018)	FACEIT Major winner, seven time MVP (FACEIT Major, ECS S5 and S6, EPL S8 MVP), eight time EVP, set record for most MVPs in one year
3	NiKo	21	FaZe Clan	1	2 (2017)	ESL One Belo Horizonte MVP, EPICENTER 2018 MVP, nine time EVP
4	electronic	20	Natus Vincere	NEW	4 (2018)	Nine time EVP
5	dupreeh	25	Astralis	5	5 (2018)	FACEIT Major: London 2018 winner, ESL Pro League S7 MVP, ten time EVP
6	NAF	21	Team Liquid	NEW	6 (2018)	cs_summit 2 MVP, SuperNova Malta MVP, nine time EVP, highest ranked North American player all time
7	Magisk	20	Astralis	NEW	7 (2018)	FACEIT Major winner, BLAST Pro Series: Lisbon 2018 MVP, nine time EVP
8	gla1ve	23	Astralis	NEW	8 (2018)	FACEIT Major: London 2018 winner, nine time EVP
9	KRiMZ	24	Fnatic	NEW	7 (2015)	WESG 2017 MVP, four time EVP
10	coldzera	24	MIBR, SK Gaming	9	1 (2016, 2017)	Seven time EVP
11	GuardiaN	27	FaZe Clan	2	2 (2015)	IEM Sydney 2018 MVP, four time EVP, only player to be featured on all lists
12	Twistzz	19	Team Liquid	NEW	12 (2018)	ESL One New York 2018 MVP, five time EVP, first Canadian to be listed
13	Xyp9x	23	Astralis		13 (2017, 2018)	FACEIT Major: London 2018 winner, ten time EVP
15	ELiGE	21	Team Liquid	3	12 (2017)	Nine time EVP
17	autimatic	22	Cloud9	NEW	17 (2018)	ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018 winner, four time EVP
18	rain	24	FaZe Clan	14	4 (2017)	Four time EVP
19	ropz	19	mousesports	NEW	19 (2018)	Four time EVP, first Estonian player to be on list
20	valde	23	North	NEW	20 (2018)	DreamHack Valencia 2018 MVP, four time EVP

^†Teams on this list are based on the teams the players played for during 2018

^‡From 2017

Pre-Major ranking

HLTV.org rank teams based on results of teams' performances. The rankings shown below reflect the February 11, 2019 rankings.

The HLTV.org World Ranking ranks the best teams in the competitive field of the game. The world ranking is based on teams' achievements over the past year (with severe decay in points throughout each month), recent form over the last 2 months, and performance at the last 10 LAN events. All of that is predicated around a 3-man core each team is required to have in order to retain their past points. Points cap at 1000 points. The rankings started with the last season's Katowice World Championship, in which Fnatic defeated FaZe Clan and concluded with Astralis defeating Team Liquid at ESL Pro League Season 8.

Teams that were in the top 30 but failed to qualify for the major include North (#7, Denmark), mousesports (#10, Europe), Ghost Gaming (#16, United States), Valiance (#20, Serbia), 3DMAX (#24, France), Heroic (#25, Denmark), forZe (#26, Russia), Luminosity Gaming (#27, Brazil), Sprout Esports (#29, Germany), and x6tence Galaxy (#30, Sweden).

HLTV.org pre-major ranking

World ranking
Place	Team	Points	Move1	Peak2	Low2	Best Major placing3	Best achievements2
1	Astralis	933		1	1	1st at Atlanta 2017 1st at London 2018	IEM Chicago 2018 winner ECS Season 6 winner ESL Pro League Season 8 winner
2	Team Liquid	576	1	2	3	2nd at Cologne 2016	IEM Chicago 2018 runner-up ESL One New York runner-up ESL Pro League Season 8 runner-up
3	Natus Vincere	384	1	2	3	2nd at Cluj-Napoca 2015 2nd at Columbus 2016 2nd at London 2018	BLAST Copenhagen winner EPICENTER 2018 runner-up
4	FaZe Clan	4327	1	4	8	2nd at Boston 2018	EPICENTER 2018 winner 3rd at IEM Chicago 2018 ELEAGUE Invitational 2019 winner
5	NRG Esports	265		5	10	1st at Katowice 2019 Americas Minor	cs_summit 3 winner 3rd at ESL One New York 2018 3rd at SL iL Season 6
6	Fnatic	265		5	26	1st at Winter 2013 1st at Katowice 2015 1st Cologne 2015	PLG Grand Slam 2018 winner 3rd at IEM Chicago 2018
8	Cloud9	208	13	7	29	1st at Boston 2018	3rd at BLAST Lisbon 2018 ELEAGUE Invitational 2019 runner-up
9	MIBR	187	5	4	9	1st at Columbus 2016 1st at Cologne 2016	ECS Season 6 runner-up BLAST Istanbul 2018 runner-up
11	ENCE	182	6	10	20	1st at Katowice 2019 Europe Minor	DreamHack Winter 2018 winner SL iL Season 6 winner
12	BIG	178	4	7	15	5th at Kraków 2017 5th at London 2018	5th at SL iL Season 6 3rd at cs_summit 3
13	Renegades	166	10	11	30	9th at Cologne 2015	5th at SL iL Season 6 3rd at Toyota Masters Bangkok 2018
14	Ninjas in Pyjamas	163	5	6	14	1st at Cologne 2014	BLAST Copenhagen runner-up 5th at EPICENTER 2018
15	Team Vitality	162	N/A	14	45	2nd at Katowice 2019 Europe Minor	DreamHack Atlanta 2018 winner
17	Team Spirit	115	17	17	56	17th at London 2018	5th at WePlay! Lock and Load
18	AVANGAR	114	15	15	31	17th at Boston 2018	3rd at EPICENTER 2018 Qi Invitational runner-up
19	G2 Esports	109	4	4	25	5th at Boston 2018	5th at ESL One New York 2018 7th at ESL Pro League Season 8
21	HellRaisers	101	11	10	21	5th at London 2018	5th at EPICENTER 2018
22	Grayhound Gaming	82	23	22	68	2nd at Katowice 2019 Asia Minor	3rd at ESEA Season 29 9th at PLG Grand Slam
23	FURIA Esports	80	56	21	85	2nd at Katowice 2018 Americas Minor	5th at WePlay! Lock and Load
28	Winstrike Team	178	276	27	304	1st at Katowice 2019 play-in	9th at WePlay! Lock and Load
35	ViCi Gaming	–	110	35	145	2nd at Katowice 2019 play-in	13th at ESL Pro League Season 8
39	compLexity Gaming	–	18	11	39	5th at London 2018	3rd at DreamHack Atlanta 2018 4th at cs_summit 3
53	Vega Squadron	–	13	13	53	9th at Boston 2018	SL iL Season 6 runner-up
67	TyLoo	–	55	12	67	12th at London 2018	DreamHack Open Austin 2018 runner-up

¹Change since September 24, 2018 ranking, the ranking after the FACEIT Major.

²Since end of FACEIT Major

³Best major placements may not necessarily reflect teams' current rosters

The following list shows the relevant tournaments to the rankings. From top to bottom, the tournament becomes more relevant to the rankings. Those in gold indicates the tournament was a Major, meaning Valve, the developers of the game, sponsored the tournament to host a CS:GO Major. A premier tournament means it offers an outstanding prize pool, is frequently played offline, and features the best players from all over the world. A major tournament simply means the tournament features a large prize pool and a good number of top teams; the major tournaments that are shown below are only shown because a team from the major participated in the event. This list also shows where the tournament took place, the number of teams at the tournament, the winner and runner-up, prize pool, and – if applicable – the most valuable player of the tournament.

Relevant tournaments

Tournament	Location	Teams	Winner	Runner-Up	Prize Pool	MVP1
Intel Extreme Masters Season XII – World Championship	Katowice	16	Fnatic	Faze Clan	US$500,000	flusha
World Electronic Sports Games 2017	Haikou	32	Fnatic	Space Soldiers	US$1,500,000	KRiMZ
V4 Future Sports Festival	Budapest	8	mousesports	Virtus.pro	US$597,000	oskar
DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018	Marseille	16	Astralis	Natus Vincere	US$250,000	gla1ve
Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII - Sydney	Sydney	16	FaZe Clan	Astralis	US$250,000	GuardiaN
ESEA Season 27: Global Challenge	Leicester	8	BIG	Team Spirit	US$50,000
ESL Pro League Season 7	Dallas	40	Astralis	Team Liquid	~US$1,593,478.93	dupreeh
DreamHack Open Tours 2018	Tours	8	North	HellRaisers	US$100,000	ISSAA
Adrenaline Cyber League 2018	Moscow	4	SK Gaming	AVANGAR	US$100,000
StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 5	Kiev	16	Natus Vincere	NRG Esports	US$300,000	s1mple
DreamHack Open Austin 2018	Austin	8	Space Soldiers	Rogue	US$100,000
Esports Championship Series Season 5	London	20	Astralis	Team Liquid	US$840,000	dev1ce
ESL One Belo Horizonte 2018	Belo Horizonte	8	FaZe Clan	mousesports	US$200,000	NiKo
CS:GO Asia Championships 2018	Shanghai	8	Natus Vincere	Virtus.pro	US$300,000	s1mple
DreamHack Open Summer 2018	Jönköping	8	Imperial	OpTic Gaming	US$100,000	EspiranTo
ESL One Cologne 2018	Cologne	16	Natus Vincere	BIG	US$300,000	s1mple
DreamHack Open Valencia 2018	Valencia	8	North	Luminosity Gaming	US$100,000	v4lde
ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018	Atlanta	8	Astralis	Team Liquid	US$1,000,000	dev1ce
Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII – Shanghai	Shanghai	8	NRG Esports	TyLoo	US$250,000	CeRq
ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018	Hong Kong	8	MIBR	Team Kinguin	US$300,000	FalleN
DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018	Stockholm	16	North	Astralis	US$250,000	v4lde
FACEIT Major: London 2018	London	24	Astralis	Natus Vincere	US$1,000,000	dev1ce
ESL One New York 2018	New York City	8	mousesports	Team Liquid	US$250,000	Twistzz2
BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018	Istanbul	6	Astralis	MIBR	US$250,000	dev1ce
StarSeries & i-League Season 6	Kiev	16	ENCE	Vega Squadron	US$300,000	sergej
eXTREMESLAND ZOWIE Asia CS:GO 2018	Shanghai	16	MVP PK	NASR	US$100,000	dev1ce
EPICENTER 2018	Moscow	8	FaZe Clan	Natus Vincere	US$295,000	NiKo
BLAST Pro Series: Copenhagen 2018	Copenhagen	6	Natus Vincere	Ninjas in Pyjamas	US$250,000	s1mple
cs_summit 3	Los Angeles	8	NRG Esports	OpTic Gaming	US$100,000	Brehze
Esports Championship Series Season 6	Arlington	24	Astralis	MIBR	US$750,000	dev1ce
SuperNova Malta 2018	St. Julian's	8	Team Liquid	NRG Esports	US$150,000	NAF
ESEA Season 29: Global Challenge	Dallas	8	3DMAX	Team Kinguin	US$50,000
ESL Pro League Season 8	Odense	54	Astralis	Team Liquid	US$1,000,000+	dev1ce
BLAST Pro Series: Lisbon 2018	Lisbon	6	Astralis	Natus Vincere	US$250,000	Magisk
PLG Grand Slam 2018	Abu Dhabi	16	Fnatic	G2 Esports	US$100,000
iBUYPOWER Masters IV	Los Angeles	8	Team Liquid	Astralis	US$200,000	NAF
ELEAGUE CS:GO Invitational 2019	Atlanta	4	FaZe Clan	Cloud9	US$150,000

¹ Official MVPs are listed. However, most tournaments do not give out official MVPs, so many of the MVPs listed are HLTV.org's MVP.

² Although mousesports won the event, HLTV.org awarded the MVP to Team Liquid's Twistzz

New Challengers stage

The New Challengers stage took place from February 13 to February 17, 2019 at the ESL Arena. The Challengers stage, also known as the Preliminary stage and formerly known as the offline qualifier, was a sixteen team swiss tournament. The seeding was released on February 6, 2019. Next to each team's name under the "Team" column is each team's initial seeding. Under each of the "Rounds" columns are the team's opponent's seed at the time the round was played.

Place	Team	Record	RD	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5
1–2	NRG Esports (2)	3-0	+22	Winstrike Team (15) 16-9 Nuke	High match ViCi Gaming (12) 16-6 Overpass	High match TyLoo (6) 2-0	New Legends stage	New Legends stage
	Renegades (9)	3-0	+22	AVANGAR (8) 16-8 Train	High match Ninjas in Pyjamas (3) 16-13 Mirage	High match ENCE eSports (2) 2-0	New Legends stage	New Legends stage
3–5	Team Vitality (6)	3-1	+16	TyLoo (11) 8-16 Inferno	Low match Grayhound Gaming (15) 19-17 Nuke	Mid match Vega Squadron (11) 16-1 Overpass	High match ViCi Gaming (11) 2-0	New Legends stage
	AVANGAR (8)	3-1	+6	Renegades (9) 8-16 Train	Low match FURIA Esports (14) 16-14 Mirage	Mid match G2 Esports (7) 16-10 Overpass	High match TyLoo (7) 2-0	New Legends stage
	ENCE eSports (5)	3-1	+4	Team Spirit (12) 16-10 Nuke	High match G2 Esports (6) 16-6 Overpass	High match Renegades (5) 0-2	High match Winstrike Team (12) 2-1	New Legends stage
6–8	Ninjas in Pyjamas (4)	3-2	+20	FURIA Esports (13) 16-6 Mirage	High match Renegades (8) 13-16 Mirage	Mid match Winstrike Team (13) 6-16 Train	Low match Vega Squadron (13) 2-1	ViCi Gaming (11) 2-1
	G2 Esports (7)	3-2	+16	Vega Squadron (10) 16-14 Cache	High match ENCE eSports (4) 6-16 Overpass	Mid match AVANGAR (10) 16-10 Overpass	Low match Fnatic (10) 2-1	TyLoo (10) 2-1
	Cloud9 (3)	3-2	0	Grayhound Gaming (14) 16-11 Mirage	High match TyLoo (9) 3-16 Overpass	Mid match ViCi Gaming (12) 6-16 Inferno	Low match FURIA Esports (14) 2-1	Winstrike Team (8) 2-0
9–11	Winstrike Team (15)	2-3	-3	NRG Esports (2) 9-16 Nuke	Low match Fnatic (5) 16-11 Train	Mid match Ninjas in Pyjamas (3) 16-6 Train	High match ENCE eSports (3) 1-2	Cloud9 (9) 0-2
	TyLoo (11)	2-3	-9	Team Vitality (6) 16-8 Inferno	High match Cloud9 (2) 16-3 Overpass	High match NRG Esports (1) 0-2	High match AVANGAR (8) 0-2	G2 Esports (7) 1-2
	ViCi Gaming (16)	2-3	-12	Fnatic (1) 16-9 Train	High match NRG Esports (1) 6-16 Overpass	Mid match Cloud9 (4) 16-6 Inferno	High match Team Vitality (5) 0-2	Ninjas in Pyjamas (6) 1-2
12–14	FURIA Esports (13)	1-3	-9	Ninjas in Pyjamas (4) 6-16 Mirage	Low match AVANGAR (10) 14-16 Mirage	Low match Team Spirit (14) 2-0	Low match Cloud9 (14) 1-2	Eliminated
	Fnatic (1)	1-3	-11	ViCi Gaming (16) 9-16 Overpass	Low match Winstrike Team (16) 11-16 Train	Low match Grayhound Gaming (16) 2-0	Low match G2 Esports (9) 1-2	Eliminated
	Vega Squadron (10)	1-3	-26	G2 Esports (7) 14-16 Cache	Low match Team Spirit (13) 16-14 Mirage	Mid match Team Vitality (8) 1-16 Overpass	Low match Ninjas in Pyjamas (6) 1-2	Eliminated
15–16	Team Spirit (12)	0-3	-17	ENCE eSports (5) 10-16 Nuke	Low match Vega Squadron (11) 14-16 Mirage	Low match FURIA Esports (15) 0-2	Eliminated	Eliminated
	Grayhound Gaming (14)	0-3	-19	Cloud9 (3) 11-16 Mirage	Low match Team Vitality (7) 17-19 Nuke	Low match Fnatic (9) 0-2	Eliminated	Eliminated

Round 3 scores

Round 3 matches
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
ENCE eSports	7	Nuke	16	Renegades
ENCE eSports	14	Mirage	16	Renegades
ENCE eSports	–	Inferno	–	Renegades
Fnatic	16	Inferno	9	Grayhound Gaming
Fnatic	16	Overpass	11	Grayhound Gaming
Fnatic	–	Mirage	–	Grayhound Gaming
NRG Esports	16	Inferno	14	TyLoo
NRG Esports	16	Mirage	13	TyLoo
NRG Esports	–	Train	–	TyLoo
Team Spirit	9	Mirage	16	FURIA Esports
Team Spirit	14	Nuke	16	FURIA Esports
Team Spirit	–	Cache	–	FURIA Esports

Round 4 scores

Round 4 matches
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Team Vitality	25	Inferno	22	ViCi Gaming
Team Vitality	16	Nuke	12	ViCi Gaming
Team Vitality	–	Overpass	–	ViCi Gaming
TyLoo	12	Cache	16	AVANGAR
TyLoo	14	Inferno	16	AVANGAR
TyLoo	–	Mirage	–	AVANGAR
ENCE eSports	16	Dust II	11	Winstrike Team
ENCE eSports	7	Mirage	16	Winstrike Team
ENCE eSports	16	Train	13	Winstrike Team
Ninjas in Pyjamas	17	Overpass	19	Vega Squadron
Ninjas in Pyjamas	16	Train	6	Vega Squadron
Ninjas in Pyjamas	16	Mirage	6	Vega Squadron
G2 Esports	8	Mirage	16	Fnatic
G2 Esports	16	Dust II	8	Fnatic
G2 Esports	16	Overpass	5	Fnatic
Cloud9	1	Mirage	16	FURIA Esports
Cloud9	16	Inferno	1	FURIA Esports
Cloud9	16	Cache	10	FURIA Esports

Round 5 scores

Round 5 matches
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Ninjas in Pyjamas	16	Train	7	ViCi Gaming
Ninjas in Pyjamas	13	Inferno	16	ViCi Gaming
Ninjas in Pyjamas	16	Mirage	7	ViCi Gaming
G2 Esports	12	Mirage	16	TyLoo
G2 Esports	16	Dust II	2	TyLoo
G2 Esports	16	Cache	7	TyLoo
Cloud9	16	Nuke	7	Winstrike Team
Cloud9	19	Overpass	16	Winstrike Team
Cloud9	–	Mirage	–	Winstrike Team

New Challengers stage summary

They heavy favorite in the New Challengers stage Fnatic kicked off the Major against the 16th seeded ViCi Gaming. ViCi got off to hot 8-1 start before Fnatic recovered by the end and trailed only 6-9. Starting in the second half, it looked like Fnatic was looking to take it after taking the first two gun rounds. However, ViCi changed up some strategies and then ran over the top seeded Swedes and an upset happened in the very first match of the Major. Although Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson had a massive game for Fnatic with 24 kills, the rest of his team fell behind, including Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin with just 16 kills and 20 deaths. Weijie "zhokiNg" Zhong had 26 kills and Zhuo "advent" Liang had 25 to lead ViCi while not needing Andrew "kaze" Khong to go on a superstar performance as he normally does. What was supposed to be a tightly contested map turned to a fairly convincing win. Renegades took a 9-6 lead at the end of the first half over AVANGAR. The teams switched sides and Renegades overran AVANGAR on its terrorist side; the turning point was arguably when Ali "Jame" Djami unscoped his AWP when Sean "Gratisfaction"' Kaiwai peeked around a corner with just twelve seconds left with the bomb. Aaron "AZR" Ward lead the server with 24 kills. Alexey "qikert" Golubev and Jame lead the way with 17 kills for AVANGAR, but Timur "buster" Tulepov, after an impressive Boston Major, struggled with just six kills. Cloud9 got off to a hot start against Grayhound Gaming with a 6-0 lead, which included two 1 vs 3 clutches by the newcomer Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro and the veteran Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey Grayhound did keep it close, including winning five unanswered in the second half to keep it within one, but Cloud9 took the match to progress to the 1-0 phase. kioShiMa lead all players with 27 kills while three players on Grayhound had 19 kills, with Chris "dexter" Nong being the highest rated player on the team. Nobody knew how TyLoo would do at the Major since the team played at zero tournaments since December, but, lead by YuLun "Summer" Cai, the newly formed TyLoo lineup had zero trouble once it got to its counter-terrorist side. Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt had 22 kills to lead Team Vitality, but its star player Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut struggled with just 15 kills as the Chinese team took the win. ENCE eSports and Team Spirit was next. While initially close, ENCE was able to pull away at the end of the map with Jere "sergej" Salo and Jani "Aerial" Jussila leading with 21 kills. Dmitry "S0tF1k" Forostyanko and Vadim "DavCost" Vasilyev also had 21 kills for Spirit, but the Russian team could not go toe-to-toe with the Finns. Vega tried to surprise the world again with an upset over G2 and it started well with a 9-6 lead at the half. However, G2 had an even better terrorist side in the second half as Kenny "kennyS" Schrublooked like he had returned to his old self with 29 kills and Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro, who had faced criticism for underperforming, had 26. Igor "crush" Shevchenko had 25 for Vega, but the team fell just short. FURIA Esports came in as a dark horse, especially with Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato on the team, but the team struggled against the veterans in Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) as Fredrik "REZ" Sterner and Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson lead all players in kills. KSCERATO played well, but the rest of his team struggled. NRG Esports' debut on the Major was a good one as Ethan "Ethan" Arnold went huge with 24 kills and Cvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov followed up with 21. Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov and Georgi "WorldEdit" Yaskin had 17 kills each, but Winstrike Team's second half was flat.

Vega took an early lead over its Russian compatriots, but Spirit took the next eight of ten rounds before Vega made it close again at the half. However, Spirit pulled away again and took a 14-11 lead. Vega then turned on the jets and suddenly took the next five rounds to close out the messy game. Pavel "COLDYY1" Veklenko and Victor "somedieyoung" Orudzhev had a huge game for Spirit, but the combination of Dmitriy "jR" Chervak, Pavel "hutji" Lashkov, and Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov allowed Vega to squeeze past. On the B stream, Grayhound bounced back from a close loss against Cloud9 and took a 13-2 lead over Vitality. However, Vitality won a few rounds in a row and then took advantage of Grayhound's inexperience. Grayhound eventually got to match point late into the game, but Vitality tied the game right up to send the game to overtime. Grayhound got a round on the seemingly-elusive terrorist side to possibly to it in an advantage, but Vitality adjusted its strategies and took two terrorist rounds to complete the comeback. Dan "apEX" Madesclaire had the best performance out of anyone with 36 kills and ZywOo bounced back with 33. Oliver "DickStacy" Tierney also broke the 30 barrier and Chris "dexter"' Nong and Euan "sterling" Moore had 23 kills each, but the Australian team could not hold on in the end. Fnatic was upset once again as the Swedes could not get anything going against Winstrike as they fell 2-13 at the first half. Fnatic nearly came back, but a 1 vs. 3 clutch by Boombl4 spurred Winstrike to finish the game in a win. Although Richard "Xizt" Landström was the highest rated player for Fnatic, the rest of Fnatic was shut down. Jan "wayLander" Rahkonen had 23 kills in the win. Another comeback took place on the other side as AVANGAR came back from a 8-1 deficit and read FURIA's terrorist strategies well towards the end as the last few rounds were shut down. Jame and Bektiyar "fitch" Bahytov were able to make the comeback possible with 27 and 21 kills, respectively. Andrei "arT" Piovezan had 23 kills and KSCERATO had 20, but Yuri "yuurih" Santos only had 13 kills to the loss. TyLoo continued it surprise run by defeating Cloud9 in dominating fashion. The two Indonesians showed up as Kevin "xccurate" Susanto had 20 kills and Hansel "BnTeT" Ferdinand had 19, with Haowen "somebody" Xu also at 19. Will "RUSH" Wierzba had 13 kills, but Cloud9 struggled, including the top 20 player Timothy "autimatic" Ta with just 6 kills. G2 looked to go up to two wins and it won the second round with a weak buy and went up 2-1. However, ENCE won twelve unanswered and closed the half with a 13-2 lead. G2 performed better on its counter-terrorist side, but the lead was too much and ENCE easily took the map. The veteran Aleksi "allu" Jalli and the two young players sergej and Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen had 20 kills each in the win. Audric "JaCkz" Jug and Lucas "Lucky" Chastang had 13 kills each in their second ever Major game, but the Finns dominated in the end. NRG came out swinging against ViCi and took an easy win over the Chinese as ViCi could not take down another top seed. Ethan and Jacob "FugLy" Medina in the dominating win. Zhuo "advent" Liang only had one kill for the majority of the map and ViCi's start player Wing Hei "Freeman" Cheung also struggled with just 8 while zhokiNg did well with 14. Renegades's three weeks of bootcamp paid off as the Australians went up 2-0 against NiP. Although NiP mounted a comeback when Renegades reached map point, a hit on the A bombsite completely ran over NiP's defense and Renegades took the win. The three veterans in NiP – Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg, Christopher "GeT RiGhT" Alesund, and Dennis "dennis" Edman – all had good games, but REZ and Lekr0 struggled after a good first game. AZR and Jay "Liazz" Tregillgas had crucial kills for Renegades in the win to conclude day 1.

Vitality started day 2 with a romp over Vega 16-1, as the French took twelve unanswered to close out the game. All of Vega performed poorly, including Anton "tonyblack" Kolesnikov, who was the best performing player for Vega, as nobody broke double digits for the team. G2 could not replicate the performance of its French compatriots as they team fell to AVANGAR. While Richard "shox" Papillon did well, the rest of G2 struggled and buster for AVANGAR had a big game with 27 kills. Winstrike took advantage of NiP banning to one of its strongest maps as, aside from f0rest, the Swedes could not get much done. Aurimas "Kvik" Kvaksis had 29 kills for Winstrike and only David "n0rb3r7" Danielyan underperformed in the game. The pick that many chose to go 0-3 moved on to the high ground of round 4 ViCi dominated Cloud9 on Inferno. Although legendary player Robin "flusha" Rönnquist kept pace with ViCi with 21 kills, everyone one else on Cloud9 stumbled. ViCi's two star players came alive and Zhihong "aumaN" Liu contributed with 20 kills. Renegades finally made it to the top 16 after years of turmoil and the Australians took down fan favorite ENCE as Justin "jks" Savage had a massive series with 51 kills across the two maps while Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad's supportive role proved to be vital. Fnatic stayed alive and avoided another upset after taking down Renegades' compatriots Grayhound. While Jesper "JW" Wecksell did not have the best series, KRiMZ and Brollan stepped up to counter the likes of dexter and sterling. Erdenetsogt "erkaSt" Gantulga and Liam "malta" Schembri struggled in the loss and Grayhound was eliminated. FURIA had another massive counter-terrorist side on Mirage, but struggled again on its terrorist side. Spirit started to mount a big comeback, garnering 7 rounds in the second half, but the lead was too much and FURIA closed it out. Spirit took a 12-6 lead on the second map and looked to tie up the series, but FURIA won seven unanswered to take the lead. Spirit won two to take back the lead, but FURIA managed to take the series and stay alive. Dmitriy "Dima" Bandurka had 40 kills across the two maps for Spirit, but he struggled on the second map in the losing effort. Damian "daps" Steele lead NRG to a very close win over TyLoo, as Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte had a massive set with 72 kills over two maps.

Vitality and ViCi kicked off round four. ViCi was able to take a 10-5 lead at the end of the first half and then went up 14-7 and looked to pull off another upset. However, eight unanswered rounds from Vitality suddenly gave the French match point, but ViCi managed to snag the thirtieth round to send the game to overtime. A back and forth affair took the game to triple overtime, where Vitality pulled off the win. kaze had 42 kills, but ZywOo was able to match him with 41, including crucial 1 vs 2 and 1 vs 3 clutches in overtime. On the second map, ViCi started on the much more favored side on Nuke, but the team only managed to get eight rounds. Vitality took advantage of this and after a shaky start to the second half, Vitality moved on to the New Legends stage. While Alex "ALEX" McMeekin struggled on Nuke, Cédric "RpK" Guipouy showed signs of his old self and lead the way with 24 kills. AVANGAR wasted no time against TyLoo and quickly went up 8-2, but TyLoo was able to fortify its defense and make it a close half at 8-7. The Chinese team then went up 11-7, but it would not have any more luck as it could not get past the Kazakh defense and took map one. AVANGAR once again took a lead into the middle of the game and took a convincing 15-5 lead. However, TyLoo, lead by some strong defense by somebody and YuanZhang "Attacker" Sheng allowed TyLoo to mount a huge comeback. In the thirtieth round, Aidyn "KrizzeN" Turlybekov, who had been struggling for a good portion of the tournament, stepped up and took down the TyLoo players on the A bombsite and AVANGAR denied the comeback and moved on to the Legends stage. ENCE took a huge 11-4 lead to start off the last series of day 3, including winning ten in a row. Winstrike started to bring it back behind WorldEdit and Boombl4, but the lead was too far gone. Winstrike managed to take that momentum from the first map and convert it to the second map with a 13-2 half. ENCE managed to scrappily pick up rounds, but Winstrike closed map two with ease. Map three showcased the dominant counter-terrorist side on Train. ENCE took a massive 14-1 lead, including a wild 1 vs 3 sergej clutch. However, Winstrike came all the way back by taking 12 of 13 rounds to make the score 15-13. ENCE made some tweaks and squeezed out a winning round to move on. Overall, ENCE players such as Sami "xseveN" Laasanen stepped up when necessary throughout the series to secure the win. Day 4 began with a thriller in the rematch of the historic game, when Vega eliminated NiP at the Atlanta Major 2017 in the qualifier, making that Major the first Major NiP did not take part of. Vega showed off its strong counter-terrorist side on Overpass in the first half, but NiP did the same as well in the second half, even when Vega had eight match points, and the game headed to overtime. The overtime was also close, but Vega managed to not give up the massive advantage it had and closed out map one. NiP recovered a map on Train in an easy win, lead by REZ's 25 kills. Mirage was the last map and Vega took a 9-6 lead and then the first pistol round. However, NiP's defense held strong, letting Vega only find rounds once in a while, and eliminated the Russian team. Fnatic came out strong with an 11-4 halftime lead over G2. G2 had a strong second half start, but Fnatic would easily take the first map. After a close first half on the second map, but G2 would pull away with an easy win of its own, letting Fnatic only take two rounds as Lucky had a big game. The last map Overpass was historically a good map for both teams. Fnatic took the pistol round, but G2 followed up with nine rounds in a row and the half ended 11-4 in the side of the French. Fnatic was able to take the first gun round, but a harsh reset to the economy spelled the end of Fnatic, putting Fnatic's fourteen Major streak of finishing in the top sixteen to an end. Simon "twist" Eliasson, who had only nine kills, had struggled for Fnatic throughout the event, and the number one seed fell. FURIA took a massive 8-0 lead and then, after Cloud9 took a round, FURIA then won the game 16-1. FURIA looked to carry that momentum, but it was Cloud9 who turned things around and won a 16-1 game of its own. The final map was much more competitive than the first two, as the half ended in 8-7 in favor of FURIA. Cloud9 then took the first six rounds of the second half to take the lead at 13-8, but FURIA finally took two rounds. However, Cloud9's strategies countered FURIA's counter-terrorist side and the American organization stayed alive. Vinicius "VINI" Figueiredo had a strong performance for FURIA and players such as Rinaldo "ableJ" Moda Júnior had important frags, but kioShiMa's 23 and Zellsis's key kills in the second half lead Cloud9 to a win.

NiP and ViCi had a very close first half on the first map, with the Swedes leading on 8-7. In the second half, despite aumaN leading the server, ViCi could not get a single round in the second half and NiP cruised to a win. The second map started with ViCi taking the first five rounds, then NiP took the next eight before ViCi took the last two of the first round. In the second half, however, NiP only had a brief period of success on its terrorist side and ViCi was able to tie the series in after the close game. After a back and forth start on Mirage, NiP pulled away and took a big 11-4 halftime lead. ViCi was able gather two sets of three rounds, but deficit was too much to come back from and NiP moved on. G2 managed to have a good counter-terrorist side, but TyLoo had an even better one in the second half, as G2 only scrapped up two rounds. Dust II was historically a good G2 map and it showed why as the French had an even better first half than the last with a 13-2 lead. G2 then easily finished up the game to force a third map. G2 matched its halftime score from the second map in the third map. TyLoo tried to come back after taking the second half pistol round, but G2's economy rounds somehow managed to overrun TyLoo and G2 moved on. TyLoo started the tournament 2-0, but ended in 2-3 as it could not get a best of three win. Cloud9 started on the much more favored side on Nuke and easily took an 11-4 lead. Winstrike tried to put on a big performance for its counter-terrorist side in the second half, but Cloud9 denied much success as autimatic dominated the map. Cloud9 won the pistol round to carry the momentum, but some crucial mistakes allowed Winstrike to take the next three rounds and then eventually an 8-7 lead. Winstrike won the first two rounds, but Cloud9 won seven rounds in a row to go up 14-10 and then 15-12. Winstrike then regrouped and then tied the game at 15. In overtime, Winstrike dominated the first round, but Cloud9, lead by RUSH's plays, took the next four to survive and move on.

New Legends stage

The New Legends stage, formerly known as the Group stage, used the same format as the Challengers stage. This stage takes place from February 20 to February 24, 2019 live at the International Congress Center in Katowice. The seeding was released on February 19, 2019. Next to each team's name under the "Team" column is each team's initial seeding. Under each of the "Rounds" columns are the team's opponent's seed at the time the round was played.

Place	Team	Record	RD	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5
1–2	Astralis (1)	3-0	+45	compLexity Gaming (16) 16-6 Nuke	High match Cloud9 (12) 16-0 Train	High match Renegades (8) 2-1	New Champions stage	New Champions stage
	Team Liquid (2)	3-0	+16	AVANGAR (15) 16-12 Overpass	High match Ninjas in Pyjamas (10) 16-13 Overpass	High match Natus Vincere (3) 2-0	New Champions stage	New Champions stage
3–5	Natus Vincere (3)	3-1	+18	G2 Esports (14) 16-7 Inferno	High match Team Vitality (11) 25-22 Mirage	High match Team Liquid (2) 0-2	High match AVANGAR (10) 2-0	New Champions stage
	MIBR (4)	3-1	+10	Cloud9 (13) 3-16 Inferno	Low match compLexity Gaming (16) 16-9 Mirage	Mid match G2 Esports (14) 16-12 Inferno	High match Ninjas in Pyjamas (8) 2-0	New Champions stage
	Renegades (9)	3-1	-4	ENCE eSports (8) 16-13 Inferno	High match FaZe Clan (4) 16-14 Inferno	High match Astralis (1) 1-2	High match Team Vitality (7) 2-1	New Champions stage
6–8	FaZe Clan (5)	3-2	+15	HellRaisers (12) 16-4 Train	High match Renegades (8) 14-16 Inferno	Mid match AVANGAR (15) 13-16 Mirage	Low match compLexity Gaming (14) 2-1	Cloud9 (11) 2-0
	ENCE eSports (8)	3-2	+11	Renegades (9) 13-16 Inferno	Low match HellRaisers (13) 12-16 Dust II	Low match BIG (7) 2-1	Low match G2 Esports (14) 2-0	AVANGAR (10) 2-0
	Ninjas in Pyjamas (11)	3-2	+8	NRG Esports (6) 16-14 Nuke	High match Team Liquid (2) 13-16 Overpass	Mid match HellRaisers (13) 16-5 Overpass	High match MIBR (4) 0-2	Team Vitality (9) 2-1
9–11	Cloud9 (13)	2-3	-2	MIBR (4) 16-3 Inferno	High match Astralis (1) 0-16 Train	Mid match Team Vitality (11) 14-16 Mirage	Low match HellRaisers (12) 2-0	FaZe Clan (6) 0-2
	Team Vitality (10)	2-3	-16	BIG (7) 16-11 Mirage	High match Natus Vincere (3) 22-25 Mirage	Mid match Cloud9 (12) 16-14 Mirage	High match Renegades (5) 1-2	Ninjas in Pyjamas (8) 1-2
	AVANGAR (15)	2-3	-26	Team Liquid (2) 12-16 Overpass	Low match NRG Sports (6) 16-13 Overpass	Mid match FaZe Clan (4) 16-13 Mirage	High match Natus Vincere (3) 0-2	ENCE eSports (7) 0-2
12–14	compLexity Gaming (16)	1-3	-10	Astralis (1) 6-16 Nuke	Low match MIBR (5) 9-16 Mirage	Low match NRG Esports (6) 2-0	Low match FaZe Clan (6) 1-2	Eliminated
	G2 Esports (14)	1-3	-18	Natus Vincere (3) 7-16 Inferno	Low match BIG (7) 16-13 Mirage	Mid match MIBR (5) 12-16 Inferno	Low match ENCE eSports (8) 2-0	Eliminated
	HellRaisers (12)	1-3	-31	FaZe Clan (5) 4-16 Train	Low match ENCE eSports (9) 16-12 Dust II	Mid match Ninjas in Pyjamas (10) 5-16 Overpass	Low match Cloud9 (11) 0-2	Eliminated
15–16	BIG (7)	0-3	-5	Team Vitality (10) 11-16 Mirage	Low match G2 Esports (14) 13-16 Mirage	Low match ENCE eSports (9) 1-2	Eliminated	Eliminated
	NRG Esports (6)	0-3	-11	Ninjas in Pyjamas (11) 14-16 Nuke	Low match AVANGAR (15) 13-16 Overpass	Low match compLexity Gaming (16) 0-2	Eliminated	Eliminated

Round 3 scores

Round 3 matches
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Astralis	17	Mirage	19	Renegades
Astralis	16	Nuke	9	Renegades
Astralis	16	Inferno	2	Renegades
ENCE eSports	5	Dust II	16	BIG
ENCE eSports	16	Train	14	BIG
ENCE eSports	16	Overpass	10	BIG
Team Liquid	16	Mirage	14	Natus Vincere
Team Liquid	16	Dust II	9	Natus Vincere
Team Liquid	–	Nuke	–	Natus Vincere
NRG Esports	19	Nuke	22	compLexity Gaming
NRG Esports	16	Cache	19	compLexity Gaming
NRG Esports	–	Inferno	–	compLexity Gaming

Round 4 scores

Round 4 matches
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Renegades	16	Dust II	5	Team Vitality
Renegades	11	Cache	16	Team Vitality
Renegades	16	Inferno	12	Team Vitality
Natus Vincere	16	Dust II	6	AVANGAR
Natus Vincere	16	Train	11	AVANGAR
Natus Vincere	–	Mirage	–	AVANGAR
MIBR	16	Train	6	Ninjas in Pyjamas
MIBR	16	Inferno	14	Ninjas in Pyjamas
MIBR	–	Mirage	–	Ninjas in Pyjamas
ENCE eSports	19	Dust II	17	G2 Esports
ENCE eSports	16	Mirage	10	G2 Esports
ENCE eSports	–	Nuke	–	G2 Esports
FaZe Clan	8	Cache	16	compLexity Gaming
FaZe Clan	16	Mirage	11	compLexity Gaming
FaZe Clan	16	Dust II	14	compLexity Gaming
Cloud9	16	Inferno	8	HellRaisers
Cloud9	16	Cache	12	HellRaisers
Cloud9	–	Mirage	–	HellRaisers

Round 5 scores

Round 5 matches
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
ENCE eSports	16	Mirage	12	AVANGAR
ENCE eSports	16	Train	7	AVANGAR
ENCE eSports	–	Overpass	–	AVANGAR
Ninjas in Pyjamas	16	Cache	7	Team Vitality
Ninjas in Pyjamas	8	Overpass	16	Team Vitality
Ninjas in Pyjamas	16	Mirage	7	Team Vitality
FaZe Clan	16	Cache	14	Cloud9
FaZe Clan	16	Dust II	9	Cloud9
FaZe Clan	–	Nuke	–	Cloud9

New Legends stage summary

Team Vitality took on BIG to start off the New Legends stage. In his return with BIG, Johannes "nex" Maget had a good game with 22 kills, but BIG's star İsmailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş only had half the kills nex had. Meanwhile, apEX dropped 30 kills as Vitality put up a strong counter-terrorist side. On the other stream, ENCE eSports took a good lead over Renegades in the New Challengers rematch with a 10-5 half. However, Renegades put up an even better half in the second at 11-3 as the Australians shut down most of what ENCE had to offer. Many looked at what HellRaisers could do after not being active in tournaments for a long time, but Kirill "ANGE1" Karasiow's team fell flat. Abay "HObbit" Khasenov played well in his HellRaisers Majors debut, but the team's star players Issa "ISSAA" Murad and Özgür "woxic" Eker did not have the impact the team wanted. Meanwhile, FaZe Clan's Nikola "NiKo" Kovač put up big numbers against HellRaisers, with Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács close behind him. Natus Vincere (Na'Vi) had an unexpected performance from Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev with 23 kills and everyone on the team had a good game, limiting the impact kennyS had for G2 Esports. After AVANGAR took the halftime lead, Team Liquid went to work. Despite qikert's 27 kills, the Canadians Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken and Keith "NAF" Markovic both performed well to limit the Kazakhs to just four rounds in the second half. Ninjas in Pyjamas took a huge halftime lead on Nuke at 11-4, but did start on the much more favored side, giving NRG Esports a chance. NRG did start the comeback, but at 15-14, NiP managed to sneak in that last round to pull off the win, the REZ's 33 kills to lead the way. compLexity Gaming decided to strike to Astralis's best map Nuke. Despite starting on the more favored side, compLexity could not get anything going, even with Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz's 18 kills. Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth had huge game with 26 kills and with 131.1 average damage per round. Cloud9 completely spoiled MIBR's debut with its new lineup as the Brazlians could not get past defense of Cloud9. Even with Marcelo "coldzera" David leading the scoreboard for MIBR, everyone on Cloud9 had more kills than the star Brazilian.

XANTARES did turn things around from his last game as he lead BIG to a 9-6 lead. However, shox's crew, lead by kennyS's 25 kills, took control and won 10 rounds in the second half to BIG's 4 and sent the German team to 0-2. Even with Fatih "gob b" Dayik's 25 kills, BIG's other star player Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz only had 15 kills in the map. woxic went huge in the first half as he lead HellRaisers to an 13-2 halftime lead, but ENCE managed to fight back and suddenly make it 15-12. In the following round, things looked good for ENCE to make the comeback, but HObbit and ISSAA managed to secure two kills each and HellRaisers staved off the comeback. compLexity tried to surprise the world again and head back to the playoffs and it took an 8-7 lead against MIBR. However, MIBR found a strategy to counter compLexity in the second half and easily won it out and avoided the 0-2. AVANGAR took a huge lead at 11-4 and then at 12-6. NRG decided to take a risk and bought with low money and it paid off and eventually tied the game at 13. However, AVANGAR figured out the defense in the end and upset NRG. Renegades pulled off another upset and went up 9-0 in series since the Asia Minor as AZR had another huge game. FaZe's Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer, named the best player in 2015, struggled with just 10 kills. Astralis pulled off the second 16-0 in Major history, lead by Emil "Magisk" Reif and Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz, against Cloud9; the Danes had the only other 16-0, which was against MIBR in the last Major in the New Legends stage. Vitality and Na'Vi was a thriller that headed to triple overtime. Vitality had chances, but Denis "electronic" Sharipov and Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev bailed Na'Vi out to barely survive. Team Liquid had a hot start, but NiP settled in and eventually took the lead late into the game. However, Liquid stabilized towards the end and shut down whatever NiP had to offer despite f0rest's 26 kills. Nicholas "nitr0" Cannella lead all players with 28 kills.

Day 2 started with MIBR against G2 Esports and the Brazilians took a strong 8-1 lead before G2 recovered and only were down 6-9 by the end of the half. G2 kept the half close at 13-11, but coldzera and Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo put up kills in crucial moments, including winning a 2 vs 4, as MIBR took the map win. AVANGAR stunned FaZe despite GuardiaN and Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev's best efforts, as, after falling behind 11-13, AVANGAR the last five rounds to steal the map win as Jame denying the bomb plant at the aforementioned score started the small comeback. Håvard "rain" Nygaard struggled with just 10 kills. NiP completely shut down HellRaisers on Overpass as REZ and GeT_RiGhT had more than 20 kills each. Even though Bence "DeadFox" Böröcz had a better than usual performance, ISSAA struggled massively with just 8 kills for HellRaisers. Vitality, lead by apEX and ZywOo, just barely won out over Cloud9, even though flusha had 27 kills and Zellsis with 24 as the Frenchmen went up 2-1. Astralis looked like it put a halt onto Renegades's Cinderella run as the world's number one put up a 12-3 halftime lead and then a 14-5 lead. However, Renegades showed that it could compete with the best and put up ten unanswered to suddenly take a 15-14 lead before Astralis tied it up and the game headed to overtime. Renegades then continued its streak and then took down the Danish giants in map one. Renegades then took a 9-6 halftime lead on Nuke, a map Astralis had not lost in over a year. However, Astralis's defense combined with some big mistakes from Renegades completely shut down whatever the Oceanic team had to offer and Astralis cruised in the second half. Astralis did not look back in the third map and dominated and the Danes were the first team to the playoffs; in addition, Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander's team was the first team to beat Renegades during this Katowice run, as dev1ce and Peter "dupreeh" Rothmann were instrumental in the victory. BIG looked to end ENCE's Major hopes as the German team completely ran over the Finns. BIG then took a 14-10 lead on Train, but ENCE managed to take six straight to close out the game to edge by BIG 16-14. ENCE then took a big 11-4 lead. BIG made it relatively close in the second half, but the lead was too far gone and BIG was eliminated. The first map between Liquid and Na'Vi was a back and forth affair, but the halftime score went in favor of Liquid 9-6. Despite Liquid limiting s1mple, Egor "flamie" Vasilyev stepped up with 26 kills. However, Liquid's teamwork proved to be more effective, with its newest acquisition Jake "Stewie2K" Yip leading the way with 21 kills and Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski followed up also with 21 kills as Liquid barely sneaked by. The second map also featured a close first half, as Liquid only lead 8-7. Even though s1mple stepped up compared to the last map, Liquid's terrorist side was too much for Na'Vi to handle as Liquid was the second team to move on. The last series of day two was a thriller between NRG and compLexity. On Nuke, NRG had an 8-7 lead while in the terrorist side, meaning its second half would be on the much more favored side. However, despite a good start, NRG could not follow through as stanislaw put up big numbers, ending the game with 45 kills. The game headed to double overtime, where compLexity pulled out the upset. On Cache, NRG once again had an 8-7 lead while on the less favored side. However, compLexity started off with six in a row before NRG found a rhythm and went up 15-14, only for compLexity to tie it as Rory "dephh" Jackson defused the bomb in round 30. In overtime, compLexity found itself in a winning position and secured the set as Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan found a kill onto daps.

Renegades continued to flaunt their top form as it started off with a 10-1 lead over Vitality. The French somewhat recovered to make it 11-4, but there was no stopping the Renegades train as the Australian team easily took the first map. Renegades took the halftime lead again in the second map, but it was much closer at 8-7. Vitality's terrorist side in the second half then took over and NBK- and his team tied up the series at one. After a close first half, Renegades suddenly took a 14-7 lead. Vitality looked like it could make up the deficit with five in a row, but Renegades were able to close out the map. With Renegades moving on, Gratisfaction was the first New Zealander to become a Legend and his four teammates were the first Australians to become Legends. Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko lead Na'Vi to another as the CIS team dismantled AVANGAR. Although electronic had a subpar game, flamie and s1mple continued to put up good performances and Na'Vi advanced. MIBR took a 10-5 lead on Train, but was on the much more favored side, giving NiP a chance. However, NiP could not get anything going in the second half, which started with a Fernando "fer" Alvarenga and João "felps" Vasconcellos embracing his new role. MIBR continued with a 6-0 lead, but NiP brought it back within three rounds by then end of the half. NiP then took the lead at 11-9 and then 14-12. However, players like fer, coldzera, and Epitácio "TACO" de Melo stepped up as MIBR continued its success at the Majors, being the only core with a one hundred percent success rate at top eight since its Major debut. The first match of day 4 started on Dust II, one of G2's strongest map. The French started with a 5-2 lead, but ENCE won seven in a row before G2 took the last round of the half. G2 matched ENCE's score in the second half, which included winning the last four rounds in regulation, to send the game to overtime. However, Aleksib's 31 kills were able to help ENCE defeat G2 in the first map. ENCE then jumped to a 12-5 lead in the second map. G2 had some momentum starting then, but the Finns were able to win out the map and the series to stay alive in the tournament. compLexity started very strong against FaZe as it took a 11-4 lead at the half. FaZe had a good start to the second half, but compLexity's team effort allowed the North American squad to take the first map. On verge of pulling off another upset, compLexity took a 5-3 lead, but FaZe pulled it back to win out the half 9-6. Although stanislaw and Ricky "Rickeh" Mulholland gave FaZe some trouble, the Europeans tied the series up at one. The third map would prove to be a thriller. After compLexity took an 10-7 lead, FaZe started to crawl back and take the lead at 13-10. Lead by Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert's crucial plays, compLexity took back the lead at 14-13. NiKo then went on a tear and put FaZe behind his back as he overcame compLexity's defense and FaZe barely survived to the next day. After HellRaisers took an early lead, Cloud9 jumped back into the game and took a 9-6 halftime lead. HellRaisers struggled in the second half as Cloud9 easily took the first map. In the second map, Cloud9 continued to perform and took an 11-4 lead. However, seven unanswered from HellRaisers suddenly tied up the game. Cloud9 then took time to adjust and then took down HellRaisers as another Legend fell.

The last day of the group stage began with ENCE against AVANGAR. AVANGAR took the pistol round, but ENCE struck back with four rounds before AVANGAR took four of its own. ENCE would then respond with five rounds before AVANGAR took the last round of the half. ENCE then jumped out to a 15-9 lead and close out the map with a brief scare after AVANGAR took three more rounds. Train started out well for AVANGAR, but ENCE's terrorist side, lead by allu, took over the half. AVANGAR's struggled continued as it could not take a single gun round in the second half and ENCE cruised to the playoffs after starting 0-2. Vitality and NiP started on Cache, historically a good NiP map, and it showed why as the Swedes took 11 rounds on the less favored side in the first half. Vitality took the first three rounds of the half, but with dennis stepping up for his team, NiP was easily able to take the win. NiP took the pistol and anti-economy rounds in the second map, but Vitality put up 11 rounds of its own, but the French did start on the more favored side, giving NiP a silver lining. However, Vitality quickly reached 15 rounds and then won the game after NiP took four more rounds. NiP rebounded as it took a massive 14-1 lead at the half. Vitality made a comeback look possible it took six rounds, but NiP was able to close it out and move on to the playoffs, with dennis leading the way with 23 kills. The first map between FaZe and Cloud9 looked like a blowout, as FaZe took a 12-3 lead and then a 15-4 lead. However, everyone on Cloud9 started contributing and mounted a massive comeback. In the end, a fake execute by FaZe on the B bombsite when the team was going A opened up an avenue for FaZe and the European squad just barely denied the comeback. FaZe had another strong first half, this time at 11-4. However, Cloud9 started to come back and reached nine rounds, which was capped with an autimatic 1 vs 4. FaZe then took a timeout and recovered to move on to the playoffs as Cloud9 was eliminated.

New Champions stage

The New Champions Stage, also known as the Playoffs, is a best of three double elimination bracket. Teams play until a winner is decided. This stage is taking place at the Spodek from February 28 to March 3, 2019. Brackets were revealed shortly after FaZe defeated Cloud9 in the last map of the group stages. Teams were seeded first based on their record in the New Legends stage and based on the strength of their schedule.

Bracket

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
	3	Natus Vincere	2
	6	FaZe Clan	0
						3	Natus Vincere	1
						7	ENCE eSports	2
	2	Team Liquid	0
	7	ENCE eSports	2
											7	ENCE eSports	0
											1	Astralis	2
	4	MIBR	2
	5	Renegades	0
						4	MIBR	0
						1	Astralis	2
	1	Astralis	2
	8	Ninjas in Pyjamas	0

Quarterfinals

Natus Vincere vs. FaZe Clan

The first set at the Spodek matched up Natus Vincere and FaZe Clan and pit up the two best players in the world, with s1mple on Na'Vi and NiKo on FaZe. Historically, Na'Vi has an 14-11 head-to-head map lead over FaZe, but FaZe defeated Na'Vi in their most recent best of three at EPICENTER 2018. In addition, olofmeister continued his streak as the only player in history to become a Legend at every Major. 81% of Pick'Em predictions had Natus Vincere winning.

Casters: HenryG & Sadokist

Na`Vi-FaZe Vetoes

Map Vetoes
FaZe Clan	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Train	Cache	Inferno	Mirage	Nuke	Overpass	Dust II
Natus Vincere		BAN		PICK	BAN

The first game at the Spodek was a surprise one as many did not expect FaZe to pick Inferno instead of leaving it as the decider. This map started off with a bang. flamie found a kill onto AdreN, but FaZe planted the bomb fairly quickly before flamie found another one onto GuardiaN. olofmeister took down two in Zeus and Edward, but flamie was able to trade. rain took down s1mple but could not follow up onto flamie. NiKo was able to find electronic, but flamie was able to take down NiKo for the ace and defuse the bomb. Na`Vi was able to take the next round, but an eight-round surge from FaZe suddenly put Na`Vi in a struggle. Na`Vi found a third round heading into the twelfth round. There, flamie found a quick kill onto olofmeister. Some moments later, GuardiaN killed his former teammate and then rain ran in to find s1mple. NiKo took down Zeus before being traded by Edward, but Edward was then traded by GuardiaN. electronic could not do much in a 1 vs 3 deficit, so he backed away and saved his gun, resetting Na`Vi's economy. Na`Vi's star player s1mple had struggled for the first half, but he came alive at just the right time in the last round of the half to give Na`Vi a saving grace and being down only 10-5. In the second half pistol round, NiKo took down s1mple, but flamie found two onto NiKo and AdreN as Edward planted the bomb. rain took down Zeus, but three uninterrupted kills from flamie gave Russian player another pistol ace. flamie's two aces was the first time in Major history in which a player had two aces on the same map. The score later reached 12-9 in FaZe's favor. In the following round, Zeus was tagged down to very low health near the start of the round. Na`Vi decided to head to the A bombsite with a less than ideal inventory. rain took down s1mple, but Zeus, while still on low health, bounced around and somehow took down rain. GuardiaN took down flamie before electronic traded and the bomb was planted. Zeus then took down GuardiaN, which led FaZe to just back off and find some kills while giving up the round as Zeus's heroics saved his team. This led Na`Vi to find success while on the terrorist side, shutting down FaZe's defenses. In the 28th round, with now Na`Vi up 15-13, electronic took down AdreN. GuardiaN traded right away, but flamie was able to take down olofmeister. GuardiaN found two impressive kills onto flamie and s1mple while stuck on the A bombsite before being downed by Edward. The bomb was planted in a 2 vs. 2 scenario. rain tried to sneak in close by to where the two Na`Vi players were standing, but he was killed by Edward, forcing NiKo to back away and giving Na`Vi map point. The next round, Na`Vi swarmed the A bombsite as FaZe could not get much done, giving Na`Vi the advantage on FaZe's map pick. flamie and rain led the way for their respective teams with 23 kills each and electronic had 22 kills.

FaZe took a conventional 2-0 lead on Mirage, but Na`Vi won the economy round, only winning with pistols. This led to four straight wins for Na`Vi. In the seventh round, flamie was trying to peek into the A bombsite from the palace area, which is one of two ways to get from the terrorist spawn to the A bombsite, but GuardiaN was there to spot him and take him down. NiKo tried to get more information for his team by peeking out to the middle area, but s1mple had a quick shot to make it a 4 vs. 4. rain and electronic spotted each other near the palace area and rain was able to win that duel. GuardiaN found s1mple as Na`Vi was heading to the A bombsite. Zeus was able to take down rain and tried to get rid of GuardiaN, but instead GuardiaN killed Edward, who was trying to plant the bomb. olofmeister came in to help and killed Zeus and FaZe took another round. Na`Vi still held strong and took a 9-6 lead into the second half. FaZe was able to take another pistol round and brought it to 9-7. Na`Vi decided to force up in the second round instead of the traditional method of saving in the second round ever since Valve increased the loss bonus from losing the pistol round. There, olofmeister found the first kill onto Zeus, who was trying to get aggressive, in the apartments area, which connects the terrorist spawn to the B bombsite. FaZe then was taking control of the middle area, but electronic found a quick shot onto NiKo in the connector area, which connects the middle area to the A bombsite. electronic found another kill onto AdreN on the A bombsite with his pistol as FaZe headed to the B bombsite with twenty seconds left. flamie took down olofmeister, but was traded out by rain. Edward then traded rain and then s1mple took down GuardiaN and the force buy worked for Na`Vi. This spurred Na`Vi to go up 15-7, as Zeus continued to find high impact frags for his team. In the 23rd round, Zeus found olofmeister early in the round. FaZe decided to execute to the A bombsite. With under fifty seconds left, Zeus caught out NiKo in middle trying to sneak up the connector area. GuardiaN caught s1mple off guard, but s1mple won the fight with the virtue of having in AWP, normally a one shot, one kill weapon. electronic took out AdreN in the palace area and Edward too down rain and Na`Vi eliminated FaZe in two maps. electronic led all players with 24 kills and was able to lift his team despite s1mple at the bottom of the scoreboard. NiKo led FaZe with 15 kills, but his team ended up well short.

Natus Vincere vs. FaZe Clan scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Natus Vincere	16	Inferno	13	FaZe Clan
Natus Vincere	16	Mirage	7	FaZe Clan
Natus Vincere	–	Dust II	–	FaZe Clan

Team Liquid vs. ENCE eSports

Team Liquid was able to sweep up the competition in the Legends stage while ENCE had to come back from an 0-2 deficit and reach the playoffs with its wins. This is the first meeting between the two teams. 96% of Pick'Em predictions had Team Liquid winning.

Casters: Vince Hill & moses

Liquid–ENCE Vetoes

Map Vetoes
ENCE eSports	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Cache	Train	Mirage	Inferno	Nuke	Dust II	Overpass
Team Liquid		BAN		PICK	BAN

The set started on Mirage, ENCE's map pick. ENCE took the pistol round and the anti-economy round for the 2-0 lead and then the two teams traded four rounds each. In the eleventh round, ENCE took early middle control. After taking a high explosive grenade for nearly half his health, Aleksib was taken down by ELiGE in that middle area while trying to look into connector. ELiGE was able to deal huge damage to Aerial, but Aerial was able to kill ELiGE to even the playing field, but NAF was able to trade. Twistzz was blinded by a flashbang near the apartments area, but a lucky spray allowed the Canadian to kill xseveN and the followed up onto allu. sergej was rushing down the catwalk area, which leads from the middle area to the B bombsite, but NAF heard him all the way and shut him down. Liquid was able to take a brief lead at 7-6, but ENCE ended up winning the half 8-7. The game was later tied 10-10. In the 21st round, ENCE decided to change its defensive setup with two AWPs instead of only allu holding the sniper rifle, but that left the Finns with almost no grenades. With under forty seconds left, Liquid chose to go to the B bombsite. Stewie2K and ELiGE ran up the catwalk area, but xseveN shut them down from near the apartments area. The rest of Liquid were in apartments and needed to rush into the site, but Aleksib took down Twistzz with the second AWP. This left Liquid with just two against five ENCE players and the two were needed to save their weapons for the next round as winning this round was unlikely. However, NAF died to xseveN with under five seconds left in the round. nitr0 traded and saved his AWP, but ENCE took back the lead. In the 23rd round, with ENCE up 12-10, Liquid had to save for a second consecutive round, but still had the AWP. Aleksib and allu took down nitr0 and Stewie2K with their AWPs early in the round and then allu followed up with another one on ELiGE. With about thirty seconds left, NAF and Twistzz attempted to make a play. NAF peeked into the B bombsite from catwalk and completely caught Aleksib off guard, followed up onto xseveN, and then planted the bomb with about fifteen seconds left in the round. NAF then took down Aerial, but Twistzz was caught by sergej. NAF then peeked to the catwalk area and flicked onto sergej and then hid inside a smoke grenade. allu desperately pushed into the smoke, but NAF was there to clutch and Liquid had some life. However, ENCE then took a 15-11 lead and Liquid took its final timeout. In the 27th round, Liquid executed to the A bombsite with 1:10 on the clock. sergej was patient enough and peeked at the right time to take down NAF, Stewie2K, and ELiGE before being downed by nitr0. nitr0 tried to fall back, but Aerial was already on the flank to catch him. Twistzz was on the other side of the map during all this and found a headshot onto xseveN. Twistzz had to run into the middle area to try to retrieve the bomb that was dropped by nitr0, but allu found the final kill and ENCE took the first map. Stewie2K had 19 kills to lead Liquid, but sergej and xseveN had 22 each to lead ENCE.

Liquid took the pistol round, but ENCE proceeded to win five of the next six rounds to take the lead. In the next round, Liquid executed to the B bombsite with just over fifty seconds left in the round, but xseveN took down Stewie2K trying to open up the site. Aleksib tried to follow up, but Twistzz was there to deny it. xseveN traded Twistzz out, but ELiGE traded xseveN and Liquid had the B bombsite as ELiGE planted the bomb. NAF spotted allu, but allu was quicker to the trigger to give ENCE the man advantage. ELiGE took down Aerial and lit up the other to ENCE members before he died. nitr0 the flashed his way in to kill sergej, who was defusing the bomb. allu was able to trade, but he could not defuse the bomb in time and Liquid found a third. This led Liquid to a winning streak and Liquid was up 10-5. ENCE took the first three rounds of the second half, but Liquid took five and it looked like a third map between the two teams. In the 24th round, ENCE was down to potentially its last buy. With under thirty seconds left, Stewie2K caught sergej trying to creep in. xseveN took down ELiGE on the other bombsite about ten second later and then followed up onto Twistzz. Aleksib took down Stewie2K on B. NAF was able to trade out Aleksib, but allu took down nitr0, and ENCE was still alive. This led to a surge in the Finns' offense and then suddenly tied the game and it headed to overtime. Liquid found one round in the first half of overtime, but ENCE took two and then one more to get to map and set point at 18-16. Liquid was on the terrorist side in the fifth round of overtime and wanted to head to the A bombsite. The team went up the middle area, but allu was there to catch ELiGE. However, allu was only a distraction for sergej and Aerial to pounce from the other side as nitr0 and NAF went down. Stewie2K was able to take down Aerial, but when he needed to make a play, allu made sure he did not, leaving just Twistzz. Twistzz took down sergej, but allu traded right away, and ENCE pulled off a massive upset. allu dominated with 36 kills. Although Twistzz and ELiGE had 30 kills each, but Liquid could not hold it together. Some have referenced this to another Liquid choke, most notably at MLG Major Championship: Columbus, when Liquid had 15-9 and 15-6 leads against Luminosity Gaming (the current roster of MIBR) and the lost both games in overtime.

Team Liquid vs. ENCE eSports scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Team Liquid	11	Mirage	16	ENCE eSports
Team Liquid	16	Inferno	19	ENCE eSports
Team Liquid	–	Overpass	–	ENCE eSports

MIBR vs. Renegades

Renegades were the surprise team of the Major, as it took a map off of Astralis and defeated FaZe Clan. Made in Brazil struggled massively its first match, but soon recovered well and won out the rest of the group stage. MIBR also continued its streak as the only team to become Legends since its Major debut. MIBR has an 8-2 record against Renegades that stretched back to when the Brazilians were with SK Gaming. On LAN, MIBR is 4-0 against Renegades. 60% of Pick'Em predictions had MIBR winning.

Casters: HenryG & Sadokist

MIBR–RNG Vetoes

Map Vetoes
Renegades	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Overpass	Nuke	Dust II	Train	Cache	Inferno	Mirage
MIBR		BAN		PICK	BAN

Renegades chose Dust II, a pick in which the analyst desk was quite confused with. MIBR took an early 5-1 lead. In the seventh round, Renegades executed to the A bombsite from the catwalk area, which connects the middle are to the A bombsite. Renegades threw in flashbangs, forcing MIBR to back away from the site and try to retake it. Gratisfaction planted the bomb with about 45 seconds left. fer caught AZR, but Liazz and Gratisfaction found two. coldzera took down jks and Gratisfaction killed fer. coldzera tried to fish for more kills, but Liazz was there to deny it. FalleN did take out Gratisfaction, but he was too far away to find kills and defuse the bomb, so he backed off, giving Renegades a second round. Renegades found three more in the half, but MIBR took a sizable 10-5 lead at the half. Renegades took the second half pistol with jks's heroics, giving Renegades a chance to close the gap. Rather than saving for the next round to get better guns, MIBR force bought with the weaker sniper rifle and four pistols. As soon as the round started, FalleN tagged jkaem through the middle doors all the way down to 18 health points. TACO and fer pushed to the A bombsite from the catwalk area and they tagged Liazz all the way to one point of health and MIBR planted the bomb as Renegades fell back and let the Brazilians have the site. AZR tried to push in, but fer found an immediate headshot and felps followed up onto jks. felps then took out jkaem and FalleN found a headshot onto Liazz. Gratisfaction found felps, but an immediate trade from fer made the force buy successful. After that steal, MIBR cruised the rest of the way, winning six consecutive rounds to close out the map. fer had 21 kills to lead the way and coldzera had 20. jks had 17 kills, but the rest of Renegades struggled as MIBR was efficient in the win.

Map 2 was on Train, a map MIBR was once considered to be the undisputed best team on, as its counter-terrorist sides were able to shut down anything. However, the Oceanic team did not let history or the last map bother it. Renegades took the first three rounds before MIBR took one. In the fifth round, Renegades was on a low buy and relied on Gratisfaction with his saved AWP to carry the round. However, it was not initially needed as jkaem found two headshots with his upgraded pistol in the desert eagle onto coldzera and felps before being traded by fer. fer tried to push up later on in the round, but Gratisfaction was there to stop him. TACO found one onto AZR, but Liazz caught him out trying to receive the bomb to FalleN. FalleN found Gratisfaction, but he was sandwiched between the last two Renegades players as jks found the kill, resetting MIBR's economy. This led Renegades to go up 10-1, as MIBR could not get the signature AWP onto FalleN. MIBR somewhat recovered with four rounds at the end of the half, but Renegades had a seven-round lead as MIBR went to its counter-terrorist side. MIBR took the first two rounds of the second half, but Renegades took the next round. In the 19th round, TACO found a lot of damage with a high explosive grenade, bringing three players' health points down as Renegades was trying to execute to the B bombsite. TACO then took the fight against jkaem, but AZR traded. felps took out AZR and coldzera, who was hiding on the B site bomb train, caught jks off guard. felps killed Liazz and then coldzera swung around to take down Grtisfaction, resetting Renegades's economy. Renegades then struggled as MIBR went from being 4-11 down to going up 15-12. In the 28th round, Renegades took a timeout to discuss things over. Three Renegades players were in the Ivy area, which is the longer way to get to the A bombsite from the terrorist spawn, but coldzera was hiding nearby. jkaem did not check the position where coldzera was and he was immediately brought down. coldzera kept shooting and was able to take down Liazz. Gratisfaction tried to trade him out, but FalleN's flashbang blinded him, helping coldzera take down a third player. AZR went in to try to do something about the situation, but coldzera also found him. MIBR tried to give coldzera the ace, but jks was able to take him down. TACO brought jks down low and FalleN finished the series and MIBR moved on to another Major top four. Gratisfaction had a huge first half with 18 kills, but had limited impact in the second half with just 5, although did end up at the top of the server with 24 kills. FalleN continued to put up huge performances on Train and he, TACO, and fer had 23 kills each as the Renegades Cinderella came to an end.

MIBR vs. Renegades scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
MIBR	16	Dust II	6	Renegades
MIBR	16	Train	12	Renegades
MIBR	–	Mirage	–	Renegades

Astralis vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas

This set featured a historic rivalry between two legendary cores in the core of dev1ce, dupreeh, and Xyp9x against the core of GeT_RiGhT and f0rest. Astralis came in as unequivocally the best team of 2018 and defending Major champions while NiP reached its first Legends status for the first time since MLG Major Championship: Columbus in 2016. Historically, between the two rosters, Astralis leads 14-9, but between the two aforementioned cores, the Danes led 54-52. 97% of Pick'Em predictions had Astralis winning.

Casters: Vince Hill & moses

Astralis–NiP Vetoes

Map Vetoes
Ninjas in Pyjamas	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Nuke	Cache	Mirage	Dust II	Train	Inferno	Overpass
Astralis		BAN		PICK	BAN

The first map on Mirage started with Astralis on the counter-terrorist side as NiP took quick middle control with GeT_RiGhT rushing up the catwalk area. dupreeh was blinded by a flashbang but somehow took out REZ before Lekr0 traded. The bomb tried to make its way out of the apartments area, but two quick headshots onto f0rest and Lekr0 by gla1ve denied that. Xyp9x killed GeT_RiGhT and gla1ve took down dennis and Astralis swept away the pistol round. This would set the tone for the rest of the half as Astralis put up a 15-0 scoreline. In the second half pistol, Astralis was the only team to 16-0 any team at a Major, including one against Cloud9 this tournament, and looked to add a third. In the 16th round, Lekr0 took an aggressive position in the apartments area as Astralis was going B and was caught out early, falling to dupreeh. f0rest traded out gla1ve. dev1ce then found two very quick kills onto dennis and GeT_RiGhT, making it look like another 16-0. However, during all this, REZ was hiding near the van area, which is next to the apartments area. dupreeh tried to plant the bomb, but REZ sneaked up and killed dupreeh and Xyp9x in succession then won a fight against dev1ce. Magisk was able come from the apartments area and finally take REZ down, but f0rest won the long range fight from catwalk and NiP got its first. The success would be limited, however, as the Swedes only got one more before Astralis got the one round it needed. Magisk led the way with 23 kills in the stomp. Only Lekr0 had at least ten kills on NiP.

Fortunes did not look bright for NiP as to fell to an 8-1 deficit on Dust II. The team finally picked up two heading into the twelfth round. With under 45 seconds left, Astralis executed to the A bombsite. f0rest was able to take dupreeh from the counter-terrorist spawn, which is essentially right under the A bombsite, before being traded by Xyp9x. Lekr0 found dev1ce and gla1ve found GeT_RiGhT. Lekr0 missed a crucial shot onto Magisk, which allowed Xyp9x to punish. The bomb was planted and then dennis found Magisk. gla1ve peeked out to find dennis, but REZ caught Xyp9x in the long area, which leads from the terrorist spawn to the A bombsite. REZ ran up to the A bombsite, but gla1ve was there to take him down and Astralis took the round. The Danes led 11-4 at the half. It looked like a clean sweep, but NiP went on a run, winning seven of the next nine rounds, and only down 13-11. In round 25, dennis quickly went up the catwalk area and took down the unwary dev1ce and Xyp9x to singlehandedly take over the A bombsite. gla1ve took down GeT_RiGhT in the long area and Lekr0 was downed by dupreeh. f0rest was able to kill gla1ve after the bomb was planted. Astralis was forced away and NiP had reset Astralis's economy. The Ninjas then went up 14-13, but Astralis regained the lead at 15-14 thanks to some clutch plays by Xyp9x. In the 30th round, NiP was on a very low but desperate buy with just pistols and f0rest's saved AWP from the last round. dupreeh went very aggressive in the tunnels area, which leads from the terrorist spawn to the B bombsite, as NiP was prepared to execute to the site, and it paid off as he took down dennis. Xyp9x killed f0rest before REZ killed dupreeh. Magisk was in the corner of the B bombsite and took down Lekr0 before being traded by REZ. GeT_RiGhT planted the bomb, but REZ died to Xyp9x. GeT_RiGhT tried to play some tricks and hid in a smoke, but Xyp9x fished him out and Astralis booked a spot in the semifinals against MIBR. REZ had 21 kills and f0rest had 19 for NiP, but Xypyx's 22 kills led the server as Astralis just about edged out the Swedes.

Astralis vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Astralis	16	Mirage	2	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Astralis	16	Dust II	14	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Astralis	–	Overpass	–	Ninjas in Pyjamas

Semifinals

Natus Vincere vs. ENCE eSports

The fan favorite in ENCE took on the CIS giants in Natus Vincere. Na`Vi did not have too much trouble handling FaZe Clan, which included only allowing one round in the second half of the second half. Meanwhile, ENCE pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Major history as the Finns took down Team Liquid in a sweep. These two teams have only met once in the past at ESL One Cologne 2018, where Natus Vincere won two games to one. 90% of Pick'Ems had Na`Vi winning.

Casters: HenryG & Sadokist

Na`Vi–ENCE Vetoes

Map Vetoes
ENCE eSports	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Overpass	Cache	Train	Dust II	Nuke	Inferno	Mirage
Natus Vincere		BAN		PICK	BAN

Na`Vi took a 7-2 lead on the more favored side on Train before ENCE took two more. In the twelfth round, with under a minute left, Edward took down Aleksib. Edward found another kill onto sergej as ENCE was executing to the A bombsite with about 25 seconds left in the round. Aerial took down a peeking s1mple near the terrorist connector area, which is the closest area to get into the A bombsite from the terrorist spawn. electronic as able to take down Aerial before allu traded, but time was dwindling. xseveN completely caught flamie off guard on the A site bomb train, giving ENCE a chance. Zeus was able to trade out xseveN from the connector area, which connects the A and B sites. allu desperately tried to plant the bomb with four seconds left, and was able to, but did not have time to adjust to a creeping Zeus, who defused the bomb. The following round, ENCE took a timeout. The Finns burst out of the terrorist connector and took down three Na`Vi players in exchange for one of their own. Zeus and s1mple tried to save their weapons because the team had a low economy, but ENCE was able to steal them away. ENCE recovered to a 7-8 halftime score. Na`Vi would make it 14-10 advantage in the second half. About thirty seconds into the round, Aerial took out flamie in the terrorist connector. In the ivy area, which is the longest way to the A bombsite from the terrorist spawn, electronic tried to creep in, but xseveN won the duel. xseveN tried to back out, but Zeus traded. Zeus tried to plant the bomb, but Aerial was close by to deny it with less than twenty seconds in the round. With a significant disadvantage and time running low, Edward and s1mple backed off to save their weapons. This would be a huge turning point as ENCE came back all the way to stun Na`Vi 16-14 to take the first map. Although s1mple had 23 kills, sergej led all players with 26.

Na`Vi took a 2-0 lead and then a 7-1 lead on Dust II. ENCE took another round by running out the time. In the tenth round, Na`Vi made a very quick play. ENCE threw an incendiary grenade in the tunnels area, which leads from the terrorist spawn to the B bombsite, to stop any early aggression from Na`Vi, but Zeus ran through the flames and found a quick headshot onto sergej. Zeus them followed up onto xseveN despite being on very low health before a high explosive grenade took down the Na`Vi captain. With the bomb planted on B and the rest of ENCE on A, the Finns decided to save their weapons as their economy was low. This would spur Na`Vi to a 13-2 half and then took the second half pistol round. ENCE decided to force buy this round. flamie took out xseveN in the middle area. Zeus brought down Aleksib low from the same area, but he ran out of bullets, allowing Aleksib to trade. ENCE executed to the A bombsite from the catwalk area and Aerial took out s1mple. electronic found Aleksib, but Aerial was there to trade and ENCE took over the site. flamie and Edward thought it was best to save their weapons and ENCE had some life. Na`Vi had a force buy of its own in the next round. With just over a minute left, Aerial took down flamie in the middle area. Edward took down xseveN in the B bombsite. Alexsib took out electronic in the middle area and then sergej followed up onto s1mple. However, Edward was also there and Alexsib and sergej both fell to him. Zeus came out from the catwalk area to take down allu in the middle area. Aerial went to the B bombsite, where he found Edward just outside of the site. Aerial planted the bomb, but the low health hurt his as Zeus took him down. Na`Vi would easily close out the map to force a third game. flamie and s1mple led the server with 18 kills each while Edward had 17. Aerial at 13 kills was the only player on ENCE to reach double digits.

ENCE took the pistol round this time in on Mirage, but Na`Vi took a 7-3 lead. ENCE managed to recover at 9-6 at the half, but it still had a lot of work to do. In the second half pistol round, Na`Vi went all in to the B bombsite, where Na`Vi took out three while only flamie fell on its side. Zeus followed up onto allu. Aerial caught Zeus fro, behind, but s1mple was there to trade. Na`Vi went up 12-6, but ENCE managed to tie the score up at 12-12. The score was tied again at 13. Aerial took out flamie in the middle area as he was sneaking up, but Edward traded right away. electronic tried to make his way through the window area, which allows the counter-terrorist to peek in the middle area, but Aleksib was waiting from the ladder room, which is located on the catwalk area and peers into the window area. Na`Vi slowly made its way to the A bombsite. s1mple quickly peeked and took down allu, but sergej found Zeus and Edward, who was trying to plant the bomb, was caught out by xseveN with just ten seconds left. s1mple traded out Aleksib with the AWP. He switched weapons to the AK-47. ENCE knew s1mple had to either take down the last two ENCE members or plant the bomb, so they both hid in relatively safe spots, but s1mple managed to find a spray onto sergej, who was hiding behind a structure and he planted the bomb. xseveN and s1mple spotted each other as s1mple made his way to the counter-terrorist spawn. s1mple peeked again and the two missed bullets on each other. s1mple switched back to the AWP and missed another shot and was tagged low. xseveN knew s1mple had to reposition and finally won the duel as prevented a nearly impossible clutch from s1mple and ENCE took back the lead. The score was tied again 14-14 and ENCE won the round, resetting Na`Vi's economy. In the last round of regulation, with under 40 seconds left, allu found electronic near the bottom of middle. Edward tried to trade from the top of middle, but xseveN was there to make sure allu doesn't get backstabbed. flamie came out of the palace area, but Aerial was there for the kill. s1mple also came out of palace, but sergej won the battle. Zeus desperately ran into the A bombsite, but sergej was there and the Cinderella story continued for ENCE. s1mple had a huge game with 32 kills, but the rest of Na`Vi fell flat. Aerial and xseveN led their team as ENCE went on to face the winner of Astralis and MIBR.

Natus Vincere vs. ENCE eSports scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Natus Vincere	14	Train	16	ENCE eSports
Natus Vincere	16	Dust II	3	ENCE eSports
Natus Vincere	14	Mirage	16	ENCE eSports

MIBR vs. Astralis

MIBR handled Renegades with convincing fashion and Astralis, after battering Ninjas in Pyjamas in the first map, just about closed out the second map. These two teams are both looking for their third Major title. This matchup goes way back, with Astralis leading the head-to-head 28-21. The two teams split sets in the last event they played together at ECS Season 6, with MIBR winning 2-1 in the group stage and Astralis winning 2-0 in the finals. 94% of Pick'Ems had Astralis winning.

Casters: Vince Hill & moses

MIBR–Astralis Vetoes

Map Vetoes
MIBR	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Nuke	Cache	Overpass	Inferno	Mirage	Dust II	Train
Astralis		BAN		PICK	BAN

The first map went to Overpass, a historically dominant MIBR map when the Brazilians were at their prime. Astralis took an early 4-0 lead before MIBR took three. In the eighth round, MIBR headed to the A bombsite with about 50 seconds left. felps found an opening kill onto dupreeh. Xyp9x was able to trade out fer. TACO planted the bomb and then felps took down Xyp9x before dev1ce traded. dev1ce won an AWP duel against FalleN and then Magisk followed up onto TACO. coldzera took down gla1ve and Magisk and tried to transfer over to dev1ce, but the number two player in the world was able to deny it and secure the round. MIBR would win the next round, but Astralis immediately took a two-round lead back despite being on an economy round. The eleventh round would prove to be crucial as both teams were low on money. FalleN started off the round with a pick onto an aggressive Magisk. FalleN quickly rotated to shade over to the A bombsite, where dupreeh fell to the MIBR captain. dev1ce needed to get aggressive in order to give Astralis a better chance at winning the round, but fer was ready. fer was traded out by Xyp9x on the A bombsite and then Xyp9x took down felps. coldzera was nearly taken down, but he was able to trade. With the bomb almost about to explode, gla1ve made his move and took down coldzera. gla1ve followed up onto FalleN as the baited him out with a tap to the bomb. TACO desperately sprayed into the smoke grenade gla1ve put down as the Astralis captain was defusing the bomb, but he missed his bullets. However, gla1ve was just about one second away from getting the full defuse as the bomb exploded and MIBR took the round. The Brazilians would not allow the Danes to get another round in the half as MIBR took a 9-6 lead and moved on to the more favored side of the map. Astralis would tie things up at 9-9 and then 10-10. In the 21st round, MIBR was on a low buy. fer and FalleN got aggressive since the two only had pistols and it looked like it paid off as fer took down dev1ce before being traded out by Magisk and FalleN found gla1ve. However, dupreeh traded him out and it was back to a 3 v 3. coldzera caught Xyp9x off guard as Astralis was executing to the B bombsite, but he was traded by dupreeh. Magisk took down felps, who was trying to catch Astralis off guard, and then TACO was taken down by Magisk and Astralis took back the lead. MIBR recovered and was down 13-14 heading into the 28th round. fer and FalleN once again went aggressive to the middle area. While dev1ce was able to pick off FalleN, fer found two in dupreeh and dev1ce and then picked up FalleN's AWP. Magisk tried to trade, but fer was ready and took him down. coldzera spotted out gla1ve and relayed the information to felps, who took down gla1ve. Xyp9x was able to trade and then planted the bomb at B. Xyp9x was able to kill TACO, but he was brought down to three health points. fer threw a high explosive grenade to finish off the player considered to be the best clutch player in the world and MIBR tied things up. Astralis went all in despite having low money in the round and somehow pulled off the win to get the map point. Astralis finished things off with ease and the Danes went up in the series. Magisk led the way with 26 kills. fer and coldzera showed their forms from 2017, when they were ranked in the top three, in the loss as both had big impact.

The next map was Inferno, a dominant Astralis map in which it looked almost unbeatable on. However, MIBR appeared to be the closest team to be able to knock down Astralis on the map. The Danes took an early 5-0 lead before MIBR ran out the clock twice in its favor to close the gap to three. In the eighth round, Astralis slowly headed to the A bombsite. dev1ce took down felps and then with 35 seconds left in the round, Astralis executed. TACO missed some big shots as Magisk took advantage of it. coldzera tried to peek out, but dev1ce was ready to punish. fer and FalleN fled the A bombsite to save their weapons and Astralis took a 6-2 lead. The score would be 9-6 in favor of Astralis at the end of the half and the Danes were able to get their infamous counter-terrorist side on the map. Astralis won the pistol round and then following anti-economy round to go up 11-6. In the 18th round, fer caught dev1ce with a grenade in his hands very early into the round. Magisk was able to take out TACO, but fer traded immediately. gla1ve lost a duel to fer, but fer fell to the incendiary grenade gla1ve threw out. FalleN found a quick headshot onto Xyp9x and MIBR ran to the B bombsite and planted the bomb. dupreeh tried to sneak his way into the B bombsite, but felps found him on the other side of the map to get MIBR its first round of the half. MIBR would see limited success as Astralis went up 15-7. In the 23rd round, Xyp9x took down FalleN and felps in the banana area. fer was able to take down dev1ce near the A bombsite. MIBR started towards the B bombsite, where coldzera took down gla1ve to even the playing field. Xyp9x and Magisk took down coldzera and TACO, respectively, as Astralis started the retake. fer was able to kill dupreeh, but Magisk traded and Xyp9x defused the bomb as Astralis headed to another Major grand finals. dupreeh had the most kills with 22 and Magisk had 20. felps had 21 kills in the loss as his teammates were unable to scamper past Astralis.

MIBR vs. Astralis scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
MIBR	14	Overpass	16	Astralis
MIBR	7	Inferno	16	Astralis
MIBR	–	Train	–	Astralis

Finals

The underdog and the world's best went against each other in the first Major of 2019. These two teams have only played one map against each other, which Astralis won 16-5 at ESL One Cologne 2018. 99% of Pick'Ems had Astralis winning the matchup. Peak viewers on final match - 1 194 978.

Casters: HenryG & Sadokist

ENCE–Astralis Vetoes

Map Vetoes
ENCE eSports	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Nuke	Cache	Train	Inferno	Mirage	Dust II	Overpass
Astralis		BAN		PICK	BAN

ENCE eSports vs. Astralis scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
ENCE eSports	11	Train	16	Astralis
ENCE eSports	4	Inferno	16	Astralis
ENCE eSports	–	Overpass	–	Astralis

Final standings

The final placings are shown below. In addition, the prize distribution, seed for the next major, roster, and coaches are shown. Each team's in-game leader is shown first.

Place	Prize Money	Team	Seed	Roster	Coach
1st	US$500,000	Astralis	Berlin 2019 Legends	gla1ve, dev1ce, dupreeh, Magisk, Xyp9x	zonic
2nd	US$150,000	ENCE		Aleksib, Aerial, allu, sergej, xseven	Twista
3rd – 4th	US$70,000	MIBR		FalleN, coldzera, felps, fer, TACO	zews
		Natus Vincere		Zeus, Edward, s1mple, electronic, flamie	kane
5th – 8th	US$35,000	FaZe Clan		NiKo, AdreN, GuardiaN, olofmeister, rain	YNk
		Ninjas in Pyjamas		Lekr0, dennis, f0rest, GeT RiGhT, REZ	pita
		Renegades		AZR, jks, Liazz, Gratisfaction, jkaem	kassad
		Team Liquid		nitr0, ELiGE, Stewie2K, NAF, Twistzz	adreN
9th – 11th	US$8,750	AVANGAR	Berlin 2019 Challengers	Jame, buster, fitch, KrizzeN, qikert	dastan
		Cloud9		Zellsis [1], autimatic, RUSH, flusha, kioShiMa	–
		Team Vitality		NBK-, apEX, Rpk, ZywOo, ALEX	XTQZZZ
12th – 14th	US$8,750	compLexity Gaming		stanislaw, n0thing, ShahZaM, dephh, Rickeh	Warden
		G2 Esports		shox, bodyy, JaCkz, kennyS, Lucky	maLeK
		HellRaisers		ANGE1, DeadFox, HObbit, ISSAA, woxic	ami
15th – 16th	US$8,750	BIG	–	gob b, nex, tabseN, tiziaN, XANTARES	kakafu
		NRG Esports		daps, Brehze, Ethan, FugLy, CeRq	ImAPet
17th – 19th	–	TyLoo		Attacker, somebody, Summer, xccurate, BnTeT	Johnta
		ViCi Gaming		advent, aumaN, zhokiNg, Freeman, kaze	–
		Winstrike Team		Boombl4, n0rb3r7, WorldEdit, Kvik, wayLander	iksou
20th – 22nd	–	Fnatic		Xizt, Brollan, JW, KRiMZ, twist	Jumpy
		FURIA Esports		arT, ableJ, KSCERATO, VINI, yuurih	guierri
		Vega Squadron		chopper, hutji, tonyblack, crush, jR	Fierce
23rd – 24th	–	Grayhound Gaming		dexter, DickStacy, malta, sterling, erkaSt	–
		Team Spirit		S0tF1k, DavCost, Dima, COLDYY1, somedieyoung	Certus

Post-Major ranking

The rankings shown below reflect the March 4, 2019 rankings, the first ranking after the Major.

HLTV.org post-Major ranking

World ranking
Place	Team	Points	Move1
1	Astralis	986
2	Team Liquid	534
3	Natus Vincere	464
4	ENCE	435	7
5	MIBR	352	4
6	FaZe Clan	310	2
7	Renegades	275	6
8	Ninjas in Pyjamas	252	6
9	Cloud9	196	1
10	Team Vitality	184	5
11	NRG Esports	172	6
13	AVANGAR	149	5
14	Fnatic	147	8
16	G2 Esports	132	3
18	BIG	122	6
19	HellRaisers	88	2
21	FURIA Esports	83	2
22	Winstrike Team	83	6
23	TyLoo	71	44
25	ViCi Gaming	67	10
27	compLexity Gaming	63	12
28	Grayhound Gaming	53	6
31	Team Spirit	–	14
38	Vega Squadron	–	15

¹Change since February 11, 2019 ranking

Notes

1.^ Golden was unable to attend due to health issues, but due to Cloud9 having him listed on the roster after the rosters were locked, they were forced to list Zellsis as a coach so he could stand-in for Golden.

Showmatch

The showmatch featured Counter-Strike's newly implemented game mode Danger Zone, a multiplayer battle royale game. Eight duos fought in three rounds and the winner would be immortalized on the Danger Zone map in the form of graffiti.

#	Team	Total	Round 1		Round 2		Round 3
			P	K	P	K	P	K
1	Furlan GruBy	97	3	4	7	0	1	3
2	seang@res Twistzz	83	7	0	1	3	4	2
3	Gratisfaction HenryG	75	1	7	8	1	3	1
4	NAF Sadokist	73	2	0	2	3	6	1
5	jks SPUNJ	57	8	0	5	2	2	2
6	CAth rain	51	4	1	3	2	5	0
7	Pimp Rushly	22	5	0	6	2	7	3
8	Stewie2K stunna	22	6	0	4	0	8	0

Country representation

The major featured players representing 27 countries around the world.

#	Country	Number of Players	ΔPrev. Major	Players
1	Russia	13	-1	flamie, electronic, chopper, hutji, tonyblack, Jame, S0tF1k, DavCost, Dima, Boombl4, n0rb3r7, WorldEdit, WayLander
2	Sweden	12	0	olofmeister, f0rest, GeT RiGhT, REZ, dennis, Lekr0, KRiMZ, JW, Xizt, twist, Brollan, flusha
3	United States	11	-2	nitr0, EliGE, Stewie2K, n0thing, ShahZaM, autimatic, RUSH, FugLy, Brehze, nahtE, Zellsis
3	France	10	+6	shox, bodyy, kennyS, Lucky, JaCkz, kioShiMa, NBK-, apEX, RpK, ZywOo
3	Brazil	10	+6	FalleN, fer, coldzera, TACO, felps, yuurih, arT, VINI, kscerato, AbleJ
6	Ukraine	8	-1	Edward, s1mple, Zeus, jR, crush, ANGE1, COLDYY1, somedieyoung
7	Australia	7	+6	Rickeh, AZR, jks, liazz, dexter, DickStacy, malta
8	Kazakhstan	6	+3	Hobbit, AdreN, buster, qikert, KrizzeN, fitch
8	China	6	+3	Summer, Attacker, somebody, aumaN, advent, zhokiNg
10	Denmark	5	-12	device, dupreeh, Xyp9X, gla1ve, Magisk
10	Finland	5	+4	allu, Aleksib, sergej, Aerial, xseveN
12	Canada	4	0	Twistzz, NAF, stanislaw, daps
12	Germany	4	0	gob b, tabseN, tiziaN, nex
14	United Kingdom	2	0	dephh, ALEX
14	Indonesia	2	0	BnTeT, xccurate
14	New Zealand	2	+2	Gratisfaction, sterling
14	Norway	2	0	rain, jkaem
14	Turkey	2	-4	XANTARES, woxic
19	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1	0	NiKo
19	Hungary	1	0	DeadFox
19	Jordan	1	0	ISSAA
19	Slovakia	1	-1	GuardiaN
19	Mongolia	1	+1	erkaSt
19	Bulgaria	1	+1	CeRq
19	Hong Kong	1	+1	Freeman
19	Malaysia	1	+1	kaze
19	Lithuania	1	0	Kvik