PGL Major: Kraków 2017, also known as PGL Major 2017 or Kraków 2017, was the eleventh ' . It is the first Major organized by the Romanian organization PGL and it was held in Kraków, Poland from July 16 to 23, 2017. It featured sixteen professional CS:GO teams from around the world. Eight teams qualified directly based on their top eight placement in the previous Major, ELEAGUE Major 2017, while another eight teams qualified through the Offline Major Qualifier. The PGL Major was the fourth consecutive major with a prize pool of 1,000,000.
The playoffs consisted of eight teams. Astralis, Fnatic, Gambit Esports, North, SK Gaming, and Virtus.pro were returning Legends while BIG and Immortals were new Legends. FaZe Clan and Natus Vincere lost their Legends status after failing to advance from the group stage. The grand finals featured two underdogs: Gambit Esports, which defeated Fnatic and Astralis, and Immortals, which defeated BIG and Virtus.pro. The Major concluded with Gambit defeating Immortals 2âÂÂ1 in a relatively close best-of-three series, marking just the third time a non-European team won a Major (the Brazilian Luminosity/SK roster won two Majors) and the first time an Asian team won a Major.
The format remained the same as the previous Major. The top eight teams from Atlanta 2017 ("Legends") were automatically invited to Kraków 2017. The remaining eight spots were filled by teams that advanced from the PGL Major Krakow 2017 Main Qualifier. The Krakow 2017 Main Qualifier was a 16-team Swiss-system tournament consisting of the bottom eight teams from Atlanta 2017, as well as eight teams promoted from four regional qualifiers. The top eight teams at the Main Qualifier, teams with three wins, then advanced to the Major as the "Challengers".
The group stage of the Major was also a 16-team Swiss-system group stage. The top eight teams at the end of the group stage, teams with three wins, advanced to the playoff stage and became the new Legends. Teams with three losses were eliminated, but earned an invite to the next Major's offline qualifier. All playoff matches were best-of-three, single elimination.
The map pool was changed for this major. Dust II was taken out of the active map pool and Valve reintroduced Inferno, which had been taken out of the map pool and revamped.
The veto process was also changed for best-of-one games. One team decided whether to veto maps first or second. The team that vetoes first removed two maps. The second team vetoed three maps. The first team then chose one of the two remaining maps. The second team then chose the side it wanted to start on. The best-of-three veto process was unchanged. Each team first banned a map, leaving a five-map pool. Each team then chose a map, with the opposing team selecting which side they wanted to start on for their opponent's map choice. The two map picks were the first two maps in the best-of-three. The teams then each banned one more map, leaving one map remaining for the best-of-three decider if necessary.
A total of eight teams will compete in the Asia Minor. Two teams will be invited and the other six will qualify in their regional qualifiers. These teams include one team from East Asia, one team from the Middle East, one team from China, one team from Oceania, and two teams from the India & Southeast Asia qualifier.
A total of eight teams will compete in the Commonwealth of Independent States Minor. The eight teams that participated in this minor all qualified through the closed qualifier. In the closed qualifier, twelve teams are invited and four teams qualify through an online open qualifier. Teams were separated into four groups of four and the top two teams moved on in each group to the closed qualifier. Two teams in the minor qualified for the main qualifier.
All teams in the European Minor were required to compete in a closed qualifier. In the closed qualifier, 8 teams were invited and 8 other teams qualified through three different open qualifiers. The teams will play in a Swiss system tournament and the top 8 teams move on to the closed qualifier. In the closed qualifier, the teams will be separated into two groups of four teams. Two teams from each group move on to a four team, double elimination playoff bracket. The top three teams advance to the main qualifier.
Two teams were invited to the Americas minor. One team out of a pool of 512 from South America qualified for the minor. The last five teams came from the North American closed qualifier. In that closed qualifier, 8 teams qualified through the open qualifier and 8 more teams were invited. The top five teams moved on to the Americas minor. In the minor, two teams moved on to the major.
The main qualifier was a sixteen-team Swiss-system tournament format in which, after the first round, teams only played other teams with the same winâÂÂloss record. Each match was best-of-one, and no team played another team twice. All teams played until they had either won or lost three games: any team with three wins advanced to the playoff stage, and any team with three losses was eliminated. The qualifier was played in Bucharest, Romania.
The Ninjas in Pyjamas, after missing its first ever major at ELEAGUE and failed to be Legends for the first time at ESL One Cologne 2016, failed to qualify for the major qualifier and the European Minor after losing to Finland's iGame.com in the first round, losing to Sweden's Red Reserve in second round, defeating Sweden's Epsilon eSports in the third round, and losing to Turkey's Space Soldiers in the fourth round, failing to attend its second straight major.
Host
Interviewer
Fluff
Commentators
Analysts
Observers
All streams were broadcast on Twitch in various languages.
The top eight teams from ELEAGUE Major 2017 (Legends) were joined by the eight teams from the main qualifier (Challengers).
Arguably the biggest change of the teams in the major was the "French shuffle," which was led by Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt and Richard "shox" Papillon. NBK-. Kenny "kennyS" Schrub and, Dan "apEX" Madesclaire left Team EnVyUs for G2 Esports to join shox and Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro; in addition, former G2 AWPer ÃÂdouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux moved to the coaching position. The remaining two G2 players, Cédric "RpK" Guipouy and Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom, left the team and joined Team EnVyUs.
HLTV.org rank teams based on results of teams' performances. The rankings shown below reflect the July 10, 2017 rankings, the last before the Major.
<sup>1</sup><small>Change since July 3, 2017 ranking</small>
<sup>2</sup><small>Peak and low since end of ELEAGUE Major.</small>
The group stage was a sixteen-team Swiss-system tournament in which, after the first round, teams only played other teams with the same winâÂÂloss record. Each match was best-of-one, and no team played another team twice. All teams played until they had either won or lost three games: any team with three wins advanced to the playoff stage, and any team with three losses was eliminated. The group stage and playoffs were played in Kraków, Poland, with group stage played in closed studio and playoffs being held in Tauron Arena Kraków.
First round seeding was determined by the following:
In the first round, first seeds played a randomly drawn fourth seed, and second seeds played a randomly drawn third seed. After this round, teams were randomly drawn against other teams with the same record (e.g., 1âÂÂ0 teams against 1âÂÂ0 teams, 0âÂÂ1 teams against 0âÂÂ1 teams). The eight teams to win three (out of a possible five) games were granted "Legend" status and an automatic invitation to the next Major.
BIG and Gambit received the top seeds and played a randomly selected opponent among Virtus.pro, Immortals, and Fnatic. BIG received Immortals and Gambit received Fnatic. Among SK Gaming, North, and Astralis, two randomly selected teams from this pool would go on to face each other and the teams would be SK Gaming and Astralis. The remaining two teams, North and Virtus.pro, were paired together.
Casters: James Bardolph & ddk
Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler
Casters: HenryG & Sadokist
Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler
Casters: James Bardolph & ddk
Casters: Sadokist & HenryG
Casters: Sadokist & HenryG
AdreN was named the MVP of the tournament.
The final placings are shown below. Each team's in-game leader is shown first.
The first HLTV.org ranking after the PGL Major came out on July 24, 2017.
<sup>â </sup><small>Change since July 17, 2017 ranking</small>