PGL Krakow 2017 — RECAP & What we learned

Wolfy
Wolfy
Jul 27, 2017 · 8 min read

PGL Krakow 2017 came to a conclusion on Sunday and left Gambit eSports as the victors by beating Immortals in a surprising final. Gambit took home the biggest piece of the price pool consisting of 1,000,000$. Read our recap of the event, and what we learned from this very unorthodox major.

Already at the very first stages of the tournament we found ourselves baffled by some of the results that the group stage left us with. Favourites to become the major finalists, FaZe Clan, ended up becoming the biggest disappointment of the whole tournament, delivering a unflattering 0–3 score-line from the group stages. Beaten by two teams who didn’t get past the group stage themselves.

FaZe Clan’s results might have been the most shocking, but they weren’t the only ones delivering surprise results. CIS powerhouse Natus Vincere and the French super-team G2 were also surprising exits from the group stage. As the group stage came to an end there were two big surprises leading the charge going 3–0 in the group stage. Gambit who hadn’t delivered any promising results online before the major and the German team BIG, who came all the way from the European Minor Closed Qualifier.

Quarterfinals

First ones in line to start the play-offs were Gambit facing the most-winning team in CS:GO history, Fnatic. Despite Fnatic having a rough time after breaking up the line-up only to get back together again later, there was still hope of the Swedes delivering in a major. Train came down to the wire with a 16–14 score-line. Despite the close loss on the first map you could tell the Swedes were hungry to prove themselves. Inferno was the second map, the Swedes simply had no answer to Gambits Dosia playing out of his mind delivering 30 kills. Score Inferno, 16–11, end result 2–0. Gambit advanced and sent the Swedes home.

Highlight: https://clips.twitch.tv/SmellyAntsyConsoleSquadGoals

Astralis and SK, the two favourites for the play-offs were set to face each other as early as the quarterfinals. The community was baffled and disgusted that what they considered to be the final would happen already. Never the less the match was played, Astralis delivered the goods and the star AWPer ‘dev1ce’ turned up and shut down SKs ‘FalleN’ at almost every chance he got. The number one team in the world, SK, found themselves beaten and Astralis advanced in convincing fashion, 2–0.

Highlight: https://clips.twitch.tv/MiniaturePopularBadgerOSfrog

Next in line, BIG facing Immortals who many believed had the easiest route this major. Immortals would go on to prove them wrong by defeating BIG in a match that had the most showboating during the whole Major. The matches were intense with players getting knifed left, right and centre. Sadly there was no crowd for reaction. The first map went to overtime and they had to go all the way to the third map. Despite BIGs star-player ‘tabseN’ waking up on the last map, Immortals narrowly beat BIG 16–14 making the final score 2–1 in their favour. The Brazilians made sure that at least one of the two Brazilian teams would make it through to the next day.

Highlight: https://clips.twitch.tv/ObedientDependableBeanStinkyCheese

Day two had the matchup we had all been waiting for. Polish team Virtus.pro in Krakow were set to play against the Danish line-up North. The noise level the Polish crowd achieved as Virtus.pro walked out on stage with their custom jerseys gave me goosebumps.

Allow me to share some audio: https://clyp.it/5ghdijac

Chants, clapping and constant support of their team made the first match of the day an unforgettable experience. Virtus.pro looked as if they hadn’t been in a slump at all coming into the major. The teamwork was on point and the old 1.6 legends were shining again. North looked lost, and the plow had arrived in Krakow. Virtus.pro beat North 2–0, comfortably on both maps, making them ready for the semi-finals.

Hightlight: https://clips.twitch.tv/FurryProductivePandaStrawBeary

Semi-finals

As the last quarterfinals match had been played we were set for the next step of the Major, the semi-finals. Gambit who so far had looked the best they’ve been in a long time were about to go up against Astralis. The team who just yesterday sent the favourite to win it all, SK, home packing. Despite the form Astralis had shown the previous day, Gambit didn’t look worried. The first map was comfortably won by Gambit and their AWPer ‘Mou’ who dropped an amazing 33 kills in a total of 26 rounds. However, the Danes refused to give in and secured the second map with a 16–8 score-line. One of the Majors most memorable moment would happen on the last map, at 13–12 Gambits IGL, ‘Zeus’, took a timeout. He had used the whole previous round talking to his team as they couldn’t seem to find a recipe to counter the Danes who managed to string rounds together. The tension was building in the audience, everyone were excited to see what the mastermind could possibly do to take Gambit past the only obstacle separating them from a spot in the finals. As the timeout ended, Gambit convincingly won round after round until they found themselves with the final score-line of 16–12, they had managed to beat favourites Astralis 2–1 and were now in the final.

Highlight: https://clips.twitch.tv/HungryTenaciousCheetahKeepo

Last match of the day and it was once again time to see Virtus.pro in action, this time against Brazilian team Immortals. As the stadium filled up, the crowd got louder and louder until you could barely hear the commentators. It felt like everyone had counted Immortals out and were overly convinced that it would be a Gambit vs. Virtus.pro final of the Major. However, the Brazilians had other plans in mind. Despite having looked very sharp and on-point in their previous match of the very same day, Virtus.pro got outclassed on the first map and only managed to get a total of 5 rounds, out of 21 played. Alright, no one were expecting them to win on Inferno, but the second map, Mirage, was their own pick. Even though Virtus.pro didn’t play to their full potential, the crowd was still amazing and held their hope. Sadly it didn’t matter how much the whole arena wanted Virtus.pro to succeed in their home country, the Brazilians were too strong. Immortals had shockingly booked themselves a spot in the final after defeating Virtus.pro 2–0.

Highlight: https://clips.twitch.tv/CallousDeafMangoItsBoshyTime

The Final

The final that no one had seen coming was now a fact. Gambit who couldn’t even beat Tier 3 teams just a few weeks ago had somehow managed to grind their way to peak form at the most prestigious tournament in CS:GO. Immortals, the Brazilian second team, the team forever in SKs shadow had managed to book the second spot in the final. This might be the most surprising finalists an event of this calibre has ever seen in CS:GO history. Never the less, it was happening and the final did deliver.

Groups of Gambit fans gathered around the backside of their booth, and on the opposite side the Brazilian fans did the same. The very first map made us all worried this might become the most unsatisfying final in a major as Immortals destroyed Gambit 16–4 on Cobblestone. However, Gambit proved us all wrong by delivering a very good performance on Train where the Brazilians double AWP setup looked unbeatable for a long time. Gambit made their first mark on the scoreboard by winning the second map 16–11 and the score was now 1–1. The final map was more intense than I think the score gives credit for. Gambit had awoken and H0bbit was playing out of his mind clutching rounds that Gambit had no business in winning. Dosia denying Immortals the save in pit by throwing what can only be referred to as the 200 IQ grenade. And ultimately the map was heavily competitive with individual plays happening all over the map. Gambit closed it out and secured their first major trophy in history, beating Immortals 16–10 on the final map.

Highlight: https://clips.twitch.tv/StrangeHeadstrongHummingbirdDoritosChip

What we can learn from this Major

There is no doubt that this might be the most surprising major to date, but why did it come to this conclusion? Just a week prior to the Major we saw the top teams competing in ESL One Cologne where the results were as expected. The number one team in the world winning, FaZe and NaVi looking to be in form before the major, and even Cloud9 delivering a top performance as ‘NA’s last hope’. Gambit and Astralis however, chose to prepare for the major instead of playing other tournaments. Virtus.pro bombed out on last place at Cologne, but still managed to get to the semi-finals of the Major. According to an interview conducted by HLTV with ‘NEO’, VP had the most serious boot camp that they have ever had with this line-up following their disappointment in Cologne. Immortals didn’t last through the group stage either in Cologne, perhaps giving them also more time to prepare for the major? This brings the question, are top teams getting burned out playing all these events, perhaps it’s time to put rules in place to ensure that teams deliver their best performance in the tournament that’s supposed to be the most prestigious in CS:GO?

Maybe the problem isn’t how much time teams put into preparation before events, or how many hours each team has. Perhaps we’ve reached a level that is so high and competitive that any of the teams that are good enough to play in the Major can beat each other? Others argue that the swiss format is not the ultimate format to find the best teams, that it’s favouring the underdogs who don’t have as wide of a map-pool. No one should exit a major without having played a single BO3, some argue. Whatever reasoning there is behind this very obscure Major, I am certainly looking forward to see what comes after the player break.

Magnus ‘ZeroXiz’ Einmo

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