FaZe Clan and the Copenhagen Flames became the first of eight teams to advance out of the Challengers stage on Wednesday at the PGL Major. The two teams will have the only flawless 3-0 qualification runs of the teams in the Challenger stage. They both went 2-0 in Day 1’s single-map matches before they each won a final best-of-three to qualify for the Legends stage.
The Flames defeated Astralis 16-6 and BIG 16-11 to set themselves up for qualification through the Swiss-style bracket. Earlier Wednesday, they were able to top Heroic in a Danish derby that went the distance in a back-and-forth best-of-three. The Flames ended the series 2-1 on Overpass with a 16-12 scoreline. Fredrik “roeJ” Jørgensen has been a revelation thus far, boasting a 1.36 rating on HLTV over the first five maps of the tournament.
I wish I could answer and like everything people are writing to me right now, but my twitter is exploding. Here is a huge THANK YOU to everyone who is supporting me and the rest of the team ♥️🔥#BringTheFlames
— Rasmus🐢Pallisgaard🐢Nielsen (@HooXiCSGO) October 27, 2021
FaZe Clan’s path to qualification took them through Spirit and ENCE on Day 1, with FaZe winning both matches 16-11 and 16-12, respectively. Day 2 pitted them against Virtus.pro. VP’s map pick, Mirage, went the full 30 rounds before FaZe won 16-14. Ancient looked more one-sided as FaZe finished the sweep with a dominant 16-6 scoreline. FaZe’s top performers over the first two days of the PGL Major have been Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken and Finn “karrigan” Andersen.
Despite their rocky route to qualification for the PGL Major Stockholm, FaZe were favored to advance to the next stage. In contrast, the Flames were viewed as an underdog, rated lower than their Danish counterpart teams, Astralis and Heroic, both of whom they beat to qualify for the Legends stage.
FaZe and the Flames will join Ninjas in Pyjamas, FURIA Esports, Natus Vincere, Team Vitality, Team Liquid, G2 Esports, Gambit Esports and the Evil Geniuses in the Legends stage, which starts Saturday. They will be joined by six other teams advancing from the Challengers stage. The 16 teams will battle it out in another Swiss stage, where only eight teams will advance to the Champions stage playoffs that run from Nov. 4-7, 2021.
