Teams decided for all four CS:GO PGL Minors

The open qualifiers have concluded which means that the teams are now locked in for all four PGL Minors.

The Minors are $50,000 (£44,600) eight-team tournaments based in the largest four CS:GO regions – Americas, Europe, CIS and Asia. The tournaments act as the first line qualifiers for the Major, hosted in Krakow also by PGL.

Each of the tournaments act as qualifiers to the Major Qualifier, where the top two sides of each will meet the bottom eight of the ELEAGUE Major. The Major Qualifier is set to take place June 29th-July 2nd.

Asia

The first Minor to take place will be in Asia, taking place between June 1st-4th. Two of the spots were already decided prior to the qualifiers, as the Australians of Renegades and Chinese team TyLoo picked up invites. Six qualifiers followed in various regions within Asia – China, East Asia, Middle East, Oceania and two for India and South-East Asia. The sides qualifying included the Chinese Flash Gaming, featuring Attacker and fancy1 of TyLoo fame, and the Australians of Immunity.

Renegades looking to return to their first Major since Cologne 2015, having failed to qualify for every Major since. (source).

The full set of Asia Minor teams are:

TyLoo Renegades Flash Gaming The MongolZ
Team Spotnet Team Immunity Signature Gaming 7642

Americas

Next to take place will be the Americas Minor, over June 8th-11th. Again, two spots were decided by invites, with Cloud9 and Immortals taking these slots. The final six spots were divided between South America, gaining one spot, and North America, taking the final five. The qualifying sides include former Major competitors CLG, alongside compLexity led by British duo dephh and Surreal who are set to compete in their first Minor.

The full set of Americas Minor teams are:

Cloud9 Immortals paiN Gaming compLexity
CLG Luminosity Misfits NRG

CIS

Taking place alongside the Americas Minor will be the CIS Minor, operated by Starladder. This, alongside the Europe Minor, didn’t include direct invites to the tournament. The qualifier itself saw four GSL-style groups, where the top two teams from each made it to the Minor. Notable entrants to the tournament are pro100, recently reformed by Gambit’s IGL Daniil “Zeus” Teslenko, and previous Major Qualifier surprise team Vega Squadron. Also notable is the fact Team Spirit and their academy have qualified, once again leading into the conflict-of-interest issues that have recently plagued CS:GO.

The full set of CIS Minor teams are:

Spartak Esports Team Spirit Spirit Academy Tengri
k29 pro100 Quantum Bellator Vega Squadron

Europe

Finally, the Europe Minor will be the last to take place, over June 15th-18th. Like the CIS Minor, entry to this was only achievable through online qualification. This saw the use of a Swiss-based system to decide the eight teams. Notably, the absence of NiP is the greatest surprise of them all as they fail to reclaim their stake amongst the cream of the crop in CS:GO. Recent ESEA MDL champions PENTA Sports are among the teams qualified to the Minor, alongside the French sides EnVyUs and LDLC.

PGL, ESEA MDL
ESEA MDL Champions PENTA Sports, looking to continue their run of form. (Source)

Unlike the rest of the Minors, the top three sides in Europe qualify to the Main Qualifier, due to the post-ELEAGUE ‘French shuffle’, where one of the teams failed to keep their 3/5 roster requirement.

The full set of Europe Minor teams are:

EnVyUS PENTA Sports BIG iGame
Team LDLC Team Dignitas Fnatic Academy Team Kinguin


Esports Insider says: The region-based qualification system is back in full swing, with teams from all over the world set to try and make it to the PGL Major in Krakow this summer. However, issues around conflicts-of-interest are back on the table, as Valve’s hands-off nature has allowed many ‘Academy’ sides to compete, sometimes alongside their main-team counterparts.