The PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 was the first Counter-Strike 2 Major tournament and the twentieth Counter-Strike Major overall. It took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, at the Royal Arena from March 17 to March 31, 2024. Twenty-four teams qualified for the event through regional competitions. The tournament had a total prize money of US$1,250,000. This was the fourth Counter-Strike Major organized by PGL, following the PGL Major: Kraków 2017, PGL Major Stockholm 2021, and PGL Major Antwerp 2022. Natus Vincere won the tournament after defeating FaZe Clan with a score of 2–1.

Background

Counter-Strike 2 is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game created and released by Valve Corporation. It is the fifth game in the Counter-Strike series. In professional Counter-Strike, the tournaments supported by Valve called Majors are the most important events.

The team that won the previous Major championship was Team Vitality. They claimed their first Major title at the Blast Paris Major 2023. However, they were defeated in the semi-finals by FaZe Clan.

Format

On November 4, 2023, Valve changed the names of the Major's stages. The stages were previously called Challengers Stage, Legends Stage, and Champions Stage. They are now named "Opening Stage," "Elimination Stage," and "Playoffs Stage," respectively.

As in past Majors, the tournament uses a Swiss-system group stage format. Twenty-four teams qualified for the tournament. Sixteen of these teams joined the Opening Stage. The top eight teams from the Opening Stage advanced to the Elimination Stage. Eight additional teams from the Regional Major Ranking (RMR) qualifiers also joined the Elimination Stage. The top eight teams from the Elimination Stage competed in the Playoffs Stage, which is a single-elimination format to decide the champion.

In the Opening Stage and Elimination Stage, most matches are played as best-of-one. However, matches that determine progression or elimination are played as best-of-three. All matches in the Playoffs Stage are played as best-of-three. This Major is the first to use Counter-Strike 2's new 12-round halves.

• Ancient
• Anubis
• Inferno
• Mirage
• Nuke
• Overpass
• Vertigo

Talent

On March 13, 2024, PGL shared the complete list of talent for the Major, which includes a new "Newbie" stream. This stream is designed to help new viewers who are not familiar with Counter-Strike.

• James Banks (stage host)
• Richard Lewis
• Eefje "sjokz" Depoortere
• Pala Gilroy Sen

• Jacob "Pimp" Winneche
• Mathieu "Maniac" Quiquerez
• Sudhen "Bleh" Wahengbam
• Jason "moses" O'Toole

Qualification

Qualification happened through three Regional Major Ranking tournaments, which were organized based on teams' geographical regions. These events took place in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. In previous Majors, teams were sorted based on their performance at RMRs. However, this time, Valve used their own regional rankings to decide some spots in the Opening Stage and Elimination Stage.

Seven teams from Europe and one team from the Americas RMRs who qualified received direct entries into the Elimination Stage. This followed the number of teams from each region that moved from the Legends Stage to the playoffs of Paris 2023.

The RMR tournaments were held in these cities:

• Europe: Bucharest, Romania: February 14–24 (RMR A: February 14–17; RMR B: February 19–22; Last Chance Qualifier: February 23–24)
• Asia: Shanghai, China: February 26–28
• Americas: Monterrey, Mexico: March 1–4

After the Americas RMRs ended, Valve updated their regional rankings and assigned teams to the Elimination Stage based on these new rankings.

Opening stage

On November 4, 2023, Valve announced that the Challengers Stage and Legends Stage of the Major were renamed to "Opening Stage" and "Elimination Stage," respectively. Teams were placed into these stages based on their rankings in their regions. Similar to past Majors, which used a Swiss-system bracket, sixteen teams competed for eight spots in the Elimination Stage. Matches that were not elimination or progression matches were played as best-of-one, while elimination and progression matches were played as best-of-three.

The Opening Stage took place from March 17 to March 20, 2024.

Elimination stage

The Elimination Stage is played using a Swiss-system format, just like the Opening Stage. Eight teams move forward to the single-elimination playoffs. These eight teams include those who advanced from the Opening Stage, plus the seven highest-ranked teams from the Europe RMR and the top team from the Americas RMR according to Valve's regional standings. Matches in the Elimination Stage follow the same format as in the Opening Stage.

During a 2–2 bracket match between Virtus.pro and G2 Esports, a game crash occurred for Virtus.pro player Dzhami "Jame" Ali. This crash was later determined to be caused by an NVIDIA driver issue. The incident allowed G2 to reach a map point and sparked discussions about technical problems during the Major, including comments from G2 player Nikola "NiKo" Kovač.

The Elimination Stage took place from March 21 to March 24, 2024.

Playoffs stage

The top eight teams from the Elimination Stage will move forward to a single-elimination format. Each match in the Playoffs Stage is played using a best-of-three format.

On March 29, during a quarter-final match between G2 and MOUZ, audience members ran onto the stage and were stopped by event security, causing damage to the trophy. PGL issued a statement after the incident, explaining that they plan to take legal action against the individuals involved, who were connected to a gambling website for Counter-Strike.

The Playoffs Stage took place from March 28 to March 31, 2024.

Final standings

The final rankings are listed below. Also, information about how the prizes are given out, the list of participants, and the coaches are provided.