PGL Major Stockholm 2021 Challengers StageENCE, Virtus.pro join 1-0 group in Stockholm
The two Brazilian sides, GODSENT and paiN, were unable to secure opening wins at the PGL Major.
The third-highest ranked team of the Challengers Stage, ENCE, lived up to their status as they faced GODSENT on Nuke. On a notoriously good map for Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer's teams the captain didn't disappoint, pushing ENCE to a 16-10 victory. On the secondary stream, Virtus.pro celebrated Evgenii "FL1T" Lebedev's debut with a hard-fought win over paiN on Inferno, 16-14.
A force-buy win put GODSENT into a good spot early into Nuke, setting Epitacio "TACO" de Melo's team up for a 5-2 lead on the offensive side of the map. the Brazilians weren't able to capitalize on the early game pressure thanks to Snappi stepping up individually, securing numerous multikills as his team bounced back to a 9-6 scoreline.
Another good start to the half for GODSENT, this time a 3-0 following pistol, tied the map at 9-9, but they again failed to keep it competitive in the rifle rounds. ENCE's hits were too much to deal with, and a 2v4 turnaround all but closed the game for a final score of 16-10.
 ENCE |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 - 12 | +13 | 84.2 | 73.1% | 1.46 | |
| 21 - 14 | +7 | 95.8 | 76.9% | 1.39 | |
| 19 - 13 | +6 | 83.3 | 88.5% | 1.39 | |
| 18 - 18 | 0 | 75.3 | 80.8% | 1.13 | |
| 14 - 12 | +2 | 60.9 | 80.8% | 1.01 |
 GODSENT |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 - 21 | -6 | 86.5 | 80.8% | 1.03 | |
| 17 - 18 | -1 | 59.2 | 65.4% | 0.93 | |
| 15 - 18 | -3 | 57.9 | 61.5% | 0.86 | |
| 12 - 20 | -8 | 55.7 | 57.7% | 0.73 | |
| 10 - 20 | -10 | 49.5 | 61.5% | 0.59 |
In their first game since replacing Sanjar "SANJI" Kuliev for FL1T, who mentioned in a pre-tournament interview that he had minimal practice with the team, Virtus.pro managed a hard-fought victory over paiN. Not much was expected from the Brazilian side, having failed to deliver in the few European tournaments they attended in 2021, but the match on Inferno was competitive from start to finish.
paiN established themselves in the first half with a clean force-buy win in the second round to limit Virtus.pro's deadly T-side to eight rounds. The CIS side stepped up on the defense, reaching 12-8 shortly, as Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis shined in his first match at any stage of a Major. However, Wesley "hardzao" Lopes and Rafael "saffee" Costa were keeping their team in competition, with the former's 1v4 clutch to make the score 14-14 seemingly breaking Virtus.pro's resistance. Another anti-eco loss on B ended paiN's hopes of an upset as the team ranked 12th in the world closed out by the opening game by the smallest of margins.
  paiN |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 - 18 | +5 | 72.7 | 83.3% | 1.28 | |
| 22 - 17 | +5 | 91.9 | 66.7% | 1.21 | |
| 16 - 19 | -3 | 66.2 | 66.7% | 0.97 | |
| 16 - 18 | -2 | 54.4 | 76.7% | 0.93 | |
| 11 - 21 | -10 | 43.9 | 63.3% | 0.61 |
 Virtus.pro |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 - 17 | +7 | 84.3 | 70.0% | 1.37 | |
| 23 - 16 | +7 | 86.1 | 70.0% | 1.18 | |
| 21 - 14 | +7 | 61.0 | 80.0% | 1.16 | |
| 14 - 20 | -6 | 53.9 | 60.0% | 0.77 | |
| 11 - 21 | -10 | 58.0 | 63.3% | 0.74 |
Four team are now placed in the 1-0 and 0-1 groups, from which the matchups for round 2 will be drawn later in the day.
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s1mple_WILL_WIN_NEXT_MAJOR
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djwanksta
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