Spirit vs Cloud9 headlines Elimination Stage Round 1

The match-ups for the first round are in, and there will be a handful of mouth-watering contests.

Spirit will go up against Cloud9 in the first round

PGL has revealed the match-ups for the opening round of the Copenhagen Major's Elimination Stage, which will be headlined by a Russian derby between Spirit and Cloud9, the only clash between top 10 teams in the first round.

It will be the first time that these two teams will face each other in Counter-Strike 2. The most recent match between them, in the grand final of a BLAST Fall Showdown qualifier, ended with Cloud9 picking up a close 2-0 win. Back then, Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov was still AWPing for Cloud9, and Artem "⁠ArtFr0st⁠" Kharitonov was playing for Spirit.

Current world No.1 FaZe will go up against HEROIC in another highly-anticipated match, while reigning Major champions Vitality will take on Eternal Fire. G2 will face FURIA, the last team to make it through the Opening Stage.

Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan's troops, just like Imperial and The MongolZ, will have very little time to reset and refocus before the Elimination Stage kicks off on Thursday. Just like in the Opening Stage, the first day will see every team play two best-of-one games. Only the qualification and elimination matches will feature a best-of-three format.

The top eight teams will progress to the playoffs, which will be held at the Royal Arena in front of a crowd between March 28-31.

Below you can find the first-round matchups:

Date	Matches
PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024
21/03/2024	MOUZ 13:00 ECSTATIC	Match
21/03/2024	Natus Vincere 13:00 The MongolZ	Match
21/03/2024	Virtus.pro 14:00 Imperial	Match
21/03/2024	Vitality 14:15 Eternal Fire	Match
21/03/2024	Complexity 15:05 paiN	Match
21/03/2024	FaZe 15:25 HEROIC	Match
21/03/2024	G2 16:05 FURIA	Match
21/03/2024	Spirit 16:40 Cloud9	Match