PGL ChampionShip Series 2015 preview and highlights

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The PGL CS:GO ChampionShip Series will start on Friday, April 24th and will continue until Sunday, April 26th. The CS:GO event will feature four teams fighting for the $110,000 prize purse.

Note: PGL organisers added money raised from their Twitch channel to the total prize fund. Click here to find out more.

Map pool: Prize pool: de_dust2 1st: $40,000 de_inferno 2nd: $20,000 de_nuke 3rd: $10,000 de_mirage 4th: $5,000 de_cache de_cobblestone de_overpass

Finals

The finals will feature four teams starting in the upper bracket competing for a position in the grand finals, with the losing teams of the first games being dropped to the lower bracket where they will compete for a place in the semi-finals, each game being played in a best-of-three format, except the grand finals which will feature a best-of-five format.

Location

The PGL ChampionShip Series 2015 finals will be held at the Polyvalent Hall, where PGL has hosted events since 2013, between April 24 and 26 in Bucharest, Romania. The Polyvalent Hall or Sala Polivalentă is home to sporting events, artistic exhibitions, trade fairs and concerts, featuring a football pitch and ice rink. Live broadcasting will be provided on the PGL Twitch channel.

Schedule

Day 1 - April 24

15:00 CEST - Fnatic vs TSM

18:00 CEST - Team EnVy vs Ninjas in Pyjamas

Day 2 - April 25

11:00 CEST - Loser Bracket Final

14:00 CEST - Winner Bracket Final

18:00 CEST - 3rd place decider

Day 3 - April 26

17:00 CEST - Grand Final

Highlights

Fnatic could win first tourney after Katowice

We're just over a month ahead of ESL One Katowice which saw Fnatic reign victorious in the grand finals above their rivals, Swedish counter-parts Ninjas in Pyjamas. Fnatic, becoming the only team in recorded history to win their second major tournament confirmed their position as the number one team in the world. The Swedish team also won IOS Pantamera in the recent months and had an 80% win ratio in March. Fnatic are definitely a team to watch closely in the ChampionShip Series finals.

The rise of Team SoloMid

Team SoloMid has for a while shown they're ability to go toe-to-toe with the best teams in the world, with recent wins in the FACEIT league against Na'Vi, EnVy and Fnatic, and the ESL Pro League finals against Virtus Pro and Team Dignitas. However, TSM has only managed to win second or third places at the most in any LAN event this year. It's been discussed that TSM has difficulty coping in certain situations in-game, such as the late-game of important matches, as if the pressure gets too much and their team-play as a whole deteriorates. If Team SoloMid can overcome their problems in-game they can proceed to win the CCS finals.

EnVy with an up & down history

Since winning DreamHack Winter in late 2014, Team EnVyUs has won MLG X Games , Gfinity spring tournament and the very recent StarLadder StarSeries season 12 finals. The French team were knocked out in the semi-finals of the major ESL One Katowice tournament last month by Ninjas in Pyjamas, but managed to get payback against the Swedes at the StarLadder StarSeries finals where they beat the Swedish team twice, in the most dominating fashion by winning two maps in the first encounter in a best-of-three series, then three maps in the grand finals which was a best-of-five game. EnVy didn't come up against Fnatic though, who won the Katowice major, because the Swedes didn't manage to qualify for the event.

In this PGL ChampionShip Series EnVy need to show they're able to win a large tournament Fnatic is competing in, since even at DreamHack Winter EnVy had free reign almost, due to Fnatic's forfeit over the illegal Overpass boost ruling. Team EnVy will be an interesting team to watch in this ChampionShip Series, especially as they compete against NiP in their first game.

We asked EnVy player Nathan "NBK" Schmitt some questions:

Did you guys have a bootcamp prior to this event?

We couldn't bootcamp, and could not play a lot for several private and unfortunate reasons. We feel that we can do great anyway if we can get our crosshair where we want it :)

Assuming you make it to the finals, who do u want to face and why?

I believe that the 4 teams in the tournament are on the same level. Each game is gonna be extremely difficult, but we didn't face Fnatic for ages now, and I'd love facing them again!

What changes would you encourage Valve to make to CSGO?

I think Valve should work more with the pro teams, be a little more responsive to feedback.

Can we expect a negev buy?

If I missbuy again, why not! But it's not a real trick in my book sadly :)

The Ninjas have something to prove

So far this year Ninjas in Pyjamas has seen only one tournament win, at Asus Rog which is so long ago they have since had a roster change, replacing Swedish player Mikail "Maikelele" Bill with Finnish Aleksi "Allu" Jalli. In the last two months the Ninjas have reached second place in the events ESL One Katowice, Gfinity Spring and StarLadder StarSeries. We haven't seen a win from them in a while but they've sought first place for a long time, even going back to DreamHack Winter where NiP earned the second place title. The Swedes want first place and they've strived for it for so long. In the CCS championship we could see some surprises in favor of the Ninjas, maybe a bit of the so-called "NiP magic".

We will be interviewing more players as the event continues, stay tuned to this page!

Who do you think is going to win the PGL ChampionShip Series? Let us know in the comments below.