The last Minor is nearly upon us, with eight teams ready to battle for three spots at PGL Major's Main Qualifier. Here is our preview of the Europe Minor, taking place from June 15-18 at PGL's studios in Bucharest, Romania.

Much like the other three Minors, Europe's stepping stone ahead of the PGL Major will see the eight teams split into two groups, which will be played in a GSL format with best-of-ones in the upper part and best-of-threes in the elimination and decider matches.

Here are the groups once again:

Group A Group B Envy PENTA BIG LDLC Kinguin Dignitas Ballistix iGame.com

The top two teams from the both groups will advance to the best-of-three, double-elimination playoffs, from which the three best teams will secure the final three spots at the Major's Main Qualifier.

The Europe Minor brings together mostly teams ranked between #20 and #40, all of whom made it to the $50,000 event via a set of online qualifiers.

Ratings used are the newly introduced version 2.0 from the past three months on LAN

* indicates online rating 2.0 in the past three months

Group A

Offline results in the past three months 5th-6th ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals 7th-8th DreamHack Open Tours DreamHack Open Tours 7th-8th cs_summit cs_summit

As you'll notice by glancing at the offline results in the past three months from teams down below, Envy are the only squad out of all eight with any recent experience in top-tier competition.

The Frenchmen had a slow start, finishing last in their first two endeavours, but their latest attempt, at ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals, resulted in a respectable 5th-6th place, with wins over SK, Immortals, and Cloud9.

EnVyUs should be a lock for one of the Main Qualifier spots

That is more than what any other team at the Europe Minor can boast about, putting Envy in prime position to top Group A, as well as to take one of the three Main Qualifier spots on offer.

Nevertheless, Happy's team should be wary of group rival BIG — whom they're more than likely to meet in the winners' match —, especially due to Inferno being a strong possibility in the match-up.

Offline results in the past three months 2nd ESEA S24 Global Challenge - MDL Global Finals ESEA S24 Global Challenge - MDL Global Finals 1st ESL Meisterschaft Spring Finals ESL Meisterschaft Spring Finals 3rd-4th Copenhagen Games Copenhagen Games

As we segway into BIG, the German side are the second most experienced team at the Minor after Envy, boasting veteran gob b and three of the country's best players, tabseN, nex, and keev.

The last player mentioned has, however, not shown much so far under gob b's leadership, despite his individual success in ALTERNATE aTTaX leading up to his move to BIG.

tabseN thrived in a similar level of competition last time

Instead, it has been tabseN playing fantastic Counter-Strike lately, especially at ESEA Season 24's Global Challenge, helping his squad to secure second place at the $50,000 LAN.

keev might need to bring his A-game for BIG to defeat the likes of Envy, but even without it, the Germans have a good chance to confirm their place as one of the tournament's three favorites and get one of those all-important Major Qualifier spots.

Offline results in the past three months 3rd-4th GeForce Cup GeForce Cup 1st ESL Polish Championship ESL Polish Championship

Chances of making it to the playoffs diminish as we go further down the list and reach Kinguin, who recently hit rock bottom internally, resulting in a lineup change from Damian "⁠Furlan⁠" Kislowski to Hyper.

With Hyper back in activity, the Polish roster was unable to avoid relegation from ESL Pro League Season 5 and disappointed in several other online competitions and at the offline GeForce Cup, where it dropped a series to Red Reserve in the semi-finals. As such, Kinguin will be gambling all their chips on the Minor, for which they qualified after beating Space Soldiers, Outlaws and Tricked.

rallen's Kinguin have stagnated for several months

The Poles have a surprisingly even map pool when it comes to distribution, with six maps (all but Nuke) between 12-16 times played in the last three months. That is not necessarily a good thing, though, because they don't really have a home map they can rely on, which they would need against the likes of BIG and Envy.

Their recent form and lack of reliable maps make a playoff appearance doubtful at best for rallen and company, who desperately need a boost to at least stay relevant in the rankings.

Offline results in the past three months 5th-8th GeForce Cup GeForce Cup 13th-16th Copenhagen Games Copenhagen Games 2nd China Cup China Cup

As the last seed in Group A, we have possibly the least experienced team of all, the fnatic Academy squad that was forced to rebrand to Ballistix for this event due to PGL's ruling concerning multiple teams playing under the same banner.

The Swedish squad of up-and-comers made their name at China Top in December of last year, when they topped the tournament with wins over the original VG.CyberZen and MVP Project.

There isn't much of a case for the young Swedes at the Minor

Since then, they have exchanged one of their stars, Aleksandar "⁠jayzaR⁠" Zarkovic, for Jayzwalkingz, with whom they finished second to TYLOO at China Cup, in March.

Last-place finishes at Copenhagen Games and GeForce Cup are much less encouraging, though, especially considering Ballistix will kick the Minor off by facing the tournament's favorite, Envy.

Group B

Offline results in the past three months 5th-8th GeForce Cup GeForce Cup 1st ESEA S24 Global Challenge - MDL Global Finals ESEA S24 Global Challenge - MDL Global Finals

Since PENTA's new European lineup's creation in March, the team around kRYSTAL has risen up the ranks, making a jump from #52 to #20 in less than two months.

That was mainly thanks to their win at ESEA S24's Global Challenge, where they topped their group after defeating GODSENT and took down BIG in the grand final, following amazing individual displays from suNny, and innocent's consistent delivery.

PENTA are searching for consistency

The European squad has not been able to find consistency just yet, as they made a U-turn at the GeForce Cup, losing to Gatekeepers in the quarter-finals and thus finishing in the bottom places.

Considering that failure, it's tough to say which PENTA will show up at the Minor; it's likely it'll take another great combination of suNny and innocent for them to secure a spot at the Main Qualifier.

One thing going for them is their prowess on Inferno and Train, on which HS and company have taken down several other teams in attendance at the Minor. They also are the only team to play all seven maps, making vetos tougher for their opponents.

Offline results in the past three months 9th-12th Copenhagen Games Copenhagen Games

Since LDLC lost xms to Envy and brought Maniac in, their track record online has been shabby at best, apart from their successful qualification bid for the Europe Minor.

Their only offline appearance in the last five months, at Copenhagen Games, ended with a group stage exit following losses to BIG and North Academy.

Ex6TenZ's LDLC placed 5th-6th at the last Europe Minor

Ex6TenZ's squad will have a tough time choosing the correct maps, seeing as one of their two good maps, Nuke, is not likely to get out of vetoes against anyone in their group apart from iGame.com.

LDLC will have a slight advantage against Dignitas in their first match, however, with the last encounter between the two, on Overpass, going their way.

The Europe Minor will effectively be Dignitas' offline debut, since the squad has only played online ever since its creation in March, when Mikail "⁠Maikelele⁠" Bill and Faruk "⁠pita⁠" Pita were still part of the roster.

cromen and TENZKI have since entered the fray in the two aforementioned players' stead, with zEVES joining in as coach, and Dignitas quickly found success by advancing to the Europe Minor.

RUBINO's dignitas trump Group B in individual experience

The squad is still too young to be called a favorite to advance from their group, but they certainly have a chance to do so as they will face off against opponents with more team experience, but less so as individual players.

Offline results in the past three months 5th-8th Copenhagen Games Copenhagen Games 1st-8th Copenhagen Games BYOC Qualifier Copenhagen Games BYOC Qualifier

After their 5th-8th placing at Copenhagen Games, iGame.com began to drop in the rankings, losing the top 30 status that they had gained at the end of 2016.

In between a few disappointing finishes in online tournaments, the Finns qualified for the Minor after claiming the first upset on NiP and handing Heroic one of the defeats that cost the Danes a spot at the Bucharest event.

iGame.com beat NiP and Heroic on their way to the Minor

Much like Dignitas, iGame.com won't exactly be favored in any match-up, but with the two of the teams being in questionable form, xseveN and company could cause upsets and go further than expected.