My Picks For The PGL Copenhagen Major — Playoffs

Both the opening stage and the elimination stage of the Major have finished, and now we are at the most exciting part of the Major — the playoffs. There are eight teams that got past both the opening stage and the elimination stage, and they are:

• Cloud9 — H0bbit, electroNic, Boombl4, Ax1Le, Perfecto.
• Vitality — apEX, ZywOo, flameZ, Spinx, mezii.
• Team Spirit — chopper, sh1ro, magixx, zont1x, donk.
• FaZe Clan — karrigan, rain, frozen, ropz, broky.
• Eternal Fire — MAJ3R, XANTARES, woxic, Calyx, Wicadia.
• Natus Vincere — Aleksib, iM, b1t, jL, w0nderful.
• MOUZ — Brollan, siuhy, torzsi, Jimpphat, xertioN.
• G2 Esports — NiKo, huNter-, nexa, HooXi, m0NESY.

The first matches will be C9 vs Vitality, Spirit vs FaZe, Eternal Fire vs NaVi, and MOUZ vs G2.

Quarter-finals

While all of these teams are very similar in terms of skill, there are still some differences, especially when we take their performance during the elimination stage into account. Based on these differences, my picks for who will win the quarter-finals are:

Cloud9 — A team that got through both the opening stage and the elimination stage without too much trouble, they are now put up against Vitality. And while Vitality are great, they were a lot less consistent in their matches and seemed to struggle against some of the weaker teams in the elimination stage.

Team Spirit — Possibly the best team playing in the Major, they got 3:0 easily in the elimination stage, and it’s not like they had easy opponents — beating C9, Imperial, and NaVi without losing one of these matches is no small feat. Being up against FaZe, whose performance has been… underwhelming, to say the least, it’s hard to picture Spirit losing this matchup.

Natus Vincere — While their performance during the elimination stage was a bit shaky, and they struggled a bit against some of the weaker teams, they are only up against Eternal Fire, which is definitely not as good as NaVi.

MOUZ — A great team filled with well-known players, they are very likely to win their first matchup of the playoffs against G2, especially with the latter’s performance during the elimination stage being as bad as it was.

Semi-finals

So if all of my predictions for the quarter-finals are correct, the four teams left participating in the semi-finals are Cloud9, Team Spirit, Natus Vincere, and MOUZ. The matchups would be Cloud9 vs Team Spirit, and Natus Vincere vs MOUZ. My predictions for the winners of these two matchups are:

Team Spirit — While both they and Cloud9 have played really well in the earlier stages of the Major, it’s hard to imagine Spirit losing here, especially with their unique and amazing playstyle that never gets stale.

MOUZ — Going up against NaVi, this isn’t a sure pick at all, and this matchup has about a 50/50 chance of going either way, so here I just picked my favourite team of the two.

Grand final

This is the final match of the Major, and the most important one. The team that wins here is the team that takes the cup home and wins the entire Major. If my two predictions for the semi-finals were correct, then the team I think will win this final match is:

Team Spirit — After all the matches they have won already, and if they manage to make it to the final matchup, it’s hard to imagine them not winning the Major. And frankly, I’ll be sad if they don’t, regardless of the Viewer Pass, I genuinely think they deserve to take this one considering how they have been playing, especially donk.

So, this is the end of the Major. Considering I got enough correct in both the opening stage and the elimination stage, if I only get two predictions for the quarter-finals, one for the semi-finals, and one for the grand final, I got the diamond coin! While it’s a pretty rare thing, considering how the Major has been going so far, I don’t think it’s that far-fetched to believe that could happen. And after the Major ends, let’s hope Valve decides to bless us with an Operation.