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PGL Krakow named next Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major

By Brittany Frederick

ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 29: A general view of play during the ELEAGUE: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship finals at Fox Theater on January 29, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 29: A general view of play during the ELEAGUE: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship finals at Fox Theater on January 29, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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Valve has named PGL Krakow the next Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major tournament. Get the details on CS:GO’s new stop in Poland here.

Fans of eSports will want to keep an eye on Poland this summer, as Valve has named Krakow a Major stop for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. PGL Major Krakow will run from June 1 to July 23, 2017 per an announcement from the developer on Wednesday.

The event will begin with regional Minor qualifiers in four areas over three consecutive weeks. The schedule starts with Asia (Thursday, June 1), followed by The Americas (Thursday, June 8), CIS (also on Thursday, June 8), and concluding in Europe (Thursday, June 15). Eight teams will be invited to each regional Minor, with the top two from each section advancing.

Two weeks later on June 29, those eight winning teams from the Minors will play again in a LAN qualifier against the lower eight teams from January’s ELEAGUE Major in Atlanta. From those 16 squads, half will be eliminated.

The actual PGL Krakow Major Championship gets underway on Sunday, July 16 at Krakow’s Tauron Arena.

It will consist of the eight Counter-Strike teams who advanced from the LAN qualifier plus the eight top teams from the ELEAGUE Major.

The PGL Krakow Group Stage will happen from July 16 to July 19, followed by the Playoffs on July 21 and the Grand Final on Sunday, July 23. The winner will take home the biggest portion of a one million dollar prize pool.

Here’s the official announcement trailer for PGL Major Krakow that Valve released on Wednesday:

If you’re a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fan, PGL Krakow is worth getting excited about just for the audience. It’s a home game for one of the most beloved and most successful CS:GO teams in Virtus.pro. And Virtus.pro fans can bring the energy, as evidenced by how they reacted at IEM Katowice after Snax crashed the casters desk.

The timing of the event is also interesting particularly if you’re a North American viewer. Teams who advance at PGL Krakow won’t be able to play in DreamHack Atlanta, which runs on the same weekend as the Krakow Grand Final. There’s also the ESL Pro League Season 5 finals scheduled for June 3 to June 4 in Dallas, but since those are the finals, fewer teams would have a potential scheduling conflict.

Both events, however, have a smaller prize pool than PGL Krakow; DreamHack Atlanta is only slated to offer $100,000 so it’ll have a hard time luring teams away from the one million dollars on the line in Poland.

Speaking of ESL, what does PGL Krakow mean for the fate of ESL One Cologne, which has been rumored to no longer be a Major? This would seem to be the nail in the coffin.

Next: BlizzCon 2017 announces its convention dates

However it affects other tournaments throughout the summer of 2017, the announcement of PGL Krakow as a Major is an exciting new development for the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene. Be sure to keep an eye on Poland this summer to see how it plays out.