1. Background

2. Format
    Map pool 

3. Broadcast talent
    Broadcasts 

4. Major Qualifier
    Regional Qualifiers  Asia Minor  Europe Minor  CIS Minor  Americas Minor  Main Qualifier  Main Qualifier 

5. Teams competing
    Pre-major ranking  Relevant tournaments  Top 20 players in the tournament 

6. Group stage

7. Playoffs
    Bracket  Quarterfinals  Natus Vincere vs. Astralis  Gambit Gaming vs Fnatic  Virtus.pro vs North  SK Gaming vs FaZe Clan  Semifinals  Astralis vs Fnatic  Virtus.pro vs SK Gaming  Finals 

8. Final standings
    Post-Major Ranking 

9. Clash for Cash

10. References

The playoffs had eight teams. Astralis, Fnatic, Gambit Gaming, Natus Vincere, SK Gaming, and Virtus.pro were returning Legends. FaZe Clan and North were new Legends and FlipSid3 Tactics and Team Liquid were out after failing to make the top eight. The grand finals pitted Astralis, which was in its first ever final after nine playoff appearances, and Virtus.pro, which was in its second finals and looking for its second major title. Astralis defeated Natus Vincere and Fnatic and Virtus.pro defeated North and the defending champions SK Gaming. After a close and tense three game set, Astralis edged out Virtus.pro in the thirtieth round of the best of thirty rounds in game three for its first major title.

Background

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve Corporation. It is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series. In competitive play, the game pits two teams against each other: the Terrorists and the Counter-Terrorists. Both sides are tasked with eliminating the other while also completing separate objectives. The Terrorists must either plant a bomb or kill the entire Counter-Terrorist team, while the Counter-Terrorists must either prevent the bomb from being planted by killing the entire Terrorist team or defusing the bomb. At the end of each round, players are rewarded based on their individual performance with in-game currency to spend on more powerful weapons in subsequent rounds. Winning rounds results in more money than losing, and completing objectives such as killing enemy players gives cash bonuses. However, the more consecutive rounds a team loses, the more money the losing team earns, with the loss bonus capping after five rounds; once that team wins a round, the loss round bonus resets to the minimum amount each player could earn after a round.

There are six categories of purchasable categories, five being weapons – rifles, sub-machine guns (SMGs), heavy, pistols, and grenades – and the sixth being utilities, which includes armor and a taser. All guns have different states and all grenade types have different in-game effects. The highly explosive grenade deals damage in a small radius, the smoke grenade places a smoke screen for fifteen seconds so that nobody can see through the placed smoke, the decoy grenade emulates the player's primary gun, the flashbang temporarily blinds players who look at it explode, and the Molotov cocktail and Incendiary Grenade set a small radius of the map on fire for seven seconds.^[2] Alongside all of these weapons, the Zeus x27, a taser, can also be purchased. For most professional players, the main choice of weapons are two rifles – the AK-47 for Terrorists and the M4A4 or the M4A1-S for the Counter-Terrorists – and the AWP. However, if limited on money, players tend to choose pistols – such as the Desert Eagle, CZ-75 Auto, and the P250 – the UMP-45 – which is considered to be simply a weaker M4A4 or AK47 despite being an SMG – and the SSG 08 – which is a much inferior AWP. If players know the opposing team has a weaker inventory, then players may choose to use lesser weaponry such as the MAC-10 or the MP-9 as the SMGs give twice as much money as rifles with each kill and give players more money going into further rounds. Heavy weapons are rarely used, with the MAG-7 being the most used, as players need to be very close range in order to get an accurate shot. The Kevlar is an important part of CS:GO as having armor allows a player to have more accurate aim when while getting hit by bullets and decreases the amount of damage taken. A helmet can also be bought; the helmet does not allow certain weapons to give a one shot, one kill potential, like the M4A4. Counter-Terrorists can also buy a defuse kit, which decreases the amount of time to defuse the bomb from ten seconds to five, which saves a lot of time as the bomb explodes forty seconds after the Terrorists planted the bomb.

In the game, there are two bombsites where Terrorists can plant the bomb. Counter-Terrorist must defend the bombsites from the Terrorists. Each half starts with a pistol round, in which players can only buy utility, grenades, or pistols. Most teams tend to have three or four players buy Kevlar armor and one or two players who buy grenades and/or a defuse kit; on the Terrorist side, a player sometimes buys an upgraded pistol and gives that pistol to a teammate who as Kevlar in order to give the Terrorists a better chance to win the round, as the default Terrorists pistol, the Glock is inferior the default Counter-Terrorist pistol, the USP-S. Most teams tend to go for a force buy in the second round if they lose the pistol round; a force buy is in which a team uses up its money despite having lesser weaponry than the other team in an attempt to win the round. Other teams go for a save or economy round, in which the teams intentionally do not buy many weapons or utility to have more money to buy more ideal weapons in the following round. Teams then go into a gun round, in which both teams have decent guns, but not necessarily the ideal round, as one team may have a player who has a less than ideal gun or the team does not have many grenades. Each half consists of fifteen rounds and a regular game has a maximum of thirty rounds. The first team to reach sixteen rounds wins the game. If teams are tied at fifteen, the games goes to overtime, in which each overtime is a best of six rounds, making each half three rounds. If teams are still tied at the end of overtime, the game will go on to another overtime until a winner is decided.

The two-time defending champion was SK Gaming, which won both MLG Columbus 2016 (which the roster won when it was under the Luminosity Gaming banner and ESL One Cologne 2016. SK was also the first non-European team to win a major. Fnatic was the most decorated team with three majors and SK Gaming was in second with two.

Format

There will be four regional qualifiers and two from each qualifier will move on to the main qualifier.

In the major qualifier, the top eight teams will move on to the major. These teams will be known as "Challengers". The top eight teams from the previous major will receive automatic bids to the major; these teams are known as "Legends."

Unlike the previous majors, in which there were group stages, this major will use the Swiss tournament for the first stage, just like the Major Qualifier.^[3] The eight remaining teams after the group stage will move on to the Playoffs. All playoff games will be best of three and single elimination and the winner is decided after one team remains.

Map pool

The same map pool was kept from the last major.

There were seven maps to choose from. In the group stage, each team bans two maps. Then, one team bans another map from the remaining two maps, the map played is randomly selected. The team that did not get the third ban gets to choose which sides it starts on. In the playoffs, each team will remove one map. Then, each side chooses a map, which will be played in the first two matches. The team that did not choose the map will choose which side it starts on. Then each team will remove one more map so that one map is remaining. That map will be the third and decider map.

Broadcast talent

• {{flagicon|USA}} Sue "Smix" Lee
• {{flagicon|USA}} Chris Puckett

• {{flagicon|UK}} Richard Lewis
• {{flagicon|USA}} Jason "moses" O'Toole
• {{flagicon|UK}} Duncan "Thorin" Shields

• {{flagicon|UK}} James Bardolph
• {{flagicon|DEN}} Anders Blume
• {{flagicon|UK}} Henry "HenryG" Greer
• {{flagicon|UK}} Daniel "ddk" Kapadia
• {{flagicon|USA}} Auguste "Semmler" Massonnat
• {{flagicon|CAN}} Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett

• {{flagicon|CAN}} Kevin "kVIN_S" Swift
• {{flagicon|USA}} David DJ "Prius" Kuntz
• {{flagicon|USA}} Benjamin "CoffeeMcSwagger" Budka

• {{flagicon|USA}} Jason "Alchemist" Baker (Producer)
• {{flagicon|USA}} Steve Daily (Director)
• {{flagicon|UK}} Reece Fowler (Gameplay Director)

Broadcasts

All streams were broadcast on twitch.tv in various languages.

Major Qualifier

Like the previous majors, there will be a major qualifier and regional qualifiers. The bottom eight teams from ESL One Cologne 2016 will receive automatic bids to the main qualifier. Two teams each from the Asia, North America, Europe, and CIS Minors will be able to compete in the major qualifier

Regional Qualifiers

The final four teams from each qualifier are shown below; two from each move on to the main qualifying event. All games are offline.

Asia Minor

Europe Minor

CIS Minor

Americas Minor

Main Qualifier

The main qualifier will be a sixteen team swiss tournament, where after the Day 1 games, teams will play other teams with the same win-loss record. Every round will consist of one game. In addition, teams will not play the same team twice. Any team with three wins would qualify for the major, and any team with three losses would be eliminated.

First round seeding was determined by the following:

• Teams that placed 9th at the previous major (Team Dignitas, FaZe Clan, mousesports, Ninjas in Pyjamas) were first seeds
• Teams that placed 13th place at the previous major (Team EnVyUs, G2 Esports, OpTic Gaming, Counter Logic Gaming) were second seeds
• Teams that placed first in their regional qualifiers (TyLoo, Vega Squadron, GODSENT, Immortals) were third seeds
• Teams that were runners-up in their regional qualifiers (Renegades, Team Spirit, Hellraisers, Cloud9) were fourth seeds

In the second round, the winners in the first round will face each other in the "high" matches; the losers will face each other in the "low" matches.

In the third round, the winners of the high matches from round two will face each other. The winners of these two matches will qualify for the major. The losers of the high round and the winners of the low round will face each other in the "mid" matches. The losers from the previous low matches will face each other in round three's low matches. The losers of these low matches are eliminated. Twelve teams remain in the Qualifier.

In the fourth round, the losers of the high matches and the winners of the low matches will face each other in round four's high matches. The winners of the high matches qualify for the major. The losers of the mid matches and the winners of the low matches will face each other in the low matches of round four. The losers of these matches are eliminated from the Qualifier. Six teams remain.

In the last round, the remaining teams will face off. The winners of these matches will qualify for the major and the losing teams will be eliminated.

GODSENT and FaZe Clan were the first teams to move on. The next three teams to move on were mousesports, OpTic Gaming, and Team Dignitas. In the last round, the final teams to move on were Team EnVyUs, G2 Esports, and HellRaisers.^[4]

This qualifier was significant in that it will be the first time that the Ninjas in Pyjamas as a franchise and four of its players – GeT RiGhT, f0rest, Xizt, and friberg – will not play in a major, after being upset by Vega Squadron.^[5]

Main Qualifier

Teams competing

The top eight teams from ESL One Cologne 2016 (Legends) were joined by the eight teams from the main qualifier (Challengers).

Perhaps the biggest change was Team Dignitas and the Philadelphia 76ers and their players and coach mutually parting ways and the organizations announced plans to build a North American roster; in addition, it plans to invest into positions such as a sports psychologist and a nutritionist.^[8][9][10] The coach, Casper "ruggah" Due, said, despite "competitive offers," the roster decided to leave the team.^[11] Roughly a day later, the team is reported to sign with the Danish football (soccer) club F.C. Copenhagen and the Denmark-based Nordisk Film and officially signed on January 3, 2016. The team will be called North.^{[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]} Team Dignitas (now North) signed Emil "Magiskb0Y" Reif and releases Jesper "tenzki" Mikalski after ESL One Cologne 2016.^[20]

Prior to the major, changes took place. GODSENT acquired Robin "flusha" Rönnquist, Jesper "JW" Wecksell, and Freddy "KRiMZ" Johansson from Fnatic, who acquired Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson and Simon "twist" Eliasson, so GODSENT acquired the Legends spot from Fnatic.^[21] However, KRiMZ rejoined Fnatic while Lekr0 rejoined GODSENT, giving the Legends spot back to Fnatic.^[22] Fnatic used John "wenton" Eriksson to fill in its last spot, but is soon replaced by Joakim "disco doplan" Gidetun.^[23]

Damian "daps" Steele announces his departure from OpTic Gaming and bring back recently released OpTic player Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz.^[31] OpTic then acquire Tarik "tarik" Celik from Counter Logic Gaming to fill up its five-man roster.^[32]

Pre-major ranking

The HLTV.org January 16, 2017 rankings of teams in the major is displayed below. The ranking was the final one released before the ELEAGUE Major. It included all tournaments up to ELEAGUE Season 2, in which OpTic Gaming defeated Astralis in the finals, and ECS Season 2 Finals, in which Astralis defeated OpTic Gaming in the finals.^[36]

Relevant tournaments

The following list shows the relevant tournaments to the rankings. From top to bottom, the tournament becomes more relevant to the rankings. Those in gold indicates the tournament was a Major, meaning Valve, the developers of the game, sponsored the tournament to host a CS:GO major. A premier tournament means it offers an outstanding prize pool, is frequently played offline, and features the best players from all over the world. A major tournament simply means the tournament features a large prize pool and a good number of top teams; these tournaments were added to the list because a team from this major was in the tournament. This list also shows where the tournament took place, the number of teams at the tournament, the winner and runner-up, prize pool, and – if applicable – HLTV's most valuable player of the tournament.

Top 20 players in the tournament

The top 20 players of 2016 were ranked by HLTV.org. Below is the list of players in the top 20. A few players were on the list, but were not at the major, including f0rest from Sweden at number 7 from Ninjas in Pyjamas, GeT RiGhT from Sweden at number 18 from Ninjas in Pyjamas, and fnx from Brazil at number 19 from Immortals. Players who dropped off the list from 2015 included KRiMZ from Fnatic from Sweden (7th), Happy from Team EnVyUs from France, NBK- from Team EnVyUs and G2 Esports from France (9th), JW from Fnatic and GODSENT from Sweden (10th), dupreeh from Astralis from Denmark (12th), cajunb from Team Dignitas and North from Denmark (15th), NEO from Virtus.pro from Poland (17th), apEX from Team EnVyUs and G2 Esports from France (18th), allu from ENCE eSports and FaZe Clan from Finland (19th), and Skadoodle from Cloud9 from the United States (20th).^[37]

Group stage

The group stage will be a sixteen team Swiss tournament, where after the Day 1 games, teams will play other teams with the same win-loss record. Every round will consist of one game. In addition, teams will not play the same team twice. Any team with three wins would qualify for the major, and any team with three losses would be eliminated.

First round seeding was determined by the following:

• Teams that placed top four at the previous major (SK Gaming, Team Liquid, Fnatic, Virtus.pro) are first seeds
• Teams that placed 5th place at the previous major (Astralis, FlipSid3 Tactics, Gambit Gaming, Natus Vincere) are second seeds
• Teams that placed first in the main qualifier (GODSENT, FaZe Clan) and the top two teams that placed third based on their seeds going into the major qualifier (North, mousesports) are third seeds
• The remaining teams (OpTic Gaming, Team EnVyUs, G2 Esports, HellRaisers) are fourth seeds

Each team from the first seed will play a team from the fourth seed. Each team from the second seed will play a team from the third seed. These teams will be randomly selected. These matches will determine the first round.

In the second round, the teams with a 1–0 record will face each other and the teams with a 0–1 record will face each other.

In the third round, teams with a 2–0 record will face each other. The winners of these matches will move on to the Playoffs. The teams with a 1–1 record will face each other to determine their places in the next round. The teams with a 0–2 record will face each other and the losers of these matches will be eliminated from the tournament.

In the fourth round, teams with a 2–1 record will face each other. The winners of these matches will advance to the Playoffs. The teams with a 1–2 record will face each other and the losers of these matches will be eliminated from the tournament.

In the last round, the remaining teams (2–2 record) will face off. The winners of these matches will advance to the Playoffs and the losers will be eliminated from the tournament.

The eight teams that advance will obtain the "Legend" status and will be automatically invited to the next major.

This will be the first major in which GODSENT players Robin "flusha" Rönnquist and Jesper "JW" Wecksell will not be playing in the playoffs, after losing to North and placing 9th. They had maintained Legend status with Fnatic prior to transferring to GODSENT.

The major kicked off with Gambit Gaming against North. The game went to Cobblestone as Gambit's new in-game leader Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko made the team a threat on the map and it showed as North's second half faltered. Everyone on Gambit helped out, including 19 kills each from Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev and Rustem "mou" Telepov. North's star players had limited impact as Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke only had 15 and Emil "Magisk" Reif had 12. The second game featured the most decorated CS:GO team Fnatic against G2 Esports. Fnatic started out strong, but G2's offense in the second half ran over the Fnatic defense to lead the French to an easy victory. Cédric "RpK" Guipouy went big with 28 kills and Richard "shox" Papillon had 22. Freddy "KRiMZ" Johansson lead Fnatic with 19 kills. SK Gaming and HellRaisers was the next match and the defending champions dominated, even with a stand-in. The world's number in player Marcelo "coldzera" David had 24 kills and Fernando "fer" Alvarenga was close by with 22. Kirill "ANGE1" Karasiow had 18 kills and Bence "DeadFox" Böröcz had 17, but it was not enough. The world's number two, OpTic Gaming, started its major journey against a tough opponent in Virtus.pro (VP). Although the game was close throughout, it was the Polish team to come out on top. Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski put on a show with 28 kills and Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski followed with 21. Will "RUSH" Wierzba had 25 and Keith "NAF" Markovic had 21, but the team fell short. Natus Vincere (Na'Vi) had major struggles coming into the tournament, but this match against mousesports proved otherwise as the CIS team completely dominated the Germans, especially after a 13-2 halftime lead. Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev and Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács had 18 kills each and Na'Vi's new pickup Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev had 17 kills. Chris "chrisJ" de Jong had 12 kills for mousesports, but star player Nikola "NiKo" Kovač only had 9 kills and Timo "Spiidi" Richter did even worse with just 2 kills. Team Liquid vs. Team EnVyUs proved to be a thriller. With EnVyUs up 15-9 and in a 5 vs. 2, the game looked to be over. Vincent "Happy" Cervoni killed Spencer "Hiko" Martin and then was traded out by Josh "jdm64" Marzano. jdm64 then pulled out his AWP and took out Dan "apEX" Madesclaire through the edge of the box and then followed up on Christophe "SIXER" Xia, who was pushing to kill him. The last two EnVyUs players were holding the bomb in place so jdm64 could not get it, but a flashbang followed by a kill onto Kenny "kennyS" Schrub through the edge of another box and then a kill onto a midair Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt finished the 1 vs. 5 clutch in one of the most memorable plays in the major. Liquid sent the game into overtime, but EnVyUs was able to finally clean up in triple overtime. Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski had the most kills with 48, but NBK-'s 42 and kennyS's 37 helped push the one time major champions to victory. The world's number one, Astralis, was upset by GODSENT in a blowout game. Jesper "JW" Wecksell and Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson each had 26 kills each. Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz had 18 to lead Astralis. The final game of day 1 pitted FaZe Clan and FlipSid3 Tactics. After a close first half, FaZe blew open the second half to get the victory. Håvard "rain" Nygaard had 27 kills and Aleksi "allu" Jalli had 22. FlipSid3's star player Denis "electronic" Sharipov had 22 kills, but the rest of his team fell behind.

mousesports turned things around from the last match and went on to trudge through HellRaisers. NiKo and Christian "loWel" Antoran had 21 each and Denis "denis" Howell had 20 to lead mousesports ANGE1 and Martin "STYKO" Styk had 17 kills each, but players like DeadFox and Patrik "Zero" Žúdel struggled. Na'Vi continued to plow over its opponents as it dominated EnVyUs in its round two match. It was Egor "flamie" Vasilyev this time to come up big with 25 kills and Edward, s1mple, and Denis "seized" Kostin each had 18 kills. Happy had 17 kills for EnVyUs, but that was about it for the French. FaZe looked like it had SK's number and was on the verge of winning when it was up 15-9. However, SK's leader Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo had a change of plans and some bizarre rounds worked for his team as he defeated Finn "karrigan" Andersen's staff in overtime. fer and coldzera topped the server with 37 and 35 kills, respectively and SK's stand-in Ricardo "fox" Pacheco had some impactful kills. Philip "aizy" Aistrup struggled compared to the rest of his team. Two Legends went up in the next match. The runners-up of the last major showed more resilience in the last round as the Americans barely took it over the edge. ELiGE continued strong with 37 kills, but Nicholas "nitr0" Cannella only had 8 kills. Yegor "markeloff" Markelov had 26 kills for FlipSid3, but Jan "wayLander" Rahkonen had a mere 12 at the bottom. After North dominated from round five to round fourteen, Fnatic took control the rest of the game as it only allowed three rounds in the second half. René "cajunb" Borg lead all players with 25 kills, but Fnatic was stronger as Dennis "dennis" Edman had 24 kills and Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer had 22; North was one of the favorites to make the top eight but was now a game away from elimination. The world's number one and number two came up in the draw. As expected, the match was close, but it was Astralis to take the win. device had 29 kills and Peter "dupreeh" Rothmann had 25. RUSH lead his team with 22, but the closest player to him was Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz with 15 as the rest of OpTic struggled., including Tarik "tarik" Celik with only 11 kills. Gambit had a relatively easy time with GODSENT as the 11-4 lead at the half accumulated into a victory. AdreN and mou lead their team once again, but Mikhail "Dosia" Stolyarov also stepped up with 20 kills. Robin "flusha" Rönnquist, the highest rated player of all time at majors, lead his team with 19 kills, but JW and Markus "pronax" Wallsten only had 12 kills each. The last match of day 2 was the best team in Poland against the best team in France. In a hotly contested match, VP came out on top. The veteran Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas had 30 kills and Snax had 26. Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro did well with 27 kills, but the rest of his team did not, including Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux with just 17.

Day 3 started with Fnatic and mousesports. After mousesports took the lead at the half, the Swedish powerhouse completely stopped mousesports's offense and only allowed two rounds. olofmeister carried his team with 27 kills despite Simon "twist" Eliasson and Joakim "disco doplan" Gidetun having fewer kills combined. NiKo had 22 kills to lead mousesports. EnVyUs easily took care of GODSENT as the Swedes never showed up in the match. kennyS went big with 24 kills. flusha had 15 kills for GODSENT, but JW and Andreas "znajder" Lindberg only had 7 kills each. North finally got a win on the board, but it had to be an overtime win against HellRaiser. Magisk finally went big for his team with 35 kills and Ruben "RUBINO" Villarroel had 24 and the team needed it as Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen only had 17 kills. ANGE1 once again top fragged for this team with 31 kills, but DeadFox only had 14 and Vladyslav "bondik" Nechyporchuk had 21 as HellRaisers was the first team to be eliminated. VP was the first team to move on to the playoffs with a 16-10 victory over Gambit. Snax, TaZ, and pashaBiceps lead the way as Filip "NEO" Kubski and Paweł "byali" Bieliński never really showed up in the three games. AdreN had 22 kills and Abay "HObbit" Khasenov at 21, but mou struggled with only 9 kills. Astralis crushed G2 in what was supposed to be a close game as Astralis built up 10-2 lead and never looked back. Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander lead the way with 27 kills as his teammate Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth continued to try to find form. SmithZz and Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom continued to struggle at the bottom of the scoreboard. SK and Na'Vi had a rivalry, but Na'Vi was the clear winner in this match. fer only had 5 kills and FalleN only 4 whereas flamie and s1mple steamrolled competition. Na'Vi moved on to the playoffs. After a 7-0 Liquid run, an 8-0 FaZe run, and then a back and forth second half, FaZe came out on top in the end in a double overtime game. aizy turned things around with 35 kills while Jacob "Pimp" Winneche for Liquid had 30. nitr0 had a much better game with 29 kills, but three FaZe members had at least 30 kills. OpTic squeaked past FlipSid3 in an elimination game to stay alive and keep its hopes alive at a playoff spot while the team was still at its peak. wayLander had 24 kills to lead all players, but Andrey "B1ad3" Gorodenskiy and Georgi "WorldEdit" Yaskin never really showed up for FlipSid3. FlipSid3 was eliminated.

The last day of the group stage started with North against G2. North still managed to stay alive behind k0nfig's 22 kills and the rest of the team countered shox's and Rpk's 22 kills. G2 was eliminated. Fnatic continued to roll along after the first round loss as the Swedes outclasses the French in the second half. apEX had 27 kills for EnVyUs, but SIXER only had 9; meanwhile, twist had 25 kills and olofmeister had 21 and Fnatic was the third team to move on. Team Liquid had an easy time against mousesports to stave off elimination. NiKo had 14 kills and chrisJ had 11, but Spiidi only had 1 kill. On the other side, ELiGE had 22 kills and Pimp had 19 to lead Liquid. mousesports was eliminated. GODSENT pulled off another upset against OpTic as the North American team could never pull itself together. Lekr0 had 25 kills and znajder had 20 to take care of OpTic. RUSH lead his team once again, but Oscar "mixwell" Cañellas, OpTic's star AWPer, only had 11 kills. OpTic was eliminated. The defending champions went against the current world number one. Although Astralis was favored, SK managed to come back from a slight deficit and win in overtime. Although Epitácio "TACO" de Melo was at the bottom of the scoreboard, coldzera went huge with 35 kills. gla1ve had 30 kills, but dupreeh and Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye only had 20 kills each. SK moved on to the playoffs even though many people had the team written off since it had a stand-in. In a very close match, Gambit was the final team to move on in round four after both halves went 8-7 in favor of Gambit. AdreN continued to roll through competition with 34 kills. karrigan and Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey had 24 kills each, but it was not enough against AdreN's firepower.

GODSENT nearly pulled off another upset. North edged out GODSENT in overtime and came back from a 0-2 situation to winning three straight games. RUBINO and Magisk had 35 kills each to lead North while Lekr0 had 34 kills and JW had 30. This would mark the first time flusha and JW would not appear in a major playoffs, leaving just five players who have appeared in major playoffs: olofmeister, KRiMZ, device, dupreeh, and Xyp9x. GODSENT was eliminated and North acquired a Legends spot. FaZe defeated EnVyUs in a relatively close match. allu outdueled kennyS in the battle of the AWPers as the Finn had 30 kills while kennyS had 28. SIXER struggled again with 9 kills and FaZe moved on to the playoffs and EnVyUs was eliminated again after winning DreamHack Cluj-Napoca 2015. The last match of the group stage featured the favorite to win the tournament against last major's runner-up. Liquid never got in the right direction and Astralis dominated for an east 16-3 victory. The core three of Astralis kept its streak of appearing in the playoffs alive and Liquid was eliminated.

Playoffs

Bracket

Natus Vincere and Virtus.pro were given the top seeds. These two teams would face an opponent from the pool of Astralis, FaZe Clan, and North. Natus Vincere was paired with Astralis and Virtus.pro received North. From the pool of Gambit Gaming, Fnatic, and SK Gaming, two teams were randomly selected and those teams would be Gambit and Fnatic. The remaining two teams, SK Gaming and FaZe Clan, were paired together.

Quarterfinals

Natus Vincere vs. Astralis

The first game of the playoffs in the Fox Theatre pitted Natus Vincere and Astralis against each other.

Natus Vincere (Na'Vi) was unequivocally the strongest team in the group stage, defeating each team by at least ten rounds, including the considered world's number three team SK Gaming. Na'Vi rifler flamie had the highest Average Damage per Round (ADR) out of any player. The flawless group stage surprised many as Na'Vi was struggling a lot coming into the tournament, including some early group stage exits in other tournaments since winning ESL One New York 2016.

Meanwhile, Astralis, who was considered to be the world's number one team coming into the major, struggled in the group stage, especially after GODSENT upset Astralis 6-16 in the first round. Astralis bounced back to win games against OpTic Gaming and G2 Esports, but then fell to SK Gaming in the fourth round, putting the team on the brink of elimination. However, Astralis easily defeated ESL One Cologne 2016's runners-up Team Liquid 16-3 on Mirage in the last round to make the playoffs.

The first map on Astralis's map choice, Overpass, was a complete blowout by the Danish team. Astralis took a convincing 12-3 halftime lead. While Na'Vi closed the gap to 13-7, Astralis took the last three rounds to take the first map. dev1ce and Kjaerbye led the way with 22 kills and flamie was close with 21 kills. Na'Vi's star players GuardiaN and s1mple struggled throughout the map, with only 11 and 10 kills, respectively.

The second map on Mirage, Na'Vi's map choice, was a much closer game. Na'Vi took a strong 9-1 lead going into the 11th round. However, Astralis came back and won the last five rounds of the half to bring the game to a respectable score line of 9-6. Eventually, the game was tied 10-10. Astralis took a 14-10 lead late into the game and was two rounds away from making the semifinals, but Na'Vi tied the score back at 14 a piece heading into the last two rounds of regulation. In a crucial moment in round 29, Astralis had a 4-2 man advantage with 25 seconds left in the round. Kjaerbye was planting the bomb with 5 seconds left, the approximate time needed to plant the bomb, but s1mple came in with 3 seconds left and killed Kjaerbye before the bomb could be planted, resulting in the time running out and a round to Na'Vi. In round 30, Na'Vi had a 2-1 man advantage and Astralis player Xyp9x had to clutch the round with the bomb planted to send the game into overtime. However, Na'Vi in game leader seized and Edward won the round before Xyp9x would kill either player, giving the round and map to Na'Vi. After struggling on Overpass, GuardiaN and s1mple delivered for their team, with 26 and 27 kills, respectively. dev1ce led his team with 25 kills and Astralis captain gla1ve had 23 kills.

Both teams are considered to be very strong on Dust II, the final map of the series. Na'Vi took a slim 8-7 lead into halftime. While the first half was virtually even, the second half seemed to be all Astralis, as Na'Vi could only get two rounds in the second half. Once again, dev1ce topped the scoreboard with 26 kills. The HLTV.com's ranked third best player had six more kills than the closest player. Astralis's win on Dust II would mean it would face either Gambit Gaming or Fnatic.

Gambit Gaming vs Fnatic

Gambit Gaming made some major changes to its roster by acquiring Zeus from Na'Vi and being loaned HObbit from Tengri. Under Zeus's leadership, the Gambit roster unexpectedly made it out of the group stage, despite placing top eight at the previous major. The team defeated a top five team in North and GODSENT, which had just beaten tournament favorites Astralis before falling to Virtus.pro. However, in the fourth round, Gambit defeated FaZe Clan 16-14 behind a stellar performance from Dauren 'AdreN' Kystaubayev. Fnatic, formerly the world's number one team, holds the most major titles with three and is one of two teams to win two majors in a row along to SK Gaming. Fnatic made some drastic changes with the departures of flusha and JW to GODSENT. In the group stage, the team suffered a loss to G2 Esports but then bounced back to win the next three games to move on to the playoffs, including the deciding game on Cobblestone against Team EnVyUs, 16-11.

The first map of the series on Cache seemed good for Gambit at the very beginning after winning the first round, the pistol round. However, Fnatic bounced right back and would take a 10-2 lead before Gambit would take a third round. The score would be a 10-5 Fnatic lead at halftime, a respectable scoreline for Gambit. Gambit once again won the pistol round but then against lost the following round. Fnatic never looked back and would go on to win the map 16-7. Despite AdreN having 22 kills for Gambit, his team could not pull off a win as Fnatic's twist would equal AdreN in kills. Zeus and Dosia struggled as both had under ten kills.

On Gambit's map, Overpass, Zeus and company would answer right back. Gambit would lead the charge behind HObbit's 20 kills and took a 12-3 halftime score. Gambit would easily win the next four rounds to take a convincing 16-3 win going into the third map. KRiMZ lead the way for Fnatic with 15 kills but all but one Gambit player had more kills than him by the end of the map.

The third map appeared to be Fnatic's map, as the players took an 8-0 lead before Gambit would even get its first round on the board. However, Gambit would bite back and bring the score at the half back to a respectable 6-9 deficit, despite being on the more favored side of the map in the first half. However, Gambit struggled immensely in the second half, despite mou 20 kills in the game. Gambit squeezed out one round while Fnatic ran over Zeus's squad and took a 16-7 victory and ono to its way to a semifinals date against Astralis. twist would lead the way with 27 kills while olofmeister had some influential, round changing kills. Once again, Dosia and Zeus had fewer than ten kills and all but mou on the Gambit roster had a positive kill to death differential.

Virtus.pro vs North

Virtus.pro was the other team along with Na'Vi to go a perfect 3-0 in the group stage, defeating OpTic Gaming, G2 Esports, and Gambit Gaming. Virtus.pro have the longest active standing roster as the players have been with each other for more than three years. The team also includes NEO, who is considered to be one of the greatest CS 1.6 players of all time, along with Ninjas in Pyjama's Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg. Virtus.pro was the only team to take a map off of SK Gaming at MLG Columbus 2016 (which was then Luminosity Gaming) and ESL One Cologne 2016.

North had just left Team Dignitas after mutually parting ways after the major qualifier and then were picked up by top Danish football (soccer) club F.C. Copenhagen and Nordisk Films. In addition, Jesper "tenzki" Mikalski was released from the roster and then brought in Magisk. With the exception of cajunb, who was with Astralis, the other four members were in their first playoffs. North looked to be in trouble in the group stage, as it had started out 0-2 with losses against Gambit Gaming and Fnatic and needed one more loss to be eliminated or win three straight to make it to the playoffs. The team under the leadership of MSL did the latter and defeated HellRaisers, G2 Esports, and GODSENT in overtime to qualify for the playoffs.

The first map on Overpass, despite being North's pick, was all Virtus.pro. Behind the fragging power of pashaBiceps in the first few rounds and then Virtus.pro captain NEO and HLTV.com's ranked number five player Snax taking over later, Virtus.pro pumped out a 14-0 lead before North took the last round of the half. At this point, cajunb had no kills in the fifteen rounds. Virtus.pro would take the pistol round in the second half, making the score 15-1, but North would come back with three rounds before Virtus.pro closing it out at 16-4. RUBINO from Norway seemed to be the only player from North to get something going with 15 kills, but Snax's 27 kills, NEO's 18, and pashaBicep's 16 outnumber his total.

North, however, would answer back on Virtus.pro's map pick of Cache. Virtus.pro had an initial 6-5 lead, but North would win the last 4 rounds of the half to take a 9-6. North would extend its lead to 12-6 before Virtus.pro would bring it back to a two-round game at a 14-12 scoreline in North's favor. However, North would prevail and end Virtus.pro's win streak at six before taking the last two rounds to secure the second map. pashaBiceps lead the entire server with 27 kills, but the combination of cajunb and Magisk would prove to hold strong and topple Virtus.pro.

The last map of January 27 would be Cobblestone between the two teams. It seemed like North would convincingly steal Virtus.pro's chances at a second major title, with Magisk's 29 kills by the end of the half and a 12-3 score before switching sides. Virtus.pro never settled its economy to a stable amount. However, Virtus.pro would later show that the experience of its players would prevail over the powerful rookies. pashaBiceps started the comeback with 28 kills, while NEO, Snax, and byali all had 19 kills. Magisk was buffered to just eight kills in the second half and North only managed to pull out just one round in the second half, while Virtus.pro made the nine round comeback and won the last thirteen of fourteen rounds to take the map 16-13 over North and a semifinals match against either SK Gaming or FaZe Clan.

SK Gaming vs FaZe Clan

SK Gaming was considered the world's best team of 2016 after winning the two majors of the year, MLG Columbus 2016 and ESL One Cologne 2016, and could be the first team ever to win three major titles in a row. However, the team made a roster change by benching Lincoln "fnx" Lau due to internal issues and bringing in former FaZe Clan player fox from Portugal as a temporary replacement. SK Gaming have the world's number one and two players, according to HLTV.com's rankings, in coldzera and captain FalleN. In the group stage, the Brazilian squad easily defeated the HellRaisers and edged out FaZe Clan in the second round before being diminished by Na'Vi 3-16 in the third round. In a very close 19-17 game, SK Gaming squeaked past Astralis to make the playoffs.

Meanwhile, FaZe Clan has seen a jump in performance after bringing in former Ninjas in Pyjamas Finnish player allu to replace fox as an AWPer and bringing former in game leader of Astralis karrigan as the team's new captain. Since then, the team has seen some impressive results, including a third-place finish at ELEAGUE Season 2. FaZe defeated FlipSid3 Tactics before falling to SK Gaming after the team lost a 15-9 lead. The team defeated Team Liquid in overtime but then lost to Gambit Gaming in a very close two round loss. The team needed to defeated Team EnVyUs to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in the team's history and did just that with a 16-11 victory.

All three maps heavily favored one side. On Mirage, took the pistol round and then a 3-0 lead before SK brought it back to a 3-2 score. However, SK could only get another round before the half ended, giving FaZe a huge 12-3 lead at the half. FaZe took the pistol round in the second half, which appeared to be the end, but SK won an economy round and eventually brought it to a 14-7 deficit for the Brazilian team. FaZe would still hold on to its lead and take a 16-7 victory over the defending major champions. SK's fer led everyone with 20 kills, but coldzera, FalleN, and TACO struggled, while kioShiMa led the FaZe Clan with 19 kills, followed closely by aizy with 18 kills.

Train, however, was the next map and SK is widely considered to be the best team on the said map. SK would take a 6-0 lead before FaZe would get a round, despite FaZe starting on the more favored side. Each team would trade three rounds each before SK took a 12-3 score at the half. SK would never look back after that and would go on to win the map 16-3. While allu lead his team with 14 kills, the two stars of Mirage had under ten kills, while fer had 22 kills and TACO had 19 kills.

The last map was Overpass, a map both teams are considered to be very strong on. SK would start off with a booming 6-0 lead, but FaZe would answer back by going on a 5-1 run, bringing the score to 7-5. SK would however win the last three rounds of the half, but this would still give FaZe a 5-10 deficit, a respectable score as it started on the less favored side. However, SK would never give FaZe a round in the second half and went on a 6-0 run, winning the map in an emphatic 16-5 fashion. fer once again led his team with 26 kills and FalleN broke the 20 kill mark with 21. Although TACO and fox were the worst on their team, they matched the top members of FaZe with 13 kills (kioShiMa and karrigan). Star player rain for FaZe failed to show up, only getting 5 kills while dying 20 times. SK moved on to face Virtus.pro, which faced three times in the majors, beating the Polish team the last two times they met.

Semifinals

Astralis vs Fnatic

In the past, Fnatic dominated the Astralis lineup, despite Astralis seemingly was the only team to go head to head with the Swedish team. After powering through Na'Vi, Astralis faced off against Fnatic, which easily took care of Gambit in its two wins.

Cache, one of Fnatic's best maps, started off with Fnatic winning the pistol round, but Astralis answered right back on its economy round. Astralis took a 6-2 lead before Fnatic came back to win four in a row. However, Astralis would take the last three rounds of the half, bringing the score to 9-6. Astralis took the pistol round in the second half but Fnatic won an economy round of its own. Astralis eventually took a 15-11 lead and was one round away from taking 1 -0 lead in the series. However, Fnatic prevailed for another three rounds to make it a 15-14 game. In the 30th round, olofmeister was in a 1 vs 2 situation against dev1ce and gla1ve. olofmeister brought dev1ce down while gla1ve planted the bomb. gla1ve only had a submachine gun, so he had a less powerful weapon. olofmeister was defusing the bomb inside of smoke and gla1ve failed to find him, tying the score at 15-15. In overtime, Astralis won all three rounds on its half, taking an 18-15 lead into the half. Fnatic brought one back and was in a 2 vs 1 situation when Kjaerbye won the clutch, giving Astralis the 19-16 victory. dupreeh had 31 kills and dev1ce had 27 kills to lead the way, while KRiMZ had 37 kills for Fnatic. olofmeister and Xyp9x struggled until late in the game, when both had influential kills.

Nuke was a map neither team had much experience on, but since Fnatic banned Overpass, Astralis took a risk. Astralis took a dominating 12-3 lead into the second half while playing on the less favored side. Astralis then took the first two rounds of the second half but then Fnatic took the next two rounds to make it 14-5. However, Astralis would close it out with the last two rounds, reaching its first ever grand finals in the majors. The team was led by the 22 kills of dev1ce and 20 kills of Kjaerbye, while KRiMZ of Fnatic showed up once again for the team, while olofmeister got 15 kills. Astralis would either face SK Gaming, who it lost to in the group stage, or Virtus.pro, who it lost to at the previous major in the quarterfinals.

Virtus.pro vs SK Gaming

The two-time defending champions in SK Gaming will face off against Virtus.pro for the third major in a row, in which SK squeaked past Virtus.pro in both series. However, the last time these two teams played – in ESL One New York 2016 in New York and EPICENTER 2016 in Moscow – Virtus.pro defeated SK 2-1 in both series.

Virtus.pro started on the more favored side on Train, SK's map pick. Virtus.pro is arguably the best team on Train historically speaking and SK is arguably currently the best team on Train. SK struggled getting into bombsites but still came to an honest 5-10 deficit. In the second half, SK stormed back to a 14-13 lead when Virtus.pro came back to win the next two rounds. In the final round, SK were in a man disadvantage; however, it quickly made it a 2 vs 1 advantage and then tied the game at 15 all. At the end of the first overtime half, SK lost the first round on a defuse by NEO but SK came back to win the next two. However, Virtus.pro's counter terrorist side would prove to be strong and took the last three rounds to scratch out a win against arguably the best Train team in the world. Nine out of the ten players had over 20 kills (exception is byali of Virtus.pro). NEO had 28 kills for Virtus.pro and Snax had 27 while coldzera and fox had 26 kills each.

The next map was Cobblestone, a map both teams are very good on. SK took off with a 5-0 lead, but Virtus.pro brought it back to a 9-6 SK advantage. Virtus.pro won the pistol round and many more consecutive rounds after and Virtus.pro dominated its way through SK and brought its score to 14 rounds and all seemed to end for SK. However, SK brought the game back to make it 15-14 going into the last round, after fox had to influential kills in round 28. In the last round, SK captain FalleN took a risk by bringing the clock down to under 30 seconds before starting its execution, but Virtus.pro veteran TaZ shut the SK players down, giving Virtus.pro another two round victory. SK impressed many after playing with a stand-in and only having a short period of time to prepare with fox and still made it to the semifinals of a major tournament. TaZ lead the server with a massive 30 kills and pashaBiceps had 24 kills. coldzera for SK went huge for his team with 28 kills, while fer, who was dominant throughout the whole tournament, only had 8 kills. Virtus.pro will face Astralis in the grand finals.

Finals

After 5 quarterfinals and 4 semifinals, the roster of Astralis is finally in a grand finals at a major tournament, defeating Na'Vi and Fnatic. dev1ce proved to be the star of the team once again as he topped the scoreboard of his team in nearly every game and Kjaerbye showed that Astralis traded cajunb for him by virtue of influential kills. Virtus.pro, however, have been to a major grand finals at EMS One Katowice 2014 and won, defeating the Ninjas in Pyjamas two games to zero. Since then, Virtus.pro have not been back to a grand finals, including the last two times – at MLG Columbus 2016, the team lost to SK Gaming, then signed with Luminosity Gaming, and then at ESL One Cologne 2016, again losing the same SK Gaming lineup. Virtus.pro finally defeated SK Gaming for the first time since ESL One Katowice 2015, when SK was with Keyd Stars, and its biggest demon in the majors.

The first map was Nuke, a map Virtus.pro is widely considered to be the best on. However, Astralis did handily defeat Fnatic 16-5 on the same map in the semifinals. Astralis won the pistol round, but then lost the anti-economy round and would go on to lose five in a row before picking up another one. In spite of that, Astralis, playing on the more favored side, would go on to tie the game at 5. Virtus.pro proved that its players were the best on Nuke and went on a 4-1 run to close the half. Astralis again won the pistol round, but this time won the two anti-economy rounds it needed to tie the game at 9. Astralis would go on to tie the game at 12, but Virtus.pro would move on to take the lead right back and win the next four rounds, taking the first map 16-12. Snax and byali lead the way for the Polish team with 24 kills while Kjaerbye lead Astralis with 22 kills and gla1ve and dev1ce had 20 kills.

The second map was Overpass, a map both teams are excellent on. Virtus.pro won the pistol round, but Astralis fought back to win its economy round and the next two. The score would end up being a deficit for Virtus.pro at 6-9, even though playing on the more favored side. The deficit extended when Astralis took the pistol round, but Virtus.pro bit back with an economy round victory. The score would reach 10-9 in Astralis's favor when the Danish team finally got another round on the board. Astralis extended its lead to 13-9 before the Poles earned another round. Virtus.pro to take a lead for the first time since round one at 14-13 and were two rounds away from taking the major. However, Astralis prevailed against the veterans and won the last three rounds, barely taking Overpass 16-14. While dupreeh had 24 kills, Xyp9x was the most impactful with 28 kills. dev1ce had the least kills of either team with only 13 kills. Snax went huge for his team with 27 kills, but TaZ struggled with just 15 kills.

Train is historically a map Virtus.pro is historically legendary for and Astralis was the team to end SK Gaming's 17 game win streak on Train. While the first two maps were close in terms of rounds, Virtus.pro immediately jumped to a 7-0 lead before Astralis closed the gap to went on a 6-1 run, to make the score 8-6. Virtus.pro would convincingly win the last round, to make the score at the half 9-6. Virtus.pro won the all important pistol round and the following anti-economy rounds before Astralis won the first gun round to make the score 12-7. However, Virtus.pro partially bought into the next round and won the round. Astralis would win an economy round of its own the following round and then eventually closed the gap to a close 13-12. Virtus.pro had very little equipment to use in the following round but still somehow managed to win the round behind NEO and Snax, giving the Poles a 14th round. Astralis would tie the score at 14 and then took the lead for the first time at 15-14. Virtus.pro needed the 30th round to send the game to overtime. The Polish team was on a very limited buy with one inferior rifle, a submachine gun, a shotgun, and two pistols while Astralis had everything it needed. Kjaerbye found byali as the Danes were heading to the A bombsite quickly. Snax attempted to challenge Kjaerbye but he was taken down. pashaBiceps came in to take down Xyp9x but dupreeh traded him out. dupreedh then proceeded to take down NEO and then headshot TaZ for the final kill of ELEAGUE Major 2017. Kjaerbye had 29 kills and dev1ce showed up in the last few rounds, but only ending the game with 15 kills. TaZ and Snax had 27 and 24 kills, respectively, for Virtus.pro while NEO struggled throughout the map, with the exception of a few rounds, with only 11 kills.^[38][39]

Kjaerbye was named the most valuable player for the ELEAGUE major and was the youngest player to earn the title.^[40]

Fnatic (from Sweden) still lead all teams with three majors and SK Gaming (Brazil) has two, including one under the Luminosity Gaming banner. With Astralis (Denmark) winning the ELEAGUE major, there were now five teams at one major each, with the other teams being Virtus.pro (Poland), Ninjas in Pyjamas (Sweden), Team LDLC.com (France), and Team EnVyUs (France), and 80% of majors have been won by European teams. This also broke the strong of a non-European team winning the major, as SK Gaming had both 2016 majors.

Final standings

The final standings are shown below. The in game leaders of each team are shown first.

Post-Major Ranking

The HLTV.org January 30, 2017 rankings of teams in the major is displayed below. The ranking was the first one released after the ELEAGUE Major.^[41]

Clash for Cash

ELEAGUE announced a rematch between the two finalists that took place on June 16, 2017. It featured a {{usd}}250,000 prize pool and the winner takes home all of it. The showmatch was dubbed "Clash for Cash." In the end, Astralis turned up in the last two games and easily took the set in three.^[42]

References

• Peace Pentagon
• Peace Philosophy Center
• Peace Pipe (disambiguation)
• Peace Pipe Line
• Peace pipe line
• Peace plans offered before and during the Bosnian War
• Peace Players International
• Peace Prayer
• Peace Prize of the German Publishers' Association
• Peace process with the Bangsamoro in the Philippines
• Peace Project
• Peace project
• Peace Project (disambiguation)
• Peace Proscovia
• Peace & Prosperity
• Peace Race U23
• Peace Rev
• Peace Rev.
• Peace Rev.: J. Soc. Justice
• Peace Rev: J Soc Justice
• Peace Revolution
• Peace Revolution (online meditation platform)
• Peace, Richard
• Peace River-Westlock
• Peace (Saville)