The new tournament season has kicked off in Counter-Strike 2. On January 8th, the first open qualifiers for the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 began, drawing not only a record number of participants but also catching the attention of top Twitch streamers.
A surprising 844 teams registered for the initial open qualifiers, which came as a shock to both the community and the organizers. Many well-known teams were among the participants in the open qualifiers, including BLEED, Fnatic, Heroic, 9INE, TSM, Sprout, KOI, OG, SINNERS, and others. The influx of teams was so substantial that the tournament platform struggled to handle the surge, which resulted in significant delays. Players like JW, Smooya, NiKo, and others highlighted this issue. Another unpleasant factor in the qualifiers was the significant number of, reportedly, cheaters. Organizers received dozens of complaints about unfair gameplay, but in most cases, measures were taken too late, causing honest teams to suffer from the cheaters' actions.
The coverage of the qualifying matches saw the participation of popular community casters. For instance, Brazilian streamer Gaules broadcasted matches featuring the team O Plano (comprising former MIBR stars: Fer, TACO, and fnx). Brazilian fans are known for actively following their teams, hence Gaules managed to gather over 70.4K Peak Viewers on his channel. This was the best result among all community casters during the first open qualifier.
Spanish streamer Ibai secured the second spot in audience coverage, amassing 67.7K Peak Viewers while covering matches of KOI team, which he co-owns. It's worth noting that recently OverActive Media acquired KOI and Movistar Riders; thus, the Movistar team competed under the KOI banner during the qualifiers for the Major. Similarly, Russian streamer Buster also broadcasted matches of his own team GUN5, attracting 33.2K Peak Viewers.
A decent audience reach was also demonstrated by German streamer ohnePixel, one of the most popular community casters of Counter-Strike esports. He primarily covered matches of top teams like Heroic and Fnatic; he amassed 18.5K PV on the first day of the qualifiers.
Qualification matches were also covered by current and former professional players such as olofmeister and kennyS. The latter even participated in the qualifiers with his team but managed to advance to the closed qualifier.
In the first open qualifier for Europe, ex-ThunderFlash, KOI, Fnatic, and Entropiq secured spots for the next stage. In North America, Team Liquid, NRG Esports, as well as the mixes 'my life be like' and 'vagrants' earned spots. In South America, slots were obtained by Flamengo Esports, Legacy, ODDIK, and w7m esports. As for the Asia-Pacific region, the open qualifiers for the Major haven't commenced yet.
The Major qualification broadcasts had a significant impact on the Twitch's category of the game. For instance, during January 6-7, the Counter-Strike section generated around 1.6M Hours Watched and held the 13th position among all Twitch categories. However, during the first open qualifier from January 7-8, the section accumulated over 4M HW, elevating it to the 6th position in the category rankings (by January 9, it reached 4th place).
In total, four open qualifiers will take place from January 8 to 15. The top four teams from each qualifier will advance to the closed qualifiers, where previously invited teams await. For instance, direct invitations were given to teams like Natus Vincere, Cloud9, MOUZ, Astralis, and others. The regional RMR qualifiers for the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 will run from February 14 to March 4, with the Major itself scheduled from March 17 to 31 in Denmark.
