The ELEAGUE Major: Atlanta 2017 was the tenth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major. Astralis won it, coming back from a map down against Virtus.pro in the final for their first Major title. It was also the first Major with a Swiss-system group stage, and the first where Valve sold team graffiti alongside the stickers.
The tournament
Valve's announcement set the dates as January 22 to 29, 2017. The group stage ran from January 22 to 25 at the ELEAGUE Arena inside Turner Studios in Atlanta, and the playoffs from January 27 to 29 at the Fox Theatre, which HLTV described as a 5,000-seat venue. The grand final was shown live on Twitch and on the US cable channel TBS.
- Teams: the eight Legends from ESL One Cologne 2016 and eight Challengers from a Swiss-format main qualifier.
- Group stage: a 16-team Swiss system of best-of-one matches. Teams with three wins went to the playoffs, teams with three losses went home. Every earlier Major had used GSL groups.
- Playoffs: a single-elimination bracket of best-of-three series.
- Maps: Cache, Cobblestone, Dust II, Mirage, Nuke, Overpass and Train, unchanged from Cologne.
The prize pool was $1,000,000. Astralis took $500,000 and Virtus.pro $150,000, with $70,000 for each losing semifinalist, $35,000 for each quarterfinalist and $8,750 for everyone else.
A Legends spot that changed hands twice
Before the Major, GODSENT signed Robin "flusha" Rönnquist, Jesper "JW" Wecksell and Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson from Fnatic, and with them Fnatic's Legends spot. KRIMZ then went back to Fnatic in a trade for Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson, which returned the spot to Fnatic. GODSENT qualified anyway through the main qualifier. Both teams therefore have Atlanta 2017 stickers, and the Fnatic autograph capsule features Simon "twist" Eliasson and Joakim "disco doplan" Gidetun instead of flusha and JW.
Other teams had changed too. SK Gaming played with Ricardo "fox" Pacheco after benching fnx, and Natus Vincere now had Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev.
Astralis
| Player | Real name |
|---|---|
| dev1ce | Nicolai Reedtz |
| dupreeh | Peter Rasmussen |
| Xyp9x | Andreas Højsleth |
| Kjaerbye | Markus Kjærbye |
| gla1ve | Lukas Rossander |
| zonic (coach) | Danny Sørensen |
gla1ve, the stand-in from Cologne, had joined permanently in October 2016 after Astralis benched Finn "karrigan" Andersen. Kjaerbye, who had been barred from playing the Cologne Major for Astralis, was now eligible.
Astralis lost two of their five Swiss matches, including a 6-16 opener against GODSENT, and qualified by beating Team Liquid 16-3 in the last round. In the playoffs they beat Natus Vincere 2-1 and Fnatic 2-0, winning Cache 19-16 in overtime and Nuke 16-5 in the semifinal. Virtus.pro went through the Swiss stage 3-0, then beat North 2-1 and the two-time defending champions SK Gaming 2-0.
The final
The grand final was played on January 29:
| Map | Astralis | Virtus.pro |
|---|---|---|
| Nuke | 12 | 16 |
| Overpass | 16 | 14 |
| Train | 16 | 14 |
Nuke was Virtus.pro's pick. They led 9-6 at the half and won 16-12. On Astralis' pick, Overpass, the Danes led 9-6 at the half, but Virtus.pro took a 14-13 lead. HLTV's report credits Kjaerbye with winning a one-on-one against Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski when Virtus.pro were close to closing the series, and Astralis took the map 16-14.
Train, the decider, started badly for Astralis. Virtus.pro won the first seven rounds; at 8-5, Kjaerbye kept Astralis in touch with a defuse that HLTV timed at 0.1 seconds. Virtus.pro still led 9-6 at the half and extended it to 12-6, but from 13-8 down Astralis won the map 16-14 and the title.
Virtus.pro were in their second Major final after winning EMS One Katowice 2014. HLTV gave its MVP by ZOWIE award to the 18-year-old Kjaerbye for a 1.16 rating over the event and 1.22 in the final.
Stickers, autographs and team graffiti
Valve released the set on January 12, 2017. The release notes said team stickers, player autographs "and all-new team graffiti" were available, "with 50% of the proceeds going to players and organizations", and that team stickers were game pieces for the Team Pick'Em Challenge. Our guide to Major sticker capsules covers the money side.
| Item | What it held |
|---|---|
| Team stickers | Paper team logos, bought one at a time in the in-game store |
| Atlanta 2017 Legends (Holo-Foil) | Holo and foil logos of the eight Legends plus holo and foil ELEAGUE stickers |
| Atlanta 2017 Challengers (Holo-Foil) | Holo and foil logos of the eight Challengers plus holo and foil ELEAGUE stickers |
| 16 team autograph capsules | Paper autographs of one team's five players |
| Legends (Foil) and Challengers (Foil) autograph capsules | Foil autographs of the 40 Legends or 40 Challengers players |
| Team graffiti | Sealed graffiti of each team and ELEAGUE |
Gold logos and gold autographs again exist only on Souvenirs. Sealed graffiti are a different kind of item from stickers: they are sprayed on walls in game rather than applied to a weapon.
Souvenir packages
According to the Counter-Strike Wiki, Souvenir packages again dropped to viewers watching in-game or on Twitch, one for each of the seven maps, and each Souvenir carried a gold ELEAGUE sticker, gold logos of both teams and a gold autograph of the round MVP. All three final maps, Nuke, Overpass and Train, have packages with final drops. The Cobblestone package was the eighth of the ten that could hold an AWP | Dragon Lore; our Dragon Lore history has the full list, and our souvenir packages guide explains how drops worked.
The next Major went to Poland: see PGL Kraków 2017.
Collecting Atlanta 2017 items today
- Read the full name. ELEAGUE also ran the Boston 2018 Major, so check that the item ends in "Atlanta 2017".
- Know the finishes. Team logos come in paper, holo, foil and gold. Autographs come in paper, foil and gold, and gold only appears on Souvenirs.
- Match the lineups. Fnatic and GODSENT both have Atlanta 2017 stickers, and the SK capsule has fox rather than fnx.
- Graffiti are not stickers. A sealed graffiti stays tradable until you unseal it; check the listing says "Sealed".
- Inspect Souvenirs and scrapes. The gold stickers show the teams and the round MVP, and worn stickers change how collectors value a gun. The sticker filter on Buy helps you find specific Atlanta 2017 stickers.
Sources
- ELEAGUE Major Atlanta 2017 — Liquipedia
- Astralis win the ELEAGUE Major — HLTV.org (archived)
- The ELEAGUE Major – Atlanta, 2017 — Counter-Strike blog (Valve)
- Atlanta 2017 – Champions — Counter-Strike blog (Valve)
- Release Notes for 1/12/2017 — Counter-Strike blog (Valve)
- Video: Kjaerbye - MVP of EL Major — HLTV.org
- ELEAGUE Major viewer's guide — HLTV.org
- ELEAGUE Atlanta 2017 Stickers — Counter-Strike Wiki
