PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 was the first Counter-Strike 2 Major and the 20th Major overall. A Natus Vincere lineup rebuilt around three new signings beat FaZe Clan 2-1 in the grand final at Royal Arena on March 31, 2024. The event also brought the first Major stickers and souvenir packages of the CS2 era, sold through the capsule system our Major sticker capsules guide explains.
The tournament
PGL ran the event from March 17 to 31, 2024. Its 24 teams came through the Regional Major Ranking (RMR) qualifiers and, according to Liquipedia, were seeded using Valve's Regional Standings. The format had three parts:
- Opening Stage (March 17–20): 16 teams in a Swiss system. Matches that decided advancement or elimination were best-of-three, the rest best-of-one. The top eight went through.
- Elimination Stage (March 21–24): those eight plus eight invited teams, in the same Swiss format.
- Playoffs (March 28–31): an eight-team single-elimination bracket at Royal Arena, all best-of-three.
HLTV noted that the Elimination Stage was still played behind closed doors, with the crowd arriving for the playoffs. One team changed shortly before the start: the Russian side 9 Pandas withdrew, which HLTV put down to passport problems, and GamerLegion took their place.
The prize pool was $1,250,000. NAVI took $500,000 and FaZe $170,000.
NAVI's road to the trophy
NAVI's lineup was Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen as in-game leader, Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy, Justinas "jL" Lekavicius, Mihai "iM" Ivan and Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov, coached by Andrii "B1ad3" Horodenskyi. b1t had already won a Major with NAVI at PGL Stockholm 2021; for Aleksib, HLTV noted, this was a first Major title after several hard years.
They started in the Elimination Stage and needed all five rounds. NAVI beat The MongolZ and G2 Esports, lost best-of-threes to Team Spirit and Cloud9, then beat paiN Gaming 2-0 to go through at 3-2. In the playoffs they beat Eternal Fire 2-0 and G2 2-1, while FaZe got past Spirit and Team Vitality. Valve noted that both semi-finals went the full three maps.
The grand final
| Map | Picked by | NAVI | FaZe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ancient | FaZe | 13 | 9 |
| Mirage | NAVI | 2 | 13 |
| Inferno | Decider | 13 | 3 |
HLTV called FaZe's Ancient pick a surprise, as they had played it only twice at the event. NAVI took it 13-9, and jL closed the map with a 1v3 clutch. FaZe answered with a 13-2 rout on NAVI's own Mirage pick, but NAVI controlled Inferno from the pistol round and won it 13-3, with b1t and jL combining for 43 kills.
HLTV reported a peak of over 1.8 million concurrent viewers, the third-highest in Counter-Strike history at the time, and noted the series broke a run of seven Major finals decided in two maps. NAVI became only the third organisation to win more than one Major, after fnatic and Astralis.
HLTV named jL its MVP of the event. He finished with a 1.22 rating over 18 maps, led the event in total kills and won the first MVP medal of his career.
Stickers: late, then glitter
Valve opened the Copenhagen Major hub on March 13 with the Viewer Pass, the Pick'Em Challenge and souvenirs, but listed stickers as "coming soon". They arrived on March 20, after the Opening Stage. HLTV reported the delay came from players whose signature designs broke Valve's guidelines and had to be redone. Every team and player at the event got stickers, GamerLegion included.
As in previous years, team logos and player autographs came in separate capsules, split into three groups. Each capsule held one random sticker in paper, glitter, holo or gold, and HLTV put the price at $0.95. Every team capsule also contained the PGL logo.
| Capsule | Teams |
|---|---|
| Legends | Complexity, FaZe Clan, G2 Esports, MOUZ, Natus Vincere, Team Spirit, Virtus.pro, Team Vitality |
| Challengers | Apeks, Cloud9, ENCE, Eternal Fire, FURIA, GamerLegion, HEROIC, SAW |
| Contenders | AMKAL, ECSTATIC, Imperial, KOI, Legacy, Lynn Vision, paiN Gaming, The MongolZ |
The Legends were the eight teams invited straight to the Elimination Stage, and the 16 Opening Stage teams were split between the other two capsules. A few days after the final, Valve released the Copenhagen 2024 Champions Autograph Capsule with the five NAVI players' signatures in the same four finishes.
Valve said 50% of the proceeds went to the players and organisations. HLTV had reported that Paris 2023 stickers earned teams and players more than $110 million; Complexity's general manager later told Dust2.us that Copenhagen "has been a return to the norm".
Souvenir packages
Each map in the pool had its own package. Viewers earned extra packages by upgrading their Copenhagen 2024 Coin in Pick'Em with an active Viewer Pass. From this event any Prime player could make picks for free, but only pass holders earned rewards.
| Package | Collection | Top grade in the package |
|---|---|---|
| Ancient | The Ancient Collection | Covert: M4A1-S, Welcome to the Jungle |
| Anubis | The Anubis Collection | Covert: M4A4, Eye of Horus |
| Inferno | The 2018 Inferno Collection | Classified |
| Mirage | The 2021 Mirage Collection | Covert: AWP, Desert Hydra |
| Nuke | The 2018 Nuke Collection | Classified |
| Overpass | The Overpass Collection | Classified |
| Vertigo | The 2021 Vertigo Collection | Covert: M4A1-S, Imminent Danger |
A Copenhagen Souvenir carries four gold stickers: the two teams from its match, the PGL logo and the map. Souvenirs from the grand final came out of the Ancient, Mirage and Inferno packages with NAVI and FaZe gold stickers. Our souvenir packages guide covers the drop odds.
Collecting Copenhagen items
- Look for "Champion". NAVI's players have two sets of autographs: the regular ones from the Legends Autograph Capsule and the Champion versions released after the final.
- Know the finish. Copenhagen and Shanghai 2024 were the last Majors with glitter stickers before Austin 2025 switched to foil.
- Check the match on souvenirs. The gold team stickers tell you which match a Souvenir came from; a grand final Souvenir has NAVI and FaZe together.
- Inspect the scrape. On an applied sticker, check the wear in game, as our stickers guide explains.
- Search by sticker. The sticker filter on Buy finds guns carrying a specific Copenhagen sticker.
The Major before this one was BLAST.tv Paris 2023; the next went to Shanghai.
Sources
- PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 — Liquipedia
- NAVI beat FaZe to win PGL Major Copenhagen — HLTV.org
- jL claims PGL Major Copenhagen MVP award — HLTV.org
- Valve release Copenhagen Major stickers — HLTV.org
- PGL Copenhagen 2024 — Counter-Strike 2 announcements (Valve)
- Copenhagen Major Champions — Counter-Strike 2 announcements (Valve)
- Complexity GM on sticker sales: "Copenhagen has been a return to the norm" — Dust2.us
