Organizers of PGL Major Stockholm 2021 changed pairs of the first match day

A little over an hour ago, it became known that Virtus.pro will play at the upcoming PGL Major Stockholm 2021 with a new roster. The recent rumors regarding Sanjar 'SANJI' Kuliyev's departure from the starting roster turned out to be true, but somewhat premature. Many expected Virtus.pro to put the esports player on the bench after the completion of the Major CS: GO championship. Virtus.pro CEO Sergey Glamazda announced the change in the roster just ahead of PGL Major Stockholm 2021, and not after the end of the championship. Instead of SANJI, the team will be played by Evgeny 'FL1T' Lebedev, who is still on the forZe reserve. According to Glamazda, such an act should excite the team and make the players perform better at the event.

Because of this trick, Virtus.pro entered the first round of The New Challengers Stage with less RMR points, as they received a penalty. The organizers of the championship made substitutions in two match pairs. Team Entropiq will be forced to play with stronger opponents in the face of BIG, while Virtus.pro have been relieved of their burden and will face paiN Gaming in the first round. Initially, VP was supposed to play with BIG, and Entropiq, in turn, with paiN Gaming.

Many representatives of the esports community once again call Glamazda a genius, and such an act is nothing but a sign of intelligence with an indicator of 200 IQ. Another part of the audience is less positive and considers such an act ugly on the part of the leadership of the esports organization, since the team managed to get to the event with SANJI. Fans still understand that Sanzhar's motivation in this case could not be the highest, and the replacement clearly makes sense.

Earlier, the Russian-speaking commentator Konstantin 'leniniw' Sivko received insider information that VP wanted to recruit a player with a nickname starting with the letter F. Then, after Yegor 'flamie' Vasiliev left the starting lineup of Natus Vincere, they thought about flamie, but the latter claimed, that he is not going to go to the Virtus.pro camp. Now we know that his words, as in the case with Sivko, turned out to be true.

VP is not the only team that decided to make changes before the start of the tournament. Team Liquid announced a roster for participation in the Major tournament with Yaroslav 'pashaBiceps' Yazhambkowski as a substitute player, and Team Entropiq indicated that the previously mentioned Yegor 'flamie' Vasiliev will come to the tournament with them as a stand-in. The G2 management said that team veteran Kenny 'kennyS' Schrab will attend the Major as a replacement for G2 Esports.

Virtus.pro announced the following roster for participation in PGL Major Stockholm 2021:

• Timur 'buster' Tulepov
• Alexey 'qikert' Golubev
• Jami 'Jame' Ali
• Evgeny 'FL1T' Lebedev
• Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Galinskis
• Dastan 'dastan' Akbaev - coach

PGL Major Stockholm 2021 will be held in Stockholm. The venue for the event in Sweden will be Avicii Arena, but only the matches of The New Champions Stage will be held there. 24 teams will come together to share a total prize pool of $ 2,000,000, which has become a record in the history of CS: GO. The winner, in addition to the financial means, the way of distribution of which, by the way, has not yet been announced, will earn 1,800 ESL Pro Tour rating points, as well as 4,000 BLAST Premier units and an invitation to BLAST Premier World Final 2021. The prize fund of the latter will be $ 1,000,000.