Copenhagen Flames, the third-best Danish team attending the PGL Stockholm Major Challengers Stage, have done the unthinkable today. The troops led by Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen beat Heroic, the No. 1 CS:GO team in the country, in their 2-0 pool match to qualify for the Legends Stage with a perfect record.
The Flames have been impeccable so far throughout the tournament. They defeated Astralis and BIG in yesterday’s matches and played like top contenders once again today. HooXi and crew took Vertigo (16-11), saw Heroic tie the series on Nuke (16-12), and overcame their rivals on Overpass (16-12), the decisive map in the series, even though they were down 9-1 in the first half.
As of this moment, Copenhagen Flames’ veteran Fredrik “roeJ” Jørgensen, who’s always played a more supportive role on his previous teams, is the second-highest-rated player at the tournament. He’s averaging a 1.36 rating across five maps, just behind Entropiq’s AWPer Aleksey “El1an” Gusev’s 1.43 rating. RoeJ was the driving force behind the team against Heroic, finishing the series with a 1.17 rating and 58-46 K/D ratio.
Copenhagen Flames already surprised some teams in the IEM Fall Europe Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournament earlier this month, but they weren’t expected to breeze past all of their opponents at the PGL Stockholm Major, especially Astralis, BIG, and Heroic, who are all tier-one teams.
Now, the question is whether the Flames can maintain this form in the Legends Stage where powerful teams such as Natus Vincere, Gambit, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and Vitality await. Even if they don’t qualify for the playoffs, most people wouldn’t say that this core of players doesn’t deserve to compete against the best squads in the world more often.
Copenhagen Flames are the second team to qualify for the Legends Stage after FaZe did so slightly earlier. The second day of the PGL Stockholm Major is still ongoing with the 0-2 pool matches. Astralis are facing GODSENT on the main broadcast and paiN Gaming are playing against Sharks on the B stream.
