Notable players who will miss the PGL Antwerp CS:GO Major

Some of the best CS:GO teams and players in the world will clash at the PGL Antwerp Major starting on May 9. The first Counter-Strike Major of the year will welcome 24 teams fighting for their share of the $1 million prize pool.

While household names such as Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, and Nikola “NiKo” Kovač have qualified for the tournament in Belgium and will be there putting on a show for the fans, some legendary players did not make it into the Major this time.

Here are some notable players who will miss the action at the PGL Antwerp Major.

Olofmeister

The Swedish legend and two-time Major champion with Fnatic in 2015 last played in a CS:GO Major last year at PGL Stockholm. FaZe Clan benched Marcelo “coldzera” David in June and had to call on Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer to stand in for them once again. Olof did a decent job throughout the rest of 2021 and was replaced by Robin “ropz” Kool for the 2022 season. He’s been inactive ever since and it’s unclear if he’ll return to the professional scene in the near future.

Coldzera

Coldzera has been absent from the Majors since IEM Katowice in 2019. He missed out on the StarLadder Berlin Major in 2019, PGL Stockholm Major in 2021, and now PGL Antwerp Major in 2022. His last few years have been rough and he hasn’t been able to replicate the success he saw on Luminosity Gaming and SK Gaming between 2016 and 2018, a period when he won two Majors and was elected the best player in the world twice. The Brazilian is in charge of 00 Nation, but the team has yet to bear fruit despite having potential.

KRIMZ

Even though Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson remains one of the best players on Fnatic, that has not been enough to guarantee a spot in the recent Majors. Just like coldzera, KRIMZ will miss his third Major in a row. Fnatic saw some success at the end of the year with its international team, but things fell apart early in 2022 after they crashed out of IEM Katowice. KRIMZ and crew are still figuring out how to play after the additions of Valentin “poizon” Vasilev and Peppe “Peppzor” Borak, and that ultimately cost them at the European Regional Major Ranking (RMR) because they weren’t as well prepared as they could be. If he and the team miss out on the next Major too, more roster changes will likely take place.

F0rest

The past two years have not been great for Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg, one of the greatest Counter-Strike legends. He attended his last Major at StarLadder Berlin in 2019 when he was still with Ninjas in Pyjamas, and ever since he moved to Dignitas in early 2020, he has not qualified for the Majors and also has been a rare appearance at tier-one tournaments in general. The Swedish veteran has been playing professionally since 2003 and is 33-years-old. He likely won’t have many more opportunities to play at a CS:GO Major, but plenty of fans would probably like to see him do it at least once again, this time with the Dignitas jersey.

Stewie2K

The PGL Antwerp Major will be the first CS:GO Major Jake “Stewie2K” Yip will miss in a while. He had not missed one since the ELEAGUE Atlanta Major in 2017, when he was still representing the Cloud9 banner. The ELEAGUE Boston Major champion left Team Liquid early this year after a long stint that had its ups and downs to join Evil Geniuses alongside his former teammates Timothy “autimatic” Ta and William “RUSH” Wierzba. EG have been disastrous so far in every tournament, including the Americas RMR, where they were eliminated at the hands of the South Americans of 9z. Stewie2K and EG will need to work hard to have a chance of playing at the second Major of the year.

HEN1

Henrique “HEN1” Teles is one of the greatest AWPers in Brazil and one of the best in the world when he’s feeling it. The 26-year-old had a rough stint with 00 Nation in 2021 and spent months on the sidelines before trying to create his own team alongside his twin brother Lucas “LUCAS1” Teles earlier this year. They played at the two South American open qualifiers for the Americas RMR and did not succeed, which ultimately led HEN1 to join GODSENT, an established Brazilian project overseas, after GODSENT didn’t make it into the Americas RMR as well. Many fans hope that once HEN1 is comfortable on GODSENT, he’ll take the squad to the next level like he did on FURIA in 2020.

Frozen

Even though David “frozen” Čerňanský is only 19 years old, he’s been in the scene since 2015 and is currently the most experienced player on the MOUZ roster, which features two players who were on the organization’s academy squad last year. The lack of experience was a decisive factor at the European RMR when MOUZ faced Vitality, a roster full of seniors, in the 2-2 pool and lost. Frozen has shown he’s talented enough to hang around the world’s best and he’ll need to keep evolving to guide MOUZ to sucess now that ropz is gone.

The PGL Antwerp Major will run from May 9 to 22. You can see which teams are attending and how to watch the tournament here.