Things we learnt from the PGL Major

I'm sure there was loads of things you learnt from the PGL Major, because you're all very intelligent people. You must be to be using my app.

Let's revise the most important ones.

Pressure creates diamonds, or so they say. Quite what that makes the guy who folds under pressure is yet to be determined by the idiom. It's a little limited. NiKo was a shining star for G2, and a large reason the team was even in the games to begin with; but this isn't the first time he's choked a big lead in the Major final.

And two days in a row, he himself choked a simple task.

Just crouch, man. Take your free kill, move on to map three and you're in with a chance. But instead, you had to choke. Again.

Begrudgingly, I have to admit Heroic are an excellent team. They have a deep playbook on the T side - so deep in fact, that it being leaked to other teams hasn't really affected their ability to manipulate defences into unfavourable positions.

Heroic are superb, and their team is very well-balanced to the point that everyone can contribute and they're all very similarly skilled players. The flipside of that, however, is that they don't have a star who you can hang your hat on.

While I'm not sure there's a single player out there that elevates this team to NaVi status, they almost have to find one. Heroic were the best team around for a little while without it, but now NaVi are looking unstoppable; you don't catch up by treading water.

Maybe that $1m for device would have looked nicer here.

Astralis almost bowed out in the Challengers stage, and did very little to suggest them getting through was more than just the last flickering flame of a once giant fire.

This is a team whose era is defining, a team who were once the best in the world and considered potentially the greatest ever; but that era has most certainly ended now, with no sign of it coming back.

They say that when siamese twins split, one of them has to fall; but when the symbiotic relationship between gla1ve and device split, they both fell. device was crushed by a rampant G2, and now neither of them will have the career they expected once they part. Kind of like Robbie Williams and Take That, though, Take That need Robbie more than he needs them. He's done alright, all things considered.

NaVi, now, have a chance to beat all of the records, to coast past the times set by Astralis. This is quite possibly the best roster ever formed, and NaVi are beginning their era on the throne.

As much as we all wanted to see the swashbuckling children of Gambit that we all saw during the online era, we instead caught only flashes of what these youngsters are about. A close shave against FURIA on map one, a complete meltdown against NaVi - it wasn't quite to the standard we expected.

Which is... fine. These guys have never played in front of a crowd before, and they were visibly frustrated when things weren't going their way. The pressure probably got to them - understandably - and they just need some time.

It's not time to write these guys off, but it's time to be patient. They'll get there eventually, with the world going back to some semblance of normality. 

But oh man, did NaVi ruin them.

Anyone who watched Counter-Strike knew this anyway, but it's now completely inarguable. s1mple is the greatest to ever do it, and now has the Major trophy and MVP to go with it.

👑 The king gets his crown@s1mpleO secures the HLTV x @BitSkinsCom MVP award for #PGLMajor Stockholm 2021! pic.twitter.com/2hDxveE0cl

— HLTV 🇸🇪 #PGLMajor (@HLTVorg) November 7, 2021

A 1.47 rating is extraordinary, on the biggest stage. A 72 kill series in a two mapper in the Grand Final; a 1.74 K/D and the trophy to take home to him. There's no arguments left. He's won the Grand Slam and the Major, he's quite obviously the best player in the world statistically, and he consistently dominates against the best teams in the world. What more can you even put up against him?