StarLadder Major: Berlin 2019
The StarLadder Major: Berlin 2019, also known as StarLadder Major 2019 or Berlin 2019, was the fifteenth . It was held in Berlin, Germany from August 23 to September 8, 2019. Fourteen teams qualify for this Major based on their top fourteen placements from the last Major, the Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII – Katowice Major 2019, while another ten teams qualify from their respective regional qualifiers. It features a US$1,000,000 prize pool and twenty-four professional teams from around the world as with previous Majors. It was also the first time the Ukrainian-based organization StarLadder hosted a Major along with its long-term Chinese partner ImbaTV. The Berlin Major is the eighth consecutive major with a prize pool of $1,000,000 since Valve announced the prize pool increase from $250,000 at MLG Columbus 2016.
After the major, Astralis became the only team in CS:GO to win four majors, and the only team to win three majors consecutively. The player dev1ce became tied with coldzera in terms of major MVPs, with them having two each.
Background
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve. It is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series. In competitive play, the game pits two teams against each other: the Terrorists and the Counter-Terrorists. Both sides are tasked with eliminating the other while also completing separate objectives. The Terrorists must either plant a bomb or kill the entire Counter-Terrorist team, while the Counter-Terrorists must either prevent the bomb from being planted by killing the entire Terrorist team or defusing the bomb. Once the bomb is planted, counter-terrorists have forty seconds to defuse the bomb; under normal circumstances, it takes ten seconds to defuse the bomb, but purchasing a defuse kit reduces the defuse time to five seconds. At the end of each round, players are rewarded based on their individual performance with in-game currency to spend on more powerful weapons in subsequent rounds. Winning rounds results in more money than losing, and completing objectives such as killing enemy players gives cash bonuses. However, the more consecutive rounds a team loses, the more money the losing team earns, with the loss bonus capping after five rounds; once that team wins a round, the loss round bonus resets to the minimum amount each player could earn after a round.The current defending champions are Astralis, after winning their third major championship at the IEM Katowice Major 2019. Both Astralis and Fnatic have the most Major titles with three.
Format
There are four regional qualifiers – Americas, Asia, CIS, and Europe. Two teams from each qualifier will move on to the New Challengers stage. Each Minor will feature eight teams. In addition, the teams that placed third in their respective Minors will have another shot at the Major as since Valve reduced the number of direct invites from sixteen to fourteen, the last two spots will be decided through a third place qualifier, in which the teams that placed third at each Minor will play until two teams remain.Map Pool
The map pool was changed for this Major. Cache was taken out of the map pool as Valve announced it would be undergoing renovations. Rather than debuting a new Cobblestone, which is normally in the map pool, Valve introduced Vertigo for the first time as part of its competitive map pool.Minors
Each regional qualifier, called "Minors", featured eight teams. Each Minor also had a 50,000 prize pool, with first place receiving 30,000, second place taking in 15,000, and third place raking in the last 5,000. Like past recent Minors, no teams were directly invited to the Minors. There is no prize pool for the third place play in. The Europe and Americas Minors will start on July 17 and last until July 21. The CIS and Asia Minors will start on July 24 and last until July 28; the third place play in will take place on July 29.Each Minor will feature two groups of four teams in a standard, GSL format group stage. The highest and lowest seed of the group and then other two teams will play in a best of one. The winners will play in a best of three and then the losers will play in a best of three. The winner of the winner's match will qualify for the bracket stage while the loser of the loser's match will be eliminated. The last two teams in the group will play in a best of three; the winner will move on to the bracket stage and the loser will be eliminated. The bracket stage will be a four team, best of three, double elimination bracket. The top two teams will qualify for the New Challengers stage of the Major, the third place team will have another shot in the third place play-in, while the fourth place team will be eliminated.
The third place play-in will be a four team, double elimination bracket. The initial and winner's match will be a best of one while the elimination matches will be a best of three. The top three teams move on to the Major as Cloud9 lost their Major spot so the spot is replaced by a team from the third place play-in.
Americas Minor
The Americas Minor will feature six teams from North America and two teams from South America. The North American closed qualifier featured sixteen teams, with eight teams being invited and another eight teams coming from four open qualifiers. Like the Europe Minor closed qualifier, the North America qualifier was a sixteen team, double elimination, best of three bracket. Notable teams such as Luminosity Gaming, Team Envy, and champions Cloud9 failed to make it to the Minor. The South America qualifier initially had eight invited teams, but DETONA Gaming's Vinicius "v$m" Moreira had a VAC ban, forcing the team to withdraw from the qualifier. The last spot was filled in by a last chance qualifier.;Notes
NRG Esports started off the Berlin Minors with an easy win over Team One. Sharks Esports was able to take advantage of Team Singularity's inexperience and had a relatively easy time closing out the game. INTZ eSports kicked off group B with an upset over the red hot FURIA Esports in a close game, as INTZ's team effort, with all the players getting at least 20 kills, proved to be the difference. eUnited vs Luminosity Gaming was a battle between inexperience versus inconsistency, but Luminosity's new acquisition of was the impact factor, as had 33 kills. NRG was barely able to take a 2-0 win over Sharks as Jhonatan "jnt" Silva's 46 kills gave NRG a scare. INTZ booked a spot in the bracket by taking a very close three game series over Luminosity. Team One was the first team to be eliminated after a fairly close three game series with Singularity. The two favorites of group B met in the loser's match, and FURIA came out on top over eUnited. Sharks looked to continue the streak of underdog Brazilian teams making an impact and it did so as Sharks eliminated Singularity 2-1 behind Raphael "exit" Lacerda's 55 kills. FURIA took a close one over Luminosity and then had an easy second half on the second map, allowing just two rounds and FURIA stayed alive and eliminated Luminosity.
INTZ was able to edge out Sharks in a close two game series as Vito "kNgV-" Giuseppe had a massive 60 kills to carry his team. NRG easily took care of FURIA in the first map, but had to fight hard in a double overtime affair over the up-and-coming Brazilians. NRG then took down INTZ in the winner's finals as Cvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov was dominant in the run and NRG qualified for its second Major. FURIA was able to take down Sharks as the Argentinians were close to making its first Major. FURIA got revenge over INTZ as Yuri "yuurih" Santos's 66 kills outclassed everyone on the server, and FURIA booked another flight to Berlin.
Europe Minor
The Europe Minor closed qualifier featured sixteen teams. No teams were invited to the Minor, but eight teams were invited to the closed qualifier while another eight teams came from four open qualifiers. The closed qualifier was a sixteen team, double elimination, best of three bracket. Notable teams such as Virtus.pro, OpTic Gaming, Heroic, and Windigo Gaming did not qualify for the Minor.NoChance kicked off the Europe Minor with an upset over mousesports, barely edging out the Germany-based team; four of the five NoChance players had at least 20 kills each. CR4ZY, formerly called Valiance & Co, was able to hold off Sprout Esports, which won six unanswered rounds to start off the second half. Nemanja "huNter" Kovač was able to outduel Nils "k1to" Gruhne in the win. In group B, North had almost no trouble taking down BIG while Fnatic were able to take a 13-2 halftime lead over Team Ancient and did not look back. In the group A winner's match, CR4ZY was able to take down NoChance without too much trouble as Nestor "LETN1" Tanić had 46 kills in the two-game sweep. Fnatic dismantled North in the first map of group B's winner's matchup and then limited the Danish offense in the second half of the second map as Jesper "JW" Wecksell put on a vintage performance with 25 kills. After making a comeback in the first map and taking a 12-3 lead in the second map, Sprout looked to close things out. However, Finn "karrigan" Andersen rallied his team and completely overran the Sprout defense in the second half. Sprout took a small lead into the third map halftime, but, once again, mousesports rallied back and only allowed one round and Sprout was eliminated. Group B's loser's match had Ancient and BIG splitting the first two maps and the third map went to overtime. Lead by Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz, BIG was able to squeeze out the win 19-17 over Ancient. mousesports took revenge on NoChance after taking the three game series with Özgür "woxic" Eker leading the server. BIG tried to take revenge on North, but North was able to hold the Germans off with Philip "aizy" Aistrup's 48 kills and Nicklas "gade" Gade's 46 leading the way.
mousesports took down Fnatic in a two-game sweep to move on while North was able to handle CR4ZY with relative ease. mousesports clinched a spot at the Major with the young David "frozen" Čerňanský leading with way. CR4ZY upset Fnatic in two close games, marking the first time in Fnatic's history that it would not be at a CSGO Major. CR4ZY continued its winning ways with a dominant two-game sweep over North to book a spot at the Major.
Asia Minor
The Asia Minor will feature eight teams. Unlike the other Minors, the Asia Minor featured teams from six geographical regions. All qualifiers featured four invited teams with four more coming from two open qualifiers, except for the Greater China qualifier – which had sixteen teams, eight of which were invited – and the African qualifier – which had no invited teams. All qualifiers were a double elimination, best of three bracket.Grayhound Gaming started strong by taking down Energy Esports with relatively easy fashion, as Simon "Sico" Williams's 22 kills lead the way. Avant Gaming upset 5Power Gaming after Avant took a massive 14-1 lead at the half and the 5Power comeback started far too late. ALPHA Red pulled off a massive upset over MVP PK as Itthirit "foxz" Ngamsaard had a dominant game to stunt the Koreans. TyLoo had no problem handling FFAmix on Mirage. Grayhound and Avant had a close first game that went in favor of the higher seeded Australians, but Grayhound posted a 16-0 on the second map to advance. ALPHA Red took down TyLoo on the first map, but Hansel "BnTeT" Ferdinand and his team turned things on and was able to defeat the Thai team. 5Power had no trouble at all handling the South Africans of Energy. MVP PK struggled somewhat in its win over FFAmix, but Hyun-pyo "XigN" Lee was able to help his team over the finish line. Avant proved its win over 5Power was not a fluke as a very close three game series went in favor of the Australians. ALPHA Red looked like it could take down MVP PK again after taking the first map, but the Korean side won the next two maps with relative ease to eliminate the Thai team.
Grayhound had some trouble with MVP PK on the first map, but a dominant second map guaranteed the Australians that it would not be eliminated at the Minors. TyLoo easily took down Avant with a 16-2 win on the first map; the second map was much closer, but the Chinese team put away the game with YuanZhang "Attacker" Sheng's massive 32 kills. MVP PK was able to handle Avant as dominant second halves on both maps allowed the Koreans to at least guarantee a spot on the Minor play-in. With Renegades already at the Major, TyLoo found a new Australian team to have contentious series with, and Grayhound came out on top, with the third map going into double overtime. TyLoo dominated MVP PK in the loser's finals, as BnTeT and Haowen "somebody" Xu had more than 40 kills each.
CIS Minor
The CIS Minor will feature eight teams. The CIS closed qualifier featured the same format as the other Minor qualifiers. Notable teams such as Vega Squadron, pro100, and Winstrike Team failed to make it to the Minor.forZe lead things off with a win over Syman Gaming, with Almaz "almazer" Assadulin leading forZe. Gambit Youngsters easily took down Unique Team in a dominant 16-4 win. DreamEaters upset Spirit in dominant fashion with a 16-3 win while Warthox Esport's Dmitriy "ProbLeM" Martinov helped his team upset Nemiga Gaming. forZe had an easy time over the inexperienced Gambit team and took a spot in the bracket phase. DreamEaters survived Warthox in a two-game sweep that featured a 16-13 and 16-14 scorelines. Syman eliminated Unique in two very close games, including one that went to overtime. In the battle of group B favorites in the loser's set, Spirit edged out Nemiga to eliminate the Belarusians. After suffering had big loss to Gambit Youngters in the first map, Syman dominated the next two to stay alive. Spirit bounced back and was able to eliminated Warthox as Victor "somedieyoung" Orudzhev's 44 kills lead the way.
forZe survived Spirit in a very close two game series, as Evgeny "FL1T" Lebedev's 52 kills helped forZe stay in the upper bracket. Syman defeated DreamEaters in a thrilling series that went all three games, with the last two going into overtime. DreamEaters was able to eliminate Spirit in an upset win. forZe dominated Syman with ease and after years of being on the edge of qualifying for the Major. In the loser's finals, Syman and DreamEaters clashed in another tense set, but Syman came out on top again and qualified for the Major.
Minor play-in
This qualifier featured the teams that placed third in their respective Minors. This phase was a four team, best of three, double elimination bracket. The opening matches were the Asia Minor representative against the Europe Minor representative and the CIS Minor team versus the Americans Minor team. After Cloud9 forfeited its spot by not fielding the majority of its lineup from the last Major, a third team would qualify from this qualifier.MVP PK put up a tough fight against North, but the Danes managed to secure a spot at the Major, holding off the Koreans. The inexperienced DreamEaters managed to dominate INTZ in their first map. The second map also started off with the Russians thrashing the Brazilians, but INTZ managed to make a massive comeback, from down 12-3 to winning 19-15. The third map was a close one, but DreamEaters managed to pull off the upset to head to its first Major. MVP PK and INTZ had a very close series, but INTZ came out on top with Marcelo "chelo" Cespedes leading the way as, once again, MVP just barely could not pull through for a Major appearance.
Broadcast Talent
Desk Hosts- Tres "stunna" Saranthus
- Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett
- Sue "Smix" Lee
- James Banks
- Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill
- Sean "seang@res" Gares
- Jacob "Pimp" Winneche
- Duncan "Thorin" Shields
- Henry "HenryG" Greer
- Alex "Machine" Richardson
- Anders "Anders" Blume
- Jason "moses" O'Toole
- James "JFZB" Bardolph
- Daniel "ddk" Kapadia
- Harry "JustHarry" Russell
- Hugo Byron
- Connor "Sliggy" Blomfield
- Denys "ANKOR" Ivanko
- Aleksey "PsychoAlekseiz" Bryl
- Tymofii "Ieformit" Pavlenko
- Vladislav "MentoS" Vansovich
- Antonio "Stxrm" Lodin
- Egor "focuzz" Sineokiy
- Maksym "Sima" Soloviov
- Arsenii "SHAD3R" Zakharov
Broadcasts
Teams competing
NotesNew Challengers stage
The New Challengers stage took place from August 23 to August 26, 2019 at the Verti Music Hall. The Challengers stage, also known as the Preliminary stage and formerly known as the offline qualifier, is a sixteen team swiss tournament. Initial seeding was determined using HLTV.org's world rankings from March 4 to August 12, 2019. Under each of the "Rounds" columns are the team's opponent's seed at the time the round was played, out of all teams still in the tournament.| Place | Team | Record | RD | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 |
| 1–2 |  mousesports | 3–0 | +13 | forZe | High match AVANGAR | High match G2 Esports | New Legends stage | New Legends stage |
| 1–2 |  North | 3–0 | +11 | INTZ eSports | High match Syman Gaming | High match CR4ZY | New Legends stage | New Legends stage |
| 3–5 |  NRG Esports | 3–1 | +39 | DreamEaters | Low match TYLOO | Mid match Syman Gaming | High match AVANGAR | New Legends stage |
| 3–5 |  G2 Esports | 3–1 | +19 | TYLOO | High match DreamEaters | High match mousesports | High match forZe | New Legends stage |
| 3–5 |  CR4ZY | 3–1 | +16 | Grayhound Gaming | High match FURIA Esports | High match North | High match DreamEaters | New Legends stage |
| 6–8 | Team Vitality | 3–2 | +25 | Syman Gaming | Low match INTZ eSports | Mid match DreamEaters | Low match HellRaisers | Grayhound Gaming |
| 6–8 |  DreamEaters | 3–2 | +1 | NRG Esports | High match G2 Esports | Mid match Team Vitality | Mid match CR4ZY | forZe |
| 6–8 |  AVANGAR | 3–2 | 0 | Complexity Gaming | High match mouseports | Mid match HellRaisers | Mid match NRG Esports | Syman Gaming |
| 9–11 |  Grayhound Gaming | 2–3 | +10 | CR4ZY | Low match forZe | Low match INTZ eSports | Low match Complexity Gaming | Team Vitality |
| 9–11 |  Syman Gaming | 2–3 | –1 | Team Vitality | High match North | Mid match NRG Esports | Mid match FURIA Esports | AVANGAR |
| 9–11 | forZe | 2–3 | –14 | mousesports | Low match Grayhound Gaming | Mid match FURIA Esports | Mid match G2 Esports | DreamEaters |
| 12–14 | Complexity Gaming | 1–3 | –15 | AVANGAR | Low match HellRaisers | Low match TYLOO | Mid match Grayhound Gaming | Eliminated |
| 12–14 |  FURIA Esports | 1–3 | –17 | HellRaisers | Low match CR4ZY | Mid match forZe | Low match Syman Gaming | Eliminated |
| 12–14 | HellRaisers | 1–3 | –20 | FURIA Esports | Low match Complexity Gaming | Mid match AVANGAR | Low match Team Vitality | Eliminated |
| 15–16 |  TYLOO | 0–3 | –31 | G2 Esports | Low match NRG Esports | Low match Complexity Gaming | Eliminated | Eliminated |
| 15–16 | INTZ eSports | 0–3 | –36 | North | Low match Team Vitality | Low match Grayhound Gaming | Eliminated | Eliminated |
New Legends stage
The New Legends stage, formerly known as the Group stage, used the same format as the Challengers stage. This stage took place from August 28 to September 1, 2019 at the Verti Music Hall. Next to each team's name under the "Team" column is each team's initial seeding. Under each of the "Rounds" columns are the team's opponent's seed at the time the round was played.| Place | Team | Record | Round Difference | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 |
| 1–2 |  ENCE | 3–0 | +34 | AVANGAR | High Match MIBR | High MatchTeam Vitality | New Champions stage | New Champions stage |
| 1–2 | NRG Esports | 3–0 | +24 | Renegades | High Match Team Liquid | High MatchAstralis | New Champions stage | New Champions stage |
| 3–5 | Team Vitality | 3–1 | +18 | North | High Match FaZe Clan | Middle MatchENCE | High Match mousesports | New Champions stage |
| 3–5 | Astralis | 3–1 | +15 | Dreameaters | High Match G2 Esports | Middle MatchNRG Esports | High Match CR4ZY | New Champions stage |
| 3–5 | AVANGAR | 3–1 | +1 | ENCE | Low Match Renegades | Middle MatchTeam Liquid | High Match G2 Esports | New Champions stage |
| 6–8 | Natus Vincere | 3–2 | +33 | G2 Esports | Low Match Dreameaters | Middle Matchmousesports | Low Match MIBR | CR4ZY |
| 6–8 | Team Liquid | 3–2 | +14 | CR4ZY | High Match NRG | Middle MatchAVANGAR | Low Match North | mousesports |
| 6–8 | Renegades | 3–2 | +8 | NRG Esports | Low Match AVANGAR | Middle MatchDreameaters | Low Match FaZe Clan | G2 Esports |
| 9–11 | G2 Esports | 2–3 | –7 | Natus Vincere | High Match Astralis | Middle MatchMIBR | High Match AVANGAR | Renegades |
| 9–11 | CR4ZY | 2–3 | –19 | Team Liquid | Low Match Ninjas in Pyjamas | Middle MatchFaZe Clan | High Match Astralis | Natus Vincere |
| 9–11 | mousesports | 2–3 | –24 | FaZe Clan | Low Match North | Middle MatchNatus Vincere | High Match Vitality | Team Liquid |
| 12–14 | FaZe Clan | 1–3 | 0 | mousesports | High Match Team Vitality | Middle MatchCR4ZY | Low Match Renegades | Eliminated |
| 12–14 | North | 1–3 | –4 | Team Vitality | Low Match mousesports | Low MatchNinjas in Pyjamas | Low Match Team Liquid | Eliminated |
| 12–14 | MIBR | 1–3 | –33 | Ninjas in Pyjamas | High Match ENCE | Middle MatchG2 Esports | Low Match Natus Vincere | Eliminated |
| 15–16 |  Ninjas in Pyjamas | 0–3 | –30 | MIBR | Low Match CR4ZY | Low MatchNorth | Eliminated | Eliminated |
| 15–16 | DreamEaters | 0–3 | –30 | Astralis | Low Match Natus Vincere | Low MatchRenegades | Eliminated | Eliminated |
New Champions stage
The New Champions Stage, also known as the Playoffs, is a best of three single elimination bracket. Teams play until a winner is decided. This stage took place between September 5 to September 8 at the Mercedes-Benz Arena. Brackets were revealed shortly after Natus Vincere defeated CR4ZY in the last map of the group stages. Teams were seeded first based on their record in the New Legends stage and based on the strength of their schedule. To the left of each team's name is their seed and to the right is their score.Bracket
Quarterfinals
ENCE vs. Renegades
Casters: James Bardolph & ddkTeam Vitality vs. AVANGAR
Casters: Anders & mosesNRG Esports vs. Natus Vincere
Casters: James Bardolph & ddkAstralis vs. Team Liquid
Casters: Anders & mosesSemifinals
Renegades vs. AVANGAR
Casters: James Bardolph & ddkNRG Esports vs. Astralis
Casters: Anders & mosesFinals
AVANGAR vs. Astralis
Casters: Anders & mosesFinal standings
The final placings are shown below. In addition, the prize distribution, seed for the next major, roster, and coaches are shown. Each team's in-game leader is shown first.| Place | Prize Money | Team | Seed | Roster | Coach |
| 1st |  Astralis | Rio 2020 Legends | , dev1ce, dupreeh, Magisk, Xyp9x | zonic | |
| 2nd | AVANGAR | Rio 2020 Legends | Jame, buster, qikert,  Sanji, AdreN | dastan | |
| 3rd 4th | Renegades | Rio 2020 Legends |  jkaem,  Gratisfaction, AZR, jks, Liazz | kassad | |
| 3rd 4th | NRG Esports | Rio 2020 Legends |  stanislaw,  CeRq, Brehze, Ethan, tarik | ImAPet | |
| 5th 8th | ENCE | Rio 2020 Legends | Aleksib, allu, sergej, Aerial, xseveN | Twista | |
| 5th 8th | Team Vitality | Rio 2020 Legends |  ALEX, apEX, NBK-, ZywOo, RpK | XTQZZZ | |
| 5th 8th | Natus Vincere | Rio 2020 Legends |  s1mple, Zeus, flamie, electronic, Boombl4 | kane | |
| 5th 8th | Team Liquid | Rio 2020 Legends | NAF, Twistzz, nitr0, EliGE, Stewie2k | adreN | |
| 9th 11th | mousesports | Rio 2020 Challengers |  ropz, karrigan,  woxic,  frozen,  chrisJ | Rejin | |
| 9th 11th | CR4ZY | Rio 2020 Challengers |  EspiranTo, ottoNd, nexa, huNter, LETN1 | emi | |
| 9th 11th | G2 Esports | Rio 2020 Challengers | shox, kennyS, Lucky, JaCkz, AmaNEk | maLeK | |
| 12th 14th | MIBR | Rio 2020 Challengers | FalleN, zews, TACO, fer, LUCAS1 | ||
| 12th 14th | FaZe Clan | Rio 2020 Challengers |  NiKo,  NEO, rain, olofmeister, GuardiaN | YNk | |
| 12th 14th | North | Rio 2020 Challengers | valde, Kjaerbye, aizy, JUGi, gade | mithR | |
| 15th 16th | Ninjas in Pyjamas | GeT RiGhT, f0rest, REZ, Lekr0, Plopski | pita | ||
| 15th 16th | Dreameaters | speed4k, kinqie, Forester, Krad, svyat | zoneR | ||
| 17th 19th | forZe | xsepower, Jerry, almazer, facecrack, FL1T | liTTle | ||
| 17th 19th | Grayhound Gaming |  erkaSt, Sico, dexter, malta, Dickstacy |  Neil_M | ||
| 17th 19th | Syman Gaming | neaLaN, Ramz1kBO$$, Perfecto,  t0rick,  Keoz | Solaar | ||
| 20th 22nd | FURIA Esports | arT, VINI, KSCERATO, yuurih, ableJ | guerri | ||
| 20th 22nd | HellRaisers | ANGE1,  ISSAA,  oskar,  loWel, nukkye | |||
| 20th 22nd | Complexity Gaming | dephh, Rickeh, ShahZaM, SicK, oBo | keita | ||
| 23rd 24th | TYLOO |  BnTeT,  Freeman, Summer, somebody, Attacker | |||
| 23rd 24th | INTZ eSports | kNgV-, chelo, xand, DeStiNy, yeL | Apoka | ||
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