Valve have announced that PGL will host the next Counter Strike tournament, in Sweden, with a huge prize total of $2,000,000. It is scheduled to occur between October 23rd-November 7th, with the final few days being the live event with an audience at the Ericsson Globe arena in Stockholm.

The organizers have made it clear, the event will only go ahead in its planned form only if the world environment is safe for it to do so.

This means that if it is deemed safe to go ahead closer to the time, it'll be the first Major since mid-2019, after the Berlin StarLadder Major which wrapped in September of that year.

PGL have experience in hosting CSGO majors, having done so in 2017 in the city of Kraków, Poland. So they should be on top form and ready to handle the event, after some detracting comments on the London Major & Berlin Major in the previous years about how it was handled by the organisations who hosted them.

Valve have also confirmed the rankings for the Major will be based on regional major ranking tournaments, with at least one offline event in the run up to the Major. This sounds similar to the plan for the cancelled 2020 Rio Major.

Furthermore, keeping up with modern life PGL have promised to stream the event in full 4K resolution, making it the first Major to be so. With some hints suggesting that VR elements may also play a part in the streaming experience, making this possibly the most immersive esports experience in Counter Strike that'll have occured to date when it arrives later in the year.

The previous Major was won by Astralis, followed by AVANGAR in second place, and then Renegades & NRG for semi-finalists. Interestingly, since the Berlin Major, AVANGAR no longer participate in CSGO events, and NRG were acquired by, and now play under the Evil Geniuses banner. Evil Geniuses continue to be a force in the CSGO Esports top lists, with Astralis also having a tendency to continue winning events. With AVANGAR, at least currently, out of the running, opens up a slot on the possible contestants and winning forces for this next major.

You can read the Counter-Strike blog post by Valve here, and the more indepth post on the PGL website here.