It’s looking ever more likely that this year’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive PGL Stockholm Major will go ahead as planned next month. The Swedish government has announced that it’s going to be lifting more COVID-19-related restrictions in late September, including some around hosting public events, which means it’s increasingly possible the Major will be happening there in October.
Back in July PGL, the Major’s organising body, said it was hopeful that the FPS game’s upcoming tournament would still take place in Sweden’s capital city, but with restrictions still in place due to the uncertain nature of the continuing pandemic, there were still some questions hanging over whether it could go ahead as planned. At the time, the body explained that it had a backup plan in place in the event that the Major couldn’t go ahead in Stockholm, having been in touch with two other European countries that could act as alternative hosts if needed.
Now, as The Local.se reports, the limit on how many people can attend both public and private events is due to be removed in Sweden as of September 29, along with other changes, such as the recommendation to work from home in the country.
While the site reports Sweden’s culture minister Amanda Lind has said there might still be “a need for certain restrictions for the largest events” at a recent press conference, with some possible plans around domestic vaccine passes being looked into, it’s looking more and more likely that we can expect the Major to kick off at Stockholm’s Avicii Arena on October 23.
This follows news last month, reported by Dot Esports, that esports pros were being granted the same travel exemptions as sports athletes in Sweden, allowing them to enter the country if they could provide a negative COVID-19 test, irrespective of which country they were travelling from. This marked a big step towards seeing the Major go ahead, with the latest announcement marking yet another.
This year’s event, if it goes ahead, will mark the first CS:GO Major tournament since September 2019.
{“schema”:{“page”:{“content”:{“headline”:”CS:GO Stockholm Major looking more likely with coming restrictions lift”,”type”:”news”,”category”:”counter-strike-global-offensive”},”user”:{“loginstatus”:false},”game”:{“publisher”:”Valve”,”genre”:”FPS”,”title”:”Counter-Strike: Global Offensive”,”genres”:[“FPS”,”esports”]}}}}