The Major race final day
Alliance didn’t make it… but at least we got something.
The Major race wrapped up last night, with a key few LAN games deciding the final spots in the Cologne Major. It was a flurry of exciting tier two action, so here’s the rundown for you.
Before the day had even started for us in Europe - the center of the world, naturally - Brazilian Gaimin Gladiators secured their spot by making the grand final of BetBoom Circuit X Mayhem in São Paulo. On the other side of the planet, TYLOO won the XSE GangKui Cup Season 2 Finals by beating Chinggis Warriors and FlyQuest and snagged a spot of their own in Cologne.
This left five European and three “American” teams (VRS thinks Liquid and Passion UA count) yet to confirm their Major qualification. With only two spots in Europe, and one in the Americas, on the line, it became a real dash to the finish line.
K27 were the first team to knock themselves out of contention by losing to BET-M in the semi-final of MPKBK CIS LAN Season 4. Next BESTIA fell, losing their own semi-final against Passion UA in Urban Riga Open Season 4.
BIG secured a spot in the HLC Belgrade PRO grand final, meaning they also were guaranteed to make the Major, putting Alliance out of contention. We’ll note that BIG haven’t beaten a single team higher ranked than SINNERS in 2026, while Alliance beat Aurora, GamerLegion, and Passion UA just in the past two weeks…
…but we have no bias, of course.
The final spots in either region would come down to two concurrent grand finals. FaZe would do battle with BIG, needing a win to book a spot in Cologne. If not, it would be SINNERS to get a Major invite. At the same time Passion UA went up against Sangal - reinforced by smooya, no less - with a win being just enough to inch past Liquid to the 10th and final Americas invite.
The two teams traded wins on each other’s map picks, but in the end the British stand-in went 26-18 on the final map of Nuke to send JT and co. home empty handed. This means Liquid just barely make the Major despite their roster shenanigans.
Meanwhile, BIG looked to have completely taken their foot off the gas in Belgrade as FaZe led comfortably in the first half of the series, but BIG came to their senses and made sure we all got at least one happy ending. They narrowly came back on map two before slaughtering FaZe on the final map to win the event.
FaZe miss the Major, SINNERS stay in.
A glimmer of hope for hatewatchers everywhere.
Is this the final nail in the coffin for this roster? Only time will tell, but maybe. On the bright side, we think they’ll make a pretty penny selling frozen to NAVI in the off-season.
But we’ll let AN1MO take you through that.