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Interior of the Singapore Indoor Stadium, venue for the final days of the PGL Major Singapore 2026
November 5, 2026 | Anders Frost

The 17 players making their Major debut in Singapore

Three of them play for Bucharest finalists Nemiga, one goes straight into Stage 3, and the youngest turns 18 during the playoffs.

Seventeen players will play their first Major at the PGL Major Singapore, which starts on 24 November. That is the lowest number of the last three Majors, according to a count by Dust2 Brasil: 19 players made their debut at the StarLadder Budapest Major in 2025, and 31 did so at IEM Cologne in June.

Russia have the most debutants with three, followed by Denmark and Mongolia with two each. Ten other countries have one. Eleven of the 17 start in Stage 1, five in Stage 2 and one goes straight into Stage 3. You can find every lineup in our overview of every team at the PGL Major Singapore.

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All 17 debutants

PlayerTeamCountryStarts in
Flag of Brazil ksloksLegacy logo LegacyBrazilStage 3
Flag of Russia KaiR0N-Nemiga Gaming logo NemigaRussiaStage 2
Flag of Russia roboNemiga Gaming logo NemigaRussiaStage 2
Flag of Kazakhstan SYPH0Nemiga Gaming logo NemigaKazakhstanStage 2
Flag of Russia ArtFr0st1win logo 1winRussiaStage 2
Flag of Argentina tomaszinMIBR logo MIBRArgentinaStage 2
Flag of Denmark JBOENFaZe Clan logo FaZeDenmarkStage 1
Flag of France NeityuFaZe Clan logo FaZeFranceStage 1
Flag of Spain MartinezHEROIC logo HEROICSpainStage 1
Flag of Bulgaria JorkoTeam Liquid logo LiquidBulgariaStage 1
Flag of South Africa MisteMEternal Fire logo Eternal FireSouth AfricaStage 1
Flag of Sweden poiii100 Thieves logo 100 ThievesSwedenStage 1
Flag of Denmark sirah100 Thieves logo 100 ThievesDenmarkStage 1
Flag of Serbia nEMANHAWildcard logo WildcardSerbiaStage 1
Flag of Poland fr3ndWildcard logo WildcardPolandStage 1
Flag of Mongolia fury5kChinggis Warriors logo Chinggis WarriorsMongoliaStage 1
Flag of Mongolia tikuakChinggis Warriors logo Chinggis WarriorsMongoliaStage 1

Straight into Stage 3

Italo “ksloks” Meinberg has the shortest road of all 17. Legacy moved n1ssim to the bench on 28 October and brought in the 21-year-old as a stand-in, and because Legacy are seeded in Stage 3, his first Major match will be in the last Swiss stage. He is the only Brazilian debutant in Singapore and played for ODDIK from 2024 to 2026. We looked at his career in who is ksloks.

Nemiga bring three first-timers

No team has more debutants than Nemiga Gaming. Three of their five players have never played a Major, and the same lineup went from the closed qualifier to the grand final of PGL Masters Bucharest last month, where they lost 3-2 to FURIA.

  • Aleksandr “KaiR0N-” Anashkin has waited longest. The Russian played for Aurora in 2022, Virtus.pro in early 2023 and BetBoom from 2023 to 2024, but none of those spells included a Major. He joined Nemiga in January.
  • Nikita “robo” Dushin came through Team Spirit’s academy and joined Nemiga in July.
  • Daniel “SYPH0” Ageyev is Kazakhstan’s only debutant. The 18-year-old is on loan from Spirit’s academy and has played for Nemiga since January.

The other Stage 2 debutants

Artem “ArtFr0st” Kharitonov was part of Team Spirit in the second half of 2023 and later played for PARIVISION and BetBoom, yet Singapore will be his first Major. He has been on loan from BetBoom to 1win since August, and 1win won GLuck Moscow Cyber Games on 1 November before finishing tenth in Europe, enough for Stage 2.

Martín “tomaszin” Corna should have made his debut in 2025. He qualified for the BLAST.tv Austin Major in 2025 with BESTIA, but the Argentinians could not attend because of visa problems, and Legacy took their place. After more than three years at BESTIA, he joined MIBR in August.

Stage 1: FaZe and HEROIC

FaZe Clan bring two of their summer signings to their first Major. Jason “JBOEN” Nielsen has been on loan from BIG’s academy since June. He was a substitute for BIG at Cologne but did not play, so Singapore is his real debut. Ryan “Neityu” Aubry came through Team LDLC and MOUZ NXT, spent almost two years at ENCE and joined FaZe in August.

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Antonio “Martinez” Martínez moved from Movistar Riders to 9z in 2023, then spent a year at Gentle Mates before HEROIC signed him in July.

The youngest and the oldest

Georgi “Jorko” Mitev is the youngest of the 17. The Bulgarian joined Team Liquid in July from FOKUS and is 17 when the Major starts. He turns 18 on 11 December, the second day of the playoffs.

The oldest is Nemanja “nEMANHA” Đukić, 29, who spent four years at Zero Tenacity before Wildcard signed him in March. His teammate Sebastian “fr3nd” Kuśmierz is the Polish debutant. He first played for Wildcard in the summer of 2025 and has been back on loan from PURE since September.

100 Thieves, Eternal Fire and Chinggis Warriors

Two of the five players at 100 Thieves are new to the Major stage: Alex “poiii” Nyholm Sundgren from Sweden and William “sirah” Kjærsgaard from Denmark both joined in January. They line up next to device and rain, who have five Major titles between them, and the organisation itself is also making its Major debut.

Gareth “MisteM” Ries played for ATK for three years in CS:GO, had a spell in the Ninjas in Pyjamas main team in 2024 and joined Eternal Fire from Young Ninjas in April.

Chinggis Warriors give Mongolia two debutants. Davaasuren “fury5k” Ganbaatar has played for Mongolian teams since 2021, with two spells each at Eruption and Chinggis Warriors. Zolbayar “tikuak” Chimedtseren was part of The MongolZ from July to September this year, then returned to Chinggis Warriors.

Stage 1 runs from 24 to 27 November, and only eight of its 16 teams move on. For 11 of the 17 debutants, that is the first hurdle.

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Author

Anders Frost

A lifelong gamer with 21 years on Steam, first introduced to Counter-Strike in 1.6 but truly hooked by CS:GO. Loves the idea of playing AWP - just not quite skilled enough to pull it off. Outside the server, a journalist with 14 years of experience covering both traditional sports and esports.

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