The first three rounds of the Opening Stage in Copenhagen have been a wild ride with several upsets along the way. At the end Heroic and Cloud9 still came out on top and went through the first group phase with 3-0 records.

The highest-rated player at the event so far has been paiN Gaming’s in-game leader Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt. The Brazilian has been on fire at the tournament averaging a 1.51 rating during the first three maps.

You can see the highest-rated players in the Opening Stage of PGL Major Copenhagen here:

1. {cflag:BR} Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt (paiN) – 1.51 rating (3 maps)

2. {cflag:TR} İsmailсan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş (Eternal Fire) – 1.40 rating (4 maps)

3. {cflag:RO} Sebastian "volt" Maloș (GamerLegion) – 1.32 rating (3 maps)

4. {cflag:BR} Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato (FURIA) – 1.30 rating (4 maps)

5. {cflag:KZ} Abay "HObbit" Khassenov (Cloud9) – 1.29 rating (4 maps)

6. {cflag:IL} Guy 'NertZ' Iluz (Heroic) – 1.28 rating (4 maps)

7. {cflag:MN} Garidmagnai "bLitz" Byambasuren (TheMongolz) – 1.26 rating (5 maps)

8. {cflag:BR} Lucas "nqz" Soares (paiN) – 1.23 rating (3 maps)

9. {cflag:BR} Kaiky "noway" Santos (paiN) – 1.22 rating (3 maps)

10. {cflag:DK} Rasmus 'sjuush' Beck (Heroic) – 1.21 rating (4 maps)

Round 4 of the Opening Stage continues today. Stay updated with all the results and schedules from PGL Major Copenhagen in the article down below.

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biguzera

paiN

Two great first halves set both paiN Gaming and Imperial up for success in the bo1 matches against ENCE and Apeks.

On Overpass, Imperial and Apeks crossed paths with the former coming in hot after two good games on Day 1. The Brazilians continued to impress with a stellar CT side giving themselves a 9-3 lead onto the difficult T side on Overpass. Here Apeks immediately won four rounds to make the game competitive, but then Imperial finally broke through in round 17 and finished off Apeks 13-7.

paiN Gaming found themselves 10-2 up after a Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt masterclass! The Brazilian rifler finished the first 12 rounds with an impressive 20-3 K-D score against ENCE, who had a mountain to climb. The moods of the Polish/Danish roster didn’t improve after losing the all-important pistol round. Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander clutched a 1vs2 situation to give his team an extra chance to make a comeback. But ENCE could not stop the Brazilians, who ran away with a solid 13-3 victory to move up to the 2-1 bracket. For ENCE the match once again displayed the poor form from the supposed star player Paweł "dycha" Dycha.

The four teams will be back on the server tomorrow, where Imperial and paiN will play their first qualification matches, while Apeks and ENCE has to win the next two bo3 matches to qualify for the next stage.

dycha

Imperial

Apeks

ENCE

The lack of practice and top-tier teams in North American CS:GO has long been an issue for several of the top teams in the region. For a while, the competitive scene in NA was strengthened with most of the South American teams moving to USA or Canada to practice and compete in bigger tournaments. But with most of the tournaments, today placed in Europe, a lot of the teams are on the road a lot of the time leaving few options for the remaining teams to practice.

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paiN Gaming was one of those teams, but maybe they could be on their way back to their South American roots. According to rifler Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt, the practice in NA is not good enough.

Translated: How I miss training at NA... Brazil is a thousand times better than here. It explains all the success in the region.

paiN Gaming moved to Canada at the start of 2020.

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The $100.000 tournament, which is set to take place in the big Australian city of Melbourne, has finalized its team list with paiN being the last invited team. They will accompany their countrymen from Imperial as they also were handed an invite this week.

The event is set to take place from September 2-4th and will feature eight teams starred by OG, Entropiq and ORDER.

Right now, paiN only holds three players on their active lineup after their recent benching of Gabriel "NEKIZ" Schenato and the powerful AWPer Gabriel "nython" Lino. The South Americans haven’t published anything official about new roster changes going into the second half of the year.

Attending list | ESL Challenger Melbourne

Everything was on the line for both Vitality and paiN in the first elimination match of BLAST Spring Finals.

It started out with a bang for Vitality, who quickly won paiN’s map pick of Nuke. A 16-3 win told the story of a one-sided map, where Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut, Kévin 'misutaaa' Rabier, and Emil 'Magisk' Reif all performed on a very high level.

Strangely enough, there was much more spark in paiN on Dust2. Vitality’s map pick proved to be a very evenly fought affair. paiN took first half 8-7 on their CT side, and surprisingly enough, the Brazilians were able to follow through in the second half stealing away Vitality’s map pick. Star of the map was Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourt, who took matters into his own hands ending Dust2 with an impressive 30-15 K-D.

Team Vitality quickly recovered on Overpass and finished off paiN in a similar fashion as Nuke leaving no chance for paiN to get anything going. This time it was Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire and Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen, who ran the show and secured Vitality a spot in the Quarter-Finals. Here they will face the loser of ENCE vs OG.

Team Vitality - paiN 2-1 | BLAST Premier Spring Finals - Lisbon

16-3 (Nuke) | {cflag:FR} ZywOo - 1.81 Rating / 20-7 K-D / 100.2 ADR

12-16 (Dust2) | {cflag:BR} biguzera - 1.72 Rating / 30-15 K-D / 110.5 ADR

16-4 (Overpass) | {cflag:DK} dupreeh - 1.75 Rating / 23-9 K-D / 114.9 ADR

MVP: {cflag:FR} Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut - 1.47 Rating / 57-33 K-D / 91.1 ADR

ZywOo

dupreeh

Team Vitality

Despite FURIA being heavy favorites going into the Grand Final at BLAST Spring Showdown NA, it was the underdogs from paiN who came out on top. One deciding factor for the impressive victory was Rodrigo “biguzera” Bittencourt.

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The paiN rifler was a menace against FURIA and a relentless threat on both maps, ending the series with a 1.38 Rating / 58-39 K-D / 86.0 ADR stat line. After the match, biguzera spoke with James Banks in a post-match interview. 

- I feel so grateful for everything that has happened to me these past days. I have said to you before that I have made some changes in my life, and now these changes get results. So, I’m really, really happy

- It doesn’t matter who we will play. We just want to play our own game.

biguzera was given the 'Most Valuable Player' award at the event after a strong showing against tough opponents like Liquid, MIBR and FURIA. 

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FURIA

paiN is the champion of BLAST Premier Spring Showdown North America after defeating their powerful countrymen from FURIA with an impressive 2-0 Grand Final victory on Vertigo (22-20) and Inferno (16-8). 

The #1 result means that Vinícios “PKL” Coelho and the rest of paiN have clinched a spot at the prestigious BLAST Premier Spring Final in Lisbon in mid-June. Here the Brazilians will prove their strength against top-tier competition like NAVI, FaZe and G2. 

In the title decider, it was once again paiN’s Rodrigo “biguzera” Bittencourt who stepped up to the plate and presented a phenomenal performance against Andrei “arT” Piovezan and company. 

The 25-year-old rifler ended the series with a solid 1.38 Rating, which also was a deciding factor for his overall MVP award throughout the entire event. 

paiN - FURIA 2-0 | BLAST Premier Spring Showdown NA

22-20 (Vertigo) | {cflag:BR} biguzera - 1.37 Rating / 38-28 K-D / 87.5 ADR 

16-8 (Inferno) | {cflag:BR} hardzao - 1.53 Rating / 24-13 K-D / 97.1 ADR

MVP: {cflag:BR} Rodrigo “biguzera” Bittencourt - 1.38 Rating / 58-39 K-D / 86.0 ADR

Already before the semifinal stage at BLAST Premier Spring Showdown North America, it stood clear that the Grand Final was set to be between two Brazilian squads, with the four remaining teams all being Brazilian. 

In the second semifinal of the day, we saw paiN take on MIBR. Here paiN stepped up to the occasion with a brilliant performance against their countrymen on both Vertigo and Dust2. Especially Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourt was playing some stellar Counter-Strike this evening and was time after time the deciding factor for paiN. In the end, the 25-year-old rifler and his heroic’s led paiN to a comfortable and impressive 2-0 victory.  

paiN - MIBR 2-0 | BLAST Premier Spring Showdown NA

16-10 (Vertigo) | {cflag:BR} biguzera - 1.57 Rating / 22-14 K-D / 96.3 ADR 

16-9 (Dust2) | {cflag:BR} biguzera - 1.70 Rating / 24-11 K-D / 105.6 ADR 

MVP: {cflag:BR} Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourt - 1.61 Rating / 46-25 K-D / 100.8 ADR

MIBR

Liquid and paiN went head-to-head in the last match of the day at BLAST. The Brazilians ended up outlasting the North Americans after a long and hard-fought battle.

“hardzao” got his team off to a great start on their pick of Vertigo. They went up 4-0 on the T-side and were now in a great position. Liquid had a great run in the middle of the half led by a flourishing “NAF”, but after fifteen rounds it was the Brazilians who had the lead at 9-6.

The second half did not bring more fortune for the North Americans who only managed to secure three rounds after the break. paiN, who played an all-around solid team game, took Vertigo 16-9.

Even with the big loss on Vertigo, Liquid had not lost confidence, and they looked reinvigorated as they arrived on their pick of Ancient. 

On the hardest T-side in the map pool, Liquid, spearheaded by a soaring “oSee”, managed to take nine satisfying rounds before the break, leaving the Brazilians to play catch-up.

paiN, taking a page out of Liquid’s book, got off to a great start on the T-side and quickly secured their first lead of the map. But just as quickly as they found the advantage, they lost it again, and the North Americans secured their map pick and sent the match to a decider.

Overpass was selected as the final map of the series and paiN started it out with some of the magic they showed on Vertigo. After losing the pistol round, they forced their way to a 5-1 lead on the T-side. This is where the fun stopped for the Brazilians as they got run over in the last part of the half, and Liquid were up by three rounds at halftime.

After switching sides, Liquid quickly grew their lead to 12-6, and for the first time in the series “nitr0” and co. had a lead of more than five rounds. paiN, knowing that this is do-or-die, suddenly came alive and, led by “biguzera”, forced their way back into the game. The Brazilians hit match point but a quad-kill from “nitr0” sent the map into overtime.

paiN swept the CT-side and after failing to convert on two map points they finally managed to win on the third and are thereby moving on to the semi-finals.

Liquid - paiN 1-2 | BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2022 NA

9-16 (Vertigo) | {cflag:CA} NAF - 1.52 Rating / 28-17 K-D / 118.8 ADR

16-13 (Ancient) | {cflag:US} oSee - 1.43 Rating / 28-19 K-D / 91.8 ADR

17-19 (Overpass) | {cflag:BR} biguzera - 1.59 Rating / 39-23 K-D / 109.4 ADR

MVP: {cflag:BR} Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt - 1.35 Rating / 77-59 K-D / 89.7 ADR

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hardzao

oSee

nitr0

Team Liquid

The Brazilian side repeated their win over Rebirth to secure the title as DH Open January NA champions. biguzera and company took down Rebirth 3-0, making short work of them as they also entered the series with a map advantage due to their extremely flawless run through the upper bracket at the tournament. paiN went undefeated throughout the event, beating Triumph and Rebirth in the upper brackket and have now secured their first big title win since moving to NA.

Nuke: 16-7 | biguzera 2.13 rating | 145.4 ADR | 29-12 K/D 

Dust2: 22-18 | biguzera 1.37 rating | 93.2 ADR | 36-25 K/D

A stellar performance from Rodrigo “biguzera” Bittencourt helped his team to clinch the win. He ended the series with a 1.63 rating, 112.3 ADR, and a 65-37 K/D.

	30 days	90 days
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biguzera

Player stats

Articles mentioning biguzera

Highest rated players at the PGL Major Copenhagen Opening Stage

Imperial and paiN go 2-1 in Copenhagen

Brazilian rifler takes hit at NA: Practice in Brazil is a thousand times better

Another Brazilian team to participate at ESL Challenger Melbourne

Vitality take down paiN to live another day at BLAST Spring Finals

biguzera after FURIA upset: It doesn’t matter who we’ll play

paiN batter FURIA 2-0 to win BLAST Spring Showdown NA

paiN ready for title-decider against FURIA

paiN ready for title-decider against FURIA

paiN upset Liquid!

paiN with a quick victory in the grand final

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