Bad News Eagles, the organizationless Kosovar team, continue to make history as they qualify for the Legends stage at PGL Major Antwerp 2022. BNE took down MIBR in a close fought best of three to decide their fate at the major and become Legends.
BNE were a virtually unknown team who came roaring into the Tier 1 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene with massive wins at the Regional Major Ranking event ahead of PGL Major Antwerp. Since then, they’ve captured the attention of the whole scene with their aggressive play, passion and inspiring story.
“Six months ago I played FPL and now I’m in major Legends,” BNE’s Rigon “rigoN” Gashi said in a post-match interview. “I’m shaking right now because it’s incredible.”
Although BNE went down in the series after losing MIBR’s map pick of Nuke, rigoN said the team never lost their confidence.
“We went outside, we had a quick talk and we knew we were going to reverse sweep this game,” he said. “We didn’t really have pressure. We just talked to everyone, calmed everyone down.”
The series was a battle between two teams that had already defied the odds to be in their position, one match away from qualifying for the Legends stage at the major. MIBR showed dominance at the American RMR that didn’t quite translate to Legends qualification. Now, the Brazilian team is heading home. As for BNE, they play again when the Legends stage commences on May 14.
Bad News Eagles at PGL Major Antwerp
Out of all the teams in the Challengers stage at PGL Major Antwerp, Bad News Eagles continue to attract the most attention as they continue their unprecedented major run. The team from Kosovar do not have an org and had to put a tremendous amount of work in to get where they are today. Ahead of the major, they practiced six days a week, eight hours a day.
“It feels incredible for every one of us,” rigoN said.
Now that they are in the Legends stage, BNE will have an even tougher task ahead of them. The competition will be stiff, so much so that even rigoN is not overly optimistic about his team’s chances.
“My honest opinion, I don’t think we will go far,” he said in the interview. “But we will try to fight as much as we can and we don’t have pressure on our shoulders anymore.”
