PGL Major Singapore Invites: How the November 2 VRS Cutoff Works
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| Author Competitive Scene
Thirty-two teams will play the PGL Major Singapore from November 24 to December 13, and every invitation is settled by the Valve Regional Standings (VRS) on November 2. According to HLTV, Europe gets 18 places, the Americas nine and Asia-Pacific five, and the stage each team enters depends on its rank inside its own region.
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How the 32 places are split
Each region ranks its eligible teams on the November 2 cutoff. The top slice skips straight to Stage 3, the next group starts in Stage 2, and the rest begin in Stage 1.
| Region | Stage 3 (direct) | Stage 2 | Stage 1 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Europe | 6 | 6 | 6 | 18 |
| Americas | 2 | 1 | 6 | 9 |
| Asia-Pacific | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| All regions | 8 | 8 | 16 | 32 |
Only eight of the 32 teams skip to Stage 3, and half of the field, 16 teams, starts in Stage 1. Europe alone fills 18 of the 32 places (56 percent), the Americas 28 percent and Asia-Pacific 16 percent. That is why ranking spots near a regional boundary carry so much weight: one place changes the stage a team enters, and with it the number of series it must win to reach the playoffs.
What changed from the Cologne Major
HLTV lists three changes from the IEM Cologne Major. Europe receives one more invitation, 18 instead of 17, after the region’s results in Cologne. The Americas lose one place, dropping from ten to nine, but their direct Stage 3 invitations double from one to two. Asia-Pacific keeps five places, yet its top-ranked eligible team now enters Stage 2 rather than Stage 3.
North and South American teams compete for the same Americas places in one regional ranking, so a result in either half of the continent moves the same list.
The Major schedule
| Stage | Dates |
|---|---|
| Stage 1 | November 24 to 27 |
| Stage 2 | November 28 to December 1 |
| Stage 3 | December 2 to 6 |
| Playoffs | December 10 to 13 |
The playoffs are held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, with a prize pool of $1,250,000.
Why the last LAN before the cutoff matters
PGL Masters Bucharest, which ends with the grand final on October 31, is the last tier-1 LAN before the cutoff, as our Bucharest results tracker shows. For teams close to a regional line, the final Bucharest results can change which stage a team enters. HLTV’s invites page also carries a predicted-teams view, which will move until the standings freeze.
Road ahead: the cutoff falls on November 2, the day IEM Beijing begins (see our IEM Beijing guide), and Stage 1 opens on November 24. The wider picture for the rest of the year is in the esports calendar.
Featured image: Singapore Indoor Stadium (Photo: Exec8 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0).
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