Updated 26 September 2026, 16:00
The 1win Private Club in Belgrade runs from Friday to Monday and has eight teams on the server – six of them invited, two through qualification. SINNERS, the roster with two Czech players, came in through the qualifier as the lowest seed of the whole field, and they have just landed the biggest punch of the opening round.
SINNERS take down the top seed
The draw handed SINNERS the hardest possible start: Swedish side Alliance, the number one seed of the tournament and winners of the earlier Tipsport Conquest of Prague. It did not scare them. On Dust II, SINNERS closed it out 13:7 behind a strong showing from Max „SHOCK“ Kvapil. Alliance levelled the series on their own pick, Inferno, and everything came down to Ancient – where SINNERS ran away with it 13:5. In the second half they dropped a single round on the CT side.
The win is worth 60 VRS points, which for a team starting at the very bottom of the ranking is exactly the kind of currency they came for.
What is actually at stake
The prize pool sits at $100,000, but for most of the field the real reward is elsewhere: VRS points that shape the rest of the season. Three of the participants can pull the PGL Major within reach by lifting the trophy, while everyone else needs at least a deep run – without one, their odds after Belgrade fall close to zero. SINNERS have made no secret of their goal: win the whole 1win Private Club and book the trip to the Major in Singapore.
Being the lowest seed sounds like bad news, and in one sense it is. But it cuts both ways: the lower you start, the more a strong result is worth in points. Individual wins alone simply will not move the needle enough here, which makes this event genuinely all or nothing for SINNERS. The Czech scene has had a busy stretch lately – we also covered SINNERS at Stake Pulse Beat III, and you can follow the rest of the season through our Counter-Strike 2 news.
The math behind the Major race
X analyst Udknud put together an overview of how much each result at the 1win Private Club is worth in the Major race, and it lays out the SINNERS situation perfectly. Anything short of the grand final leaves them, after recalculation, with no more than a 2% chance at the Major. Reaching the final pushes them only slightly above 5 percent. Winning the whole thing lifts their chances to 18.5% – and that is exactly the number the team is staring at.
Format, field and what comes next
The 1win Private Club uses a Double Elimination format, which allows for exactly one slip-up:
- through the upper bracket, four wins are needed for the title
- after an early loss, it takes five
Besides SINNERS and Alliance, the start list features GamerLegion, 3DMAX, magic, Ninjas in Pyjamas, K27 and EYEBALLERS. Next up for SINNERS is Ninjas in Pyjamas on Saturday from 17:00, with a guaranteed medal on the line. NiP got there by beating 3DMAX in the opening round. The whole event is streamed on w.tv.
Where to read next
If you want the wider context of where this Major cycle is heading, we also wrote about the Shanghai Major, and for the domestic calendar there is our piece on Tipsport MČR CS 2026.
FAQ
They won 2:1. SINNERS took Dust II 13:7 thanks to Max „SHOCK“ Kvapil, Alliance levelled on Inferno, and the decider on Ancient went to SINNERS 13:5 – they lost only one round on the CT side in the second half.
The victory over Alliance is worth 60 VRS points for SINNERS.
They face Ninjas in Pyjamas on Saturday from 17:00 with a guaranteed medal at stake. NiP advanced by beating 3DMAX in the opening round.
Anything less than the grand final leaves them below a 2% Major chance. The final is worth just over 5%, and only the title would push them to 18.5%. Their stated goal is to win the event and reach the Major in Singapore.
Double Elimination – four wins through the upper bracket, five if the team drops a series early. The field also includes GamerLegion, 3DMAX, magic, Ninjas in Pyjamas, K27 and EYEBALLERS, with a $100,000 prize pool.