Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024
The Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 was the second Counter-Strike 2 Major Championship and twenty-first Counter-Strike Major overall. It was held in Shanghai, China from November 30 to December 15, 2024, and was the first Major organized by Perfect World. For the first time since Rio 2022, each stage of the tournament was in front of large audiences. The Opening and Elimination stages were held at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center, while the Playoffs stage were held at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center. Twenty-four teams qualified from regional qualifiers for the tournament, which included a prize pool of US$1,250,000.
Team Spirit were the Major's champions, following a 2–1 victory over FaZe Clan. 17-year-old Spirit player Danil "donk" Kryshkovets was named the tournament's MVP, making him the highest-rated ever as well as the youngest ever, since Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye at Atlanta 2017.
Background
Counter-Strike 2 is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It is the fifth game in the Counter-Strike series. In professional Counter-Strike, the Valve-sponsored Majors are considered the most prestigious tournaments.The defending Major champions were Natus Vincere, following a 2–1 victory over FaZe Clan at Copenhagen 2024. They were eliminated following a defeat to HEROIC in the Elimination Stage.
On July 4, 2024, it was announced that Romanian tournament organizer and previous Major hosts PGL had acquired the rights to the English-language broadcast.
Format
Like previous Majors using a Swiss-system group stage, twenty-four teams will qualify for the tournament. This includes sixteen teams who qualify for the Opening Stage. The top eight teams from the Opening Stage move on to the Elimination Stage, along with eight teams directly from the Regional Major Ranking qualifiers. Finally, the top eight teams from the Elimination Stage will play a single-elimination Playoffs Stage to determine a champion. As a tiebreaker, each team with the same number of matches won and lost during the Opening and Elimination stages will be seeded according to their Buchholz score. Teams qualified for the Playoffs Stage will also be seeded according to their final Buchholz scores.In the first two stages, all matches except for progression or elimination matches, which are played as bests-of-three, are played in a best-of-one format. All matches in the Playoff Stage are played in a best-of-three format.
Map pool
Talent
On November 1, 2024, PGL announced the full talent lineup for the Major's English-language broadcast.Hosts
- James Banks
- Richard Lewis
- Sam "TechGirl" Wright
- Alex "Mauisnake" Ellenberg
- Janko "YNk" Paunović
- Sudhen "Bleh" Wahengbam
- Dustin "dusT" Mouret
- Jason "moses" O'Tool
- Adam "dinko" Hawthorne
- Hugo Byron
- Harry "JustHarry" Russell
- Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill
- Alex "Machine" Richardson
- Mohan "launders" Govindasamy
- Conner "Scrawny" Girvan
Teams
Europe
- Cloud9
- Team Vitality
- MOUZ
- Natus Vincere
- FaZe Clan
- fnatic
- GamerLegion
- BIG Clan
- 3DMAX
- HEROIC
- Virtus.pro
- G2 Esports
- Passion UA
- Team Spirit
Asia
- Rare Atom
- The MongolZ
- FlyQuest
Americas
Qualification
Qualification took place through three Regional Major Ranking events, based on teams' geographical regions, events were held for Europe, Americas and Asia.Four teams who qualify from each Europe RMR earned direct berths to the Elimination Stage, in accordance with the number of each region's teams that advanced from the Elimination Stage to the Playoffs Stage of Copenhagen 2024. Like the previous Major, these places were distributed according to the highest ranked teams in the Valve Regional Standings.
The RMR tournaments for all regions took place in Shanghai, at the following dates:
- Asia: November 11–13
- Americas: November 12–15
- Europe: November 17–24
- * RMR A: November 17–20
- * RMR B: November 21–24
Team seeding
Following the conclusion of the Europe RMRs, Valve updated their regional standings and awarded teams Elimination Stage berths based on their new rankings. Perfect World initially had the top 4 teams from each of the Europe RMRs qualify for the Elimination Stage, following the rulebook that was in place up to Paris 2023. Team Vitality, MOUZ, Natus Vincere and FaZe, as well as BIG and 3DMAX, were mistakenly qualified for the Elimination Stage before Perfect World reverted to utilizing the Valve Regional Standings on November 22, during the middle of Europe RMR B.| Standing | Team Name | Roster | Seed |
| 1 | G2 | huNter-, m0NESY, malbsMd, NiKo, Snax | Elimination Stage |
| 2 | Natus Vincere | Aleksib, b1t, iM, jL, w0nderful | Elimination Stage |
| 3 | Team Vitality | apEX, flameZ, mezii, Spinx, ZywOo | Elimination Stage |
| 4 | Team Spirit | chopper, donk, magixx, sh1ro, zont1x | Elimination Stage |
| 5 | MOUZ | Brollan, Jimpphat, siuhy, torzsi, xertioN | Elimination Stage |
| 6 | FaZe | broky, frozen, karrigan, rain, ropz | Elimination Stage |
| 7 | HEROIC | degster, kyxsan, NertZ, sjuush, TeSeS | Elimination Stage |
| 11 | 3DMAX | Djoko, Ex3rcice, Graviti, Lucky, Maka | Elimination Stage |
| 13 | Virtus.pro | electroNic, fame, FL1T, Jame, n0rb3r7 | Opening Stage |
| 15 | BIG | JDC, Krimbo, rigoN, syrsoN, tabseN | Opening Stage |
| 17 | fnatic | blameF, bodyy, KRIMZ, MATYS, nawwk | Opening Stage |
| 22 | GamerLegion | FL4MUS, sl3nd, Tauson, volt, ztr | Opening Stage |
| 30 | Cloud9 | Ax1Le, Boombl4, HeavyGod, ICY, interz | Opening Stage |
| 34 | Passion UA | fear, jackasmo, jambo, s-chilla, zeRRoFIX | Opening Stage |
Opening stage
On November 4, 2023, it was announced that Valve had renamed the Challengers Stage and Legends Stage of the Major to "Opening Stage" and "Elimination Stage" respectively. Teams would also be seeded into these stages according to their regional standings. Like previous Majors using a Swiss-system bracket, sixteen teams will compete for eight Elimination Stage spots, with all matches besides elimination and progression matches, which are bests-of-three, being bests-of-one.The Opening Stage was played between November 30 and December 3, 2024.
Elimination stage
Like the Opening Stage, the Elimination Stage is played in a Swiss-system bracket, with eight teams advancing to a single-elimination Playoffs Stage. The Elimination Stage includes the eight teams that advance from the Opening Stage, as well as the eight highest teams from the Europe RMR in Valve's regional standings. Matches are played in the same format as in the Opening Stage.On December 6, The MongolZ secured qualification to the Playoffs Stage following a victory over HEROIC, making them the first Asian team to compete in the playoffs of a Major.
The Elimination Stage was played between December 5 and December 8, 2024.
Playoffs stage
The top eight teams from the Elimination Stage will advance to a single-elimination bracket. Each match in the Playoffs Stage is played in a best-of-three format.The Playoffs Stage was played between December 12 and December 15, 2024.
Final standings
The final placings are shown below. In addition, the prize distribution, roster, and coaches are shown.| Place | Prize Money | Team | Roster | Coach |
| 1st | Team Spirit | donk, chopper, sh1ro, zont1x, magixx | hally | |
| 2nd | FaZe Clan | ropz, frozen, broky, rain, karrigan | NEO | |
| 3rd 4th | G2 Esports | Snax, NiKo, m0NESY, malbsMd, huNter | TaZ | |
| 3rd 4th | MOUZ | Brollan, siuhy, torzsi, Jimpphat, xertioN | sycrone | |
| 5th 8th | Team Vitality | apEX, ZywOo, flameZ, Spinx, mezii | XTQZZZ | |
| 5th 8th | HEROIC | NertZ, TeSeS, sjuush, degster, kyxsan | sAw | |
| 5th 8th | Team Liquid | Twistzz, jks, ultimate, NAF, YEKINDAR | mithR | |
| 5th 8th | The MongolZ | bLitz, Techno4K, Senzu, mzinho, 910 | maaRaa | |
| 9th 11th | FURIA Esports | FalleN, chelo, yuurih, KSCERATO, skullz | sidde | |
| 9th 11th | Natus Vincere | Aleksib, iM, b1t, jL, w0nderful | B1ad3 | |
| 9th 11th | MIBR | exit, Lucaozy, saffee, drop, insani | nak | |
| 12th 14th | GamerLegion | ztr, Tauson, volt, sl3nd, FL4MUS | ash | |
| 12th 14th | paiN Gaming | biguzera, nqz, kauez, snow, lux | rikz | |
| 12th 14th | 3DMAX | Maka, Lucky, Djoko, Ex3rcice, Graviti | wasiNk | |
| 15th 16th | BIG Clan | tabseN, syrsoN, rigoN, JDC, Krimbo | kakafu | |
| 15th 16th | Wildcard | stanislaw, Sonic, phzy, susp, JBa | vinS | |
| 17th 19th | Passion UA | fear, jambo, s-chilla, jackasmo, zeRRoFIX | Kane | |
| 17th 19th | FlyQuest | dexter, Liazz, aliStair, INS, Vexite | erkaSt | |
| 17th 19th | Complexity Gaming | EliGE, JT, floppy, hallzerk, Grim | T.c | |
| 20th 22nd | Virtus.pro | Jame, FL1T, fame, n0rb3r7, electroNic | PASHANOJ | |
| 20th 22nd | Cloud9 | Ax1Le, Boombl4, HeavyGod, ICY, interz | groove | |
| 20th 22nd | Rare Atom | somebody, Summer, L1haNg, ChildKing, kaze | z8z | |
| 23rd 24th | Imperial Esports | felps, VINI, try, decenty, noway | zakk | |
| 23rd 24th | fnatic | KRIMZ, bodyy, nawwk, blameF, MATYS | keita |
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