Rare Atom played super well against Fnatic and remain alive in the Shanghai Major.
Rare Atom, the only Chinese team of the Perfect World Shanghai Major, knocked Fnatic from the event this Sunday, Dec. 1.
This was a historic result for Chinese Counter-Strike. A Chinese team has not won a best-of-three series at a Major since the FACEIT London CS:GO Major in 2018, when TYLOO eliminated Team Spirit from the tournament.
And, Rare Atom did so against Fnatic, one of the most traditional organizations in Counter-Strike esports. The European org won three CS:GO Majors between 2013 and 2015, and had just returned to the Valve-sponsored tournament after not qualifying for PGL Copenhagen earlier this year.
Going out 0-3 is a disappointing result for Fnatic and one that will probably lead to roster changes in the off-season.
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Shanghai Major: Rare Atom 2-1 Fnatic
This match could have been shorter than it was as Rare Atom had the chance to win on Ancient, the first map of the series. The home favorites were 8-1 up before falling apart to Fnatic and letting them comeback in the game to win the map by 13-10.
However, when it looked like Fnatic were going to win on Inferno too, Junhao "ChildKing" Peng helped the crowd favorites to score six important points on the T-side. The Chinese gained momentum after that and beat Fnatic by 13-10 to take the series to Vertigo.
You could tell pressure started to mount on Fnatic's side as Rare Atom enjoyed a flying start on Vertigo, which granted them a great 6-1 lead on the CT side.
Rare Atom didn't throw away their opportunity and eliminated Fnatic from the Shanghai Major after a clean T-side, closing the map with a historic 13-4 victory.
ChildKing was the most impactful player on the server by far as he got over 50 kills for the Chinese team against Fnatic. The AWPer Andrew "kaze" Khong and the young rifler Yihang "L1haNg" Li were the other best fraggers for Rare Atom.
This victory put Rare Atom in the 1-2 pool of the Shanghai Major, meaning they must win two more best-of-threes to move to the Elimination Stage.
That's all for now. Stay tuned to esports.gg for more Shanghai Major coverage.
