Eight teams remain in the fight for the Shanghai crown, but first, let’s look back.
It was a mightily entertaining Elimination Stage at the CS2 Perfect World Shanghai Major this past week. Favorites fell, underdogs rose to the occasion, and at the end of it all, eight teams emerged ready for the playoffs fight this week.
Here's a look back at the best, worst, and downright ugliest parts of the Shanghai Major Elimination Stage.
The Good: Wildcard's valiant run through Shanghai
In the Opening Stage episode of Good, Bad, Ugly we highlighted Brazilian CS's return to the top, given paiN, FURIA, and MIBR all nabbed spots into the next stage. We also briefly mentioned the "hometown" heroes in The MongolZ, who backed up their Opening Stage with another flawless 3-0 run to secure the first spot into the playoffs.
What we didn't touch on were the miracle makers in Passion UA and Wildcard, with the latter earning the spot in the Elimination Stage. Absolutely no one gave Wildcard, a middle-of-the-park North American squad, a shot against the level of opponents we've come to expect at a Major.
But triumph, they did — no matter what the scoreboard says now.
Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz's return to professional Counter-Strike didn't catch on until Wildcard picked up the Swedish duo of Tim "susp" Ångström and Love "phzy" Smidebrant. From there, the squad built up quite the resume at home.
Their first big test at ESL Pro League Season 20 included a win over KOI but pundits weren't believing the project would do more than maybe scrape a spot at the major through the Americas RMR. They did more than that; after wiping out Liquid, paiN, and 9z in the RMR, they beat VP and Fnatic on their way to the Elimination Stage.
Did the good times last? No, unfortunately; Wildcard ultimately met their end with a 0-3 run against FaZe, Spirit, and GamerLegion. However, they remained competitive to the very end, and given two of their victors went on to qualify for the playoffs speaks volumes to the run in China.
We'll be watching Wildcard with great interest as the 2025 season kicks off, that's for sure!
Related articles
The Bad: Natus Vincere implosion marks end of an era
The Na'Vi Era is over, folks. The world's formerly-undisputed best team of 2024 may lose that title after crashing out in the Elimination Stage last week.
Many expected the team's loss in Singapore at the BLAST World Finals to be just a blip: "saving strats" and all that for the big show in Shanghai. However, their exit at the hands of HEROIC put a pin in an otherwise solid and consistent season that features multiple big wins and playoff runs.
Individually the big names were off their game. Justinas "jL" Lekavicius is at threat of losing out on a coveted top five spot in the end-of-year HLTV rankings, posting a miserable 0.90 rating across the Elimination Stage. Mihai "iM" Ivan was the only player to show up on the server regularly, but for a team reliant on the unit as a whole, they've missed the mark at the major level.
So, where to now for Na'Vi? The team has had an otherwise spotless year of Counter-Strike yet may turn to roster changes as the annual post-season shuffle approaches, but who do they pick up? Worse still, it's a contract year for Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyljev who won't be leaving to Falcons.
Do they "harsh the vibes" and break up this previously-immovable core? Or will Na'Vi bounce back in the new year after a refreshing break away? Perhaps the time off is all they need.
The Ugly: BIG
It was tough to pick out the ugly from a competitive and entertaining Elimination Stage, but we're going with BIG. Expectations for the squad after the Opening Stage weren't that great but a 0-3 exit doesn't cut the mustard.
A total of 12 rounds in the opening Bo1's against HEROIC and G2 didn't help the cause, and it appeared the German team had just run out of juice after an arduous Opening Stage campaign that included a tough 2-2 match against Complexity.
But a mistake-riddled Bo3 loss to paiN left a sour taste that just can't be shaken. It was a particularly harsh drop-off for Karim "Krimbo" Moussa; the 22-year-old was among the best in the world over the past few months but dropped off heavily during the Elimination Stage.
Without another player stepping into his shoes, BIG simply weren't equipped to climb out of the rut they fell into. Their Elimination Stage loss caps off an unremarkable 2024 season, which featured five S-Tier offline events —all of which BIG failed to make the playoffs of.
Are roster changes likely for the project? It's tough to say otherwise, but like Na'Vi, perhaps the time off over December and January is necessary to revitalize BIG before next season.
The Shanghai Major playoffs begin December 12. Stay tuned to esports.gg for more CS2 news and coverage.
