It may only be day two of the Elimination Stage at the Perfect World Shanghai Major but we already know the first two teams that are out, and the first two advancing to the Playoffs.
Major Counter-Strike comes thick and fast, and that was of great benefit for Vitality and The MongolZ as they’ve now given themselves the most time to prepare for the big weekend, but we can’t say the same about every team.
Let’s recap the action.
NAVI may have gotten the better of SPirit the last time these two teams faced, but Spirit made light work of them on Mirage today.
The final score was 13-2, making it very hard to discern which of the two teams is the reigning Major champions.
Unsurprisingly, donk topped the scoreboard with 16 kills, but he did have to share the limelight with his IGL, chopper.
The second 1-1 game was fought between Liquid and their rivals from the Americas, FURIA.
A 13-9 win for Liquid on Inferno, ultimate continued his strong Major by topping the charts with a 17-13 statline.
Former Liquid man skullz also played well, he was the top fragger for the Brazilians and on the server overall with 19.
G2 looked likely to advance from their RMR with a clean 3-0, but a surprise win from 3DMAX saw the BLAST Premier World FInal winners need one more game in order to book their place in Shanghai.
G2 won’t mind though, they got their revenge today as they took down the Frenchmen 13-8 on Ancient.
All five members of G2 went positive, but it was NiKo who topped the charts with 17 kills. Spare a thought for poor Djoko though, he was far and away the best player on the server as he went 26-15 in the loss.
The final 1-1 game saw a new chapter written in one of Counter-Strike’s most storied rivalries, FaZe vs MOUZ.
A 13-10 win for FaZe on Inferno, it was the former MOUZ trio of ropz, frozen, and karrigan who combined for FaZe to get them the win.
Tomorrow will now see it become do or die time for MOUZ, they play 3DMAX to stay in the event.
MIBR did well to get to the 2-0 bracket, but that might be as far as they go as they were ground to a halt by Vitality.
Vitality opened the series with a quick 13-3 on Mirage, and followed it up shortly after with a 13-5 on Anubis.
A solid team performance from the BLAST.tv Paris Major winners, Sphinx topped the kills in the series with 28.
Wildcard have enjoyed a memorable underdog run in this Major cycle, but their Cinderella story has now come to an end with a 2-1 loss against GamerLegion.
The NA side began the series with a 13-10 win on Dust2, but they were instantly pinned back as GamerLegion took Ancient 13-10. The final map, Anubis, wasn’t as close as the previous two, GamerLegion kept themselves in the Mjor with a 13-5 win.
A hard-fought series, FL4MUS top-fragged with 57 to set his team up for a clash against NAVI tomorrow.
Look away German CS fans, your boys have exited the competition.
It;s been a run that’s shown plenty of promise for BIG in 2025, however, it has sadly come to an end as a result of their 2-1 defeat at the hands of paiN.
Starting with a 13-11 paiN win on Vertigo, BIG responded with a 13-11 of their own on Dust2 but ultimately fell 13-6 on the final map of Mirage to bid farewell to the Major.
The MongolZ have been the team of the tournament so far, and their form continued as they advanced to the playoffs at the earliest opportunity with a win over HEROIC.
They had to do so from a map down, too, HEROIC took the opening map, Mirage, 13-8.
However, the Mongolians stepped up big time, holding their composure to win Anubis 19-17 and then securing their playoff berth with a 13-6 win on Ancient.
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