Major noobs: The players making their Major debuts in Shanghai
We're not far away from the Opening Stage of the Perfect World Shanghai Major kicking off now, and that's going to mean a whole lot more to a select group of players.
While players like KRIMZ and FalleN have played countless Majors at this point, for this group of players, the Shanghai Major will be their very first, making the whole experience of seeing their stickers in the game that little bit more special.
There's 25 players making their debut, so let's take a look at them and some of the more surprising names.
An entire team makes their debut
Five of the players making their debut all play for one team, that being Passion UA.
By now, we've all seen their passionate celebrations after making the Major in the 2-2 bracket, and now they'll get to reap the rewards of that achievement with all the sticker money they'll bring in.
They qualified to the Major with big upset wins over Virtus.pro, Spirit, and Astralis, but their opening game at the Major will see them face one of the teams they lost to in the RMR, BIG.
A tough game for the Ukrainian squad, they'll be well up for it regardless, their coach Kane recently told bo3.gg that the team feels like they haven't "even achieved their main goal yet."
Superstar debut
Given that malbsMd has established himself as one of the World's best riflers in the past six months, it's a huge surprise that he's only now getting to play his first Major.
The G2 star has been pivotal as they won both BLAST Premier Fall Final and BLAST Premier World Final in the second half of the year, and his aggressive frags will likely be relied upon again if G2 are to claim their first Counter-Strike Major.
Always unlucky to not make the Major while still a part of M80, his move to G2 has seen him elevated to superstar level, and we're sure that the Major stage is one he will easily find comfort on.
Experienced debutants
It's not only younger players making their debut at the Shanghai Major, there's some players with a lot of experience playing their first, too.
The oldest of those players, Djoko and Maka, are two French players both playing for 3DMAX.
Maka was instrumental in 3DMAX's 3-0 run at the RMR, he put in solid performances against Eternal Fire and G2 in order to secure his teams place as the first all-French roster to make a Major since Vitality at the PGL Major Stockholm 2021.
Another experienced player to make his debut in Shanghai is Wildcard's Sonic. The versatile South African has been a mainstay in the NA scene since leaving Bravado in 2019, and now plays his first Major as one of four debutants on his team.
The full list of players making tyheir debut:
- ChildKing
- L1haNg
- ultimate
- snow
- Insani
- Sonic
- phzy
- susp
- JBa
- HEavyGod
- MATYS
- ztr
- Tauson
- sl3nd
- FL4MUS
- Maka
- Djoko
- Ex3rcice
- Graviti
- malbsMd
- fear
- jambo
- s-chilla
- jackasmo
- zeRRoFIX