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Team Liquid and The MongolZ became the first two teams to advance to the elimination stage at the Perfect World Shanghai Major after claiming three straight wins en route to a 3-0 record after two days of the opening stage.
Liquid, who are one of the highest-ranked teams at the opening stage, were made to work against FlyQuest, falling to the Australian Counter-Strike squad in a shocking loss on FlyQuest’s map pick of Inferno before bouncing back on their own pick of Anubis.
FlyQuest dismantled Liquid on Inferno as they sprinted out to a 9-1 lead before closing out the map with a 13-5 scoreline, but Liquid were quick to level the score, securing Anubis (13-9) after controlling most of the contest before the Aussies rallied late in the piece.
Although most esports betting sites favoured Liquid heavily in the best-of-three series, they didn’t back up their short quote and dominate their opponents until the final map.
Led by outstanding performances from Roland “ultimate” Tomkowiak and Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis, Liquid thrashed FlyQuest 13-1 on Nuke and booked themselves a spot in the main event of the Shanghai Major.
Justin “jks” Savage took home MVP honours following his server-topping performance, recording a rating of 1.33 and kill/death difference of +20.
#ShanghaiMajor2024 Opening Stage 2-0 Pool: @TeamLiquidCS defeats FlyQuest 2-1, advancing to the elimination stage with a 3-0 record!
More Moments here: https://t.co/ng05IqwNa8 pic.twitter.com/oALgExCZqN
— CS_PerfectWorld (@CS_PerfectWorld) December 1, 2024
The MongolZ continued on from their impressive day one performance by claiming the second elimination stage spot, following another outstanding display, this time against GamerLegion.
The all-Mongolian roster only dropped seven rounds in the series, claiming Mirage 13-5 and Anubis 13-2, dealing GamerLegion their first loss of the Major.
Each of the five players stood up for The MongolZ, but Munkhbold “Senzu” Azbayar stood out as the best player, turning in an outstanding performance.
Senzu topped the server in kills (33), kill/death difference (+20), and rating (1.83).
Fnatic was the first team to be eliminated on day two after the European squad failed to win a match, falling the hometown squad, Rare Atom, in a back-and-forth series.
#ShanghaiMajor2024 Opening Stage 0-2 Pool:
Rare Atom makes a stunning comeback against Fnatic, claiming their first victory in front of a home crowd!More Moments here: https://t.co/ng05IqwNa8 pic.twitter.com/Bt34ZGcdwG
— CS_PerfectWorld (@CS_PerfectWorld) December 1, 2024
Fnatic took their own map pick of Ancient (13-10), before Rare Atom answered back with their own 13-10 win on Inferno.
The Asian squad maintained their winning form in the decider as they closed out the series with a dominant 13-4 victory on Vertigo.
Imperial Esports joined Fnatic in exiting the Major, as the Brazilian outfit was sent packing by Complexity, who claimed an easy 2-0 (13-4 on Inferno, 13-5 on Ancient) victory.
Imperial only won nine rounds across the two maps, with Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski and co. proving to be the superior team in the elimination clash.
Earlier in the day, Passion UA took care of MIBR (13-5), BIG edged past Virtus.pro (13-11), paiN Gaming held off a strong comeback from Cloud9 (13-11), and FURIA needed overtime to defeat Wildcard (16-14).
The winners of the final best-of-one matches move into the 2-1 pool and will only need one more victory to advance to the elimination stage, while the losers will seek to stave off elimination in the 1-2 pool.
On Monday, three more teams will book their spot in the next stage, and another three will be sent home, with six best-of-three series set to take place in Shanghai.
Monday’s Shanghai Major matches
- Rare Atom (+250) vs MIBR (-357.14) @ 11am CST
- BIG (+110) vs FURIA Esports (-151.52) @ 11am CST
- FlyQuest (+125) vs paiN Gaming (-175.44) @ 2pm CST
- Cloud9 (+100) vs Complexity (-138.89) @ 2pm CST
- GamerLegion (+110) vs Passion UA (-151.52) @ 5pm CST
- Wildcard (+125) vs Virtus.pro (-175.44) @ 5pm CST
