After the unexpected results of the American RMR for the Shanghai Major, the second European RMR has surprised us too. BIG and 3DMAX, two teams that didn’t look capable of winning and, in some people’s minds, even of qualifying for the Major, finished the race with a perfect score: 3 W – 0 L.
In the case of BIG, the result, although impressive, was partly facilitated by the caliber of their opponents. Except for HEROIC, all of them were teams from outside the top 40.
3DMAX, on the other hand, had to face Eternal Fire and G2 Esports. They also played against TSM, but Valdemar “valde” Vangsa and his squad lost a key round at the worst possible time and ended up losing 13 – 11.
At the time of this writing, Virtus.pro are also qualified for the Shanghai Major. After losing their first match of the tournament against Passion UA, they went on to win three consecutive matches, against TSM, 9Pandas, and Sachi Esport.
Other Teams That Could Qualify
Passion UA, G2 Esports, HEROIC, and Team Spirit, are very likely to qualify. But at least some of them will struggle for the rest of the RMR.
In the fourth round, G2 will have to face Spirit, so one of them is guaranteed to play in the fifth round and possibly even in the tiebreaker, assuming that everything goes well in that fifth match.
Ninjas in Pyjamas, Eternal Fire, and Astralis continue to have a chance to qualify for the Major despite losing two of their first three matches. If Astralis fail in this RMR, their current roster is in trouble.
Casper “cadiaN” Moller, the team’s IGL, suffered an RMR elimination while competing for Team Liquid. This happened back in March. Another elimination might start to make the rest of Astralis question his decisions.
