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The last RMR for the Shanghai Major started earlier today and only seven of its 16 participants will get the chance to compete in the great event.

The format, once again, is the Swiss System. But because of the lower number of qualification spots, teams need to finish with a 3 W – 0 L or a 3 W – 1 L result to be automatically invited to the Major. One of the competitors that finishes with a 3 W – 2 L score will be eliminated.

The 16 Teams

Here are the teams that compete in this RMR:

• G2 Esports
• Team Spirit
• Eternal Fire
• HEROIC
• Passion UA
• 9Pandas
• BIG
• 3DMAX
• Sashi Esport
• TSM
• Virtus.pro
• Astralis
• Ninjas in Pyjamas
• B8
• Aurora Gaming
• PARIVISION

Favorites

Just like the first European Qualifier for the Shanghai Major, this one features a lot of great teams. The biggest favorites are not hard to identify:

• G2 Esports
• Team Spirit
• HEROIC
• Eternal Fire
• Virtus.pro
• Astralis
• NiP

But apart from these seven teams many more could easily cause some serious upsets. A lot of CS2 fans are eager to see the new version of TSM at work. This organization exited Counter-Strike nearly a decade ago and has returned with the intention of achieving great results.

At the moment, CS2 has a thriving esports scene. In 2025, more than a dozen $1+ million events will be organized. So it makes sense to strive to be part of this FPS and strive to become the best.

Other teams worth keeping an eye on are 9Pandas, BIG, and 3DMAX. At the time of writing this article, Astralis, NiP, and VP are in a bit of trouble because they lost their first match. But they will likely recover in the coming days.

VP have the highest chance of suffering an early elimination because they lost against Passion UA, a Ukrainian team of relatively unknown players. That’s a sign they’re not in great shape at the moment.

The first European RMR for the Shanghai Major is over and with one exception, every team that was supposed to qualify for the tournament did.

The only upset occurred in the case of Team Falcons, who unfortunately under-performed. No doubt, Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and the rest of his roster will come back stronger in 2025. But for now, they need to admit to themselves that 2024 was almost a complete disaster.

The 3 W – 0 L Teams

By far the most impressive team in this RMR was Team Vitality, who not only finished with a perfect score but also won each match with ease.

The only opponent that managed to get close on a map was FaZe Clan. They lost Dust II 11 – 13 and then went on to qualify for the Shanghai Major with a 3 W – 1 L result.

Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut did exactly what everyone expected and was the best player on the server in two of the three matches played by his team. Given Vitality’s results in 2024, he could still win the CS2 Player of the Year award if he delivers a great performance at the Major.

The other team that finished the qualifier with a perfect score was MOUZ. In the first two matches, they weren’t really tested because the teams they encountered, Nemiga Gaming and Sangal Esports, ended up getting eliminated after a 1 W – 3 L result.

But in their third match, MOUZ had to face Natus Vincere and prove their strength. They are undoubtedly one of the most important teams to watch at the Shanghai Major.

The 3 W – 1 L Teams

Here are the three teams that were defeated by a single opponent:

• FaZe Clan (lost against Vitality)
• Natus Vincere (lost against MOUZ)
• Cloud9 (lost against FaZe Clan)

The first two teams were expected to obtain this result or perhaps an even better one. But Cloud9 surprised us a bit with their performance. It seems that Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhaylov has already succeeded in crafting a solid strategy with his new roster, which was finalized in July this year.

The 3 W – 2 L Teams

Only seven qualification spots were awarded to the 16 teams in this tournament. Because of that, the teams in this category had a very stressful final day. In the case of BetBoom Team, their excellent performance in the fourth and fifth rounds was negated by their tiebreaker defeat against GamerLegion.

The other team that qualified for the Shanghai Major with a 3 W – 2 L result was Fnatic.

Despite joining Team Falcons almost two months ago, Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev has not yet returned to his peak form. The team, as a whole, also appears to need more time to fully develop its strategy.

Team Falcons’ Matches in European RMR A

In the first European RMR for the Shanghai Major, Team Falcons played four matches and were eliminated in the fourth round.

One worrying aspect about their performance is that they only managed to beat Dynamo Eclot, a team that’s currently ranked 43^rd.

This means that the world’s most accomplished CS2 coach, Danny “zonic” Sorensen, together with some of the world’s most accomplished CS2 players, underperformed by a lot.

Normally, a roster like this one should easily finish a qualifier in the top eight and defeat the likes of SAW and GamerLegion. But they didn’t.

The first match, played against Eclot on the first day of the tournament, was a success. The score (16 – 13), however, clearly indicates that Falcons were only slightly better than their opponents. The problem would become more obvious in the next three matches.

In round 2, s1mple had to play against Finn “karrigan” Andersen’s team again and made a good match. But FaZe Clan’s superior experience proved to be enough to bring them victory in overtime. The final score was 16 – 12.

The defeat against FaZe was largely expected to happen. But what was not expected was the defeat against the next two opponents, SAW and GamerLegion.

SAW defeated Falcons 5 – 13 and made it look easy. GamerLegion had problems against them on the second map but still crushed them on the first and third.

Needless to say, s1mple was devastated by this elimination. His body language after the fourth round needs no commentary. He isn’t used to losing and he certainly isn’t used to missing Majors. If he wants to return to his previous level, he will need to be more perseverant than ever before.

The first European RMR for the Shanghai Major has begun and day 1 ended without any significant upsets.

The four favorites easily won their matches and will now have to face each other in the third round. The winners will qualify for the Major without having to play more matches.

The losers will likely face underdogs in the next round, so there’s only a tiny chance that they will have to play in the 5^th round and potentially the tiebreaker to prove themselves.

The 2 W – 0 L Teams

Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan, Team Vitality, and MOUZ did not run into each other in the first two rounds and as a result, they had nothing to worry about. Only FaZe Clan ran into Team Falcons and were forced to play some OT rounds to claim the victory.

Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev played well but not out of the ordinary. He still needs a lot of training if he wants to return to his previous level.

The other three favorites have accumulated a massive round difference in the first two matches:

• Natus Vincere: +12
• Team Vitality: +15
• MOUZ: +20

MOUZ won both of their matches with a score of 13 – 3, leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind that they are here to win.

The 1 W – 1 L Teams

Here are the teams that had an average performance on the first day of European RMR A:

• Team Falcons
• SINNERS Esports
• Sangal Esports
• BetBoom Team
• Fnatic
• Cloud9
• SAW
• Dynamo Eclot

Four of these eight teams will have a tough match in the third round. Falcons need to win against SAW. BetBoom need to beat Fnatic. Whoever loses in these matches is in a lot of trouble.

The 0 W – 2 L Teams

GamerLegion, who finished 2^nd at the Paris Major less than 18 months ago, started the RMR with an impossible match against Team Vitality. They won eight rounds, so a lot of people were still optimistic about their chances despite the loss.

But then they lost again, against an underdog (Eclot). The score was 11 – 13. After this second defeat, it’s hard to believe that they can survive this qualifier.

The other three teams that suffered two defeats on day 1 are Nemiga Gaming, Rebels Gaming, and UniTY esports. The only one that wasn’t supposed to be in this position is Nemiga Gaming. Their global rank is 29 but unfortunately for them, they ran into MOUZ and Cloud9.

The American RMR for the Shanghai Major is finally over and most of the favorites managed to qualify.

The Qualified Teams

Some teams, like FURIA Esports, barely made it and had to win some really stressful matches to earn their ticket for the Major. Others had an easy path despite being regarded as underdogs.

Nobody expected Wildcard and MIBR to win with perfect scores but they did. Fortunately for Team Liquid, Complexity, and paiN Gaming, who were among the favorites at the start of the race, they also qualified with a 3 W – 1 L score.

Until the Major, they have ample time to train and adjust the weaknesses their opponents exploited in this qualifier. Both Liquid and paiN Gaming lost against Wildcard, a team that climbed nearly 40 positions since the end of Summer.

The last team that finished the American RMR for the Shanghai Major in the top seven was Imperial Esports. At one point, the Brazilians had a score of 1 W – 2 L and looked destined for elimination. But they won their final two matches, eliminating Marcelo “coldzera” David’s team in the fifth round.

The Eliminated Teams

Here are the nine teams that failed to qualify for the Shanghai Major:

• M80
• 9z Team
• BESTIA
• RED Canids
• BOSS
• KRU Esports
• Legacy
• Case Esports
• Nouns Esports

The first four of these teams had the potential to get a much better result but under-performed. Or perhaps, the likes of Wildcard and MIBR played far better than expected.

In moments like this, veteran players like coldzera need to stay strong if they want to not give in to the inner voice that whispers: “I guess it’s time to retire.”

The next big tournament is several months away. But starting with 2025, the rules will change completely. Smaller teams will have fewer opportunities to qualify for $1 million events. So, for a lot of players, this Major could have been their last, and they missed it.

Valve’s latest CS2 update fixed a handful of bugs and made a dozen other modifications to the game. High-ranked players will undoubtedly be happy with the changes but the things they will love the most is the addition of Train to the game’s Competitive, Casual, and Deathmatch modes.

This change effectively means that Train is one step away from being reintroduced into the Active Duty map pool. There are several maps in there that are detested by much of the community and especially pro players.

Some don’t want to play Vertigo and consider it broken. Others think that Dust II is boring. Others look at Anubis as something out of a nightmare.

Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, for instance, tends to avoid Vertigo in his FACEIT sessions. This is likely because his team, G2 Esports, always bans it. But it may also have to do with personal reasons.

Why The Addition Of Train To Competitive Is A Big Deal

The fact that Train can now be played in Competitive means that Valve wants to give the CS2 community the chance to play and test its features before it is officially reintroduced In the Active Duty map pool.

This version of Train is considerably different from the one we used to play some years ago. Because of the players’ level of expertise, when a map is changed there is always a risk that its new version is unbalanced or at least buggy.

Valve cannot possibly take the risk of making a modified map a part of the game’s esports scene without a period of at least a few months of testing. If everything goes well, there’s a good chance that we will see Train replacing one of the seven Active Duty maps before IEM Katowice 2025, which starts on January 29.

Against all odds, the two winners of the American RMR for Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 are Wildcard and MIBR. Five more teams will qualify for the big event but with less than perfect scores.

The qualifier uses the Swiss System format, which should have guaranteed strong teams a relatively easy path to the Major. But all of them lost one of their first three matches.

Team Liquid and FURIA Esports were defeated in the first round despite facing much weaker opponents from outside of the top 30. Both teams lost in overtime after a dominant first half.

Other strong teams, such as Complexity and 9z Team, lost in the third round of matches. This gave Wildcard and MIBR a surprisingly quick qualification that should boost their morale for the upcoming Major.

The Current Situation In The American RMR

If we exclude the fact that Wildcard and MIBR won the race, the American RMR for the Shanghai Major looks almost exactly as we expected. Weaker competitors, such as Nouns Esports and Case Esports, have been eliminated after the first three rounds.

Slighly stronger ones, such as BESTIA and BOSS, are still in the race but have minimal chances of qualifying. The truly strong teams, such as Team Liquid, Complexity, paiN Gaming, 9z Team, M80, and FURIA Esports are just one victory away from securing tickets for the Major.

Round 4 will be crucial and unfortunately for Liquid and FURIA, one of them will end the day in defeat. The two teams are facing each other in the most hyped best-of-three of the tournament.

In their last three matches, Liquid proved to be stronger. But that doesn’t mean they will win again. It all depends on the maps that will be picked and the effectiveness of the tactics used by the two teams.

This is a great day for the Asian Counter-Strike. In an RMR that features four teams from this continent and four teams from the Pacific region, two Asian teams have already qualified for the Shanghai Major.

Unsurprisingly, one of them is The MongolZ. The other is Rare Atom. This second team was not on anyone’s radar ahead of the qualifier and is not even ranked in the top 100 at the moment. But despite this problem, Rare Atom performed well and won the first two matches in the upper bracket.

Their opponents were not exactly world-class teams but we must remark the fact that one of them, TALON, defeated FlyQuest in the first round, which is currently ranked 20^th.

To beat such a highly-ranked team requires a lot of skill and determination, so we can safely assume that TALON is also much stronger than the statistics indicated at the start of the RMR.

The MongolZ’s Success

The MongolZ were expected to dominate every opponent in this tournament. The difference between them and everyone else is huge, so the fact that DRILLAS managed to win the first map in the second round of the upper bracket is quite surprising.

The first round ended with a quick 13 – 8 in favor of The MongolZ. Their opponent was Alter Ego. DRILLAS were a bit stronger and managed to take a huge lead on the first map.

The score was 2 – 10 in the first half. The MongolZ nearly made a comeback but lost the very last round: 11 – 13. On the next two maps, the scores speak for themselves: 13 – 2, 13 – 5.

Rare Atom’s Success

Rare Atom started with a quick 13 – 4 victory against GR Gaming. Against TALON, they won 2 – 0 without too many problems: 13 – 8 on Vertigo, 13 – 8 on Inferno. Each time, they dominated both halves of the map.

The American RMR for Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 is scheduled to be played between November 12 – 15.

It features 16 teams and uses the Swiss System format to determine the qualified teams, However, only seven of them will go to the Major, which means that a 3 W – 2 L score might not be sufficient.

Participants And Favorites

Here are the 16 teams that will compete in the American RMR for Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024:

• FURIA Esports
• Team Liquid
• Complexity Gaming
• PaiN Gaming
• 9z Team
• M80
• MIBR
• Imperial Esports
• Legacy
• Wildcard
• BESTIA
• Nouns Esports
• RED Canids
• BOSS
• KRU Esports
• Case Esports

As you can see, the list of participants contains a lot of big names but also some lesser-known ones.

Some of the favorites are obvious: FURIA, Liquid, and Complexity are almost guaranteed to secure one of the top seven positions that grant a ticket to the Shanghai Major.

But the other four tickets are up for grabs. Among the teams that are most likely to obtain a good result are paiN Gaming, M80, Imperial Esports, 9z Team, Imperial Esports, MIBR, BESTIA, Legacy, and RED Canids.

There are many Brazilian teams on this list and the skill difference between them is not very significant. The deciding factor will likely be one of a psychological nature. Luck may also play a role if the score is close enough.

Experience should also be considered when trying to predict the winner of a particular match. A player like Marcelo “coldzera” David, currently competing for RED Canids, could easily hit some insane shots in key rounds and carry his team to victory.

Tournaments like this RMR are perfect opportunities to discover new talented players and teams. The stakes are high, so competitors are likely to show up in great shape.

Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg is a Counter-Strike legend. His career spanned over two decades and was filled with epic moments.

From his first important trophy, won with Begrip Gaming in 2005, to his last one, won with Ninjas in Pyjamas in 2017, f0rest was a formidable player admired by the CS community.

His most prolific years were spent playing for NiP. Back in 2012, when CS:GO first came out, NiP was one of the few teams that believed in Valve’s new project and decided to invest a lot of effort in mastering the game despite its flaws.

At the time, most professional players were convinced that CS:GO would fail, so they didn’t make the switch right away. This gave NiP a big advantage and for the first few years, the Swedish team dominated CS:GO’s esports scene.

At one point, f0rest and his crew won 87 consecutive maps, which was an incredible performance that set a new record.

F0rest’s NiP Results

F0rest joined NiP in August 2012 and stayed until January 2020. During this time, he won numerous tournaments. These are the most important:

• ESL One Cologne 2014
• DreamHack Masters Malmo 2016
• StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2
• IEM XI Oakland
• DreamHack Open Valencia 2017
• IEM XII Oakland

For many years, NiP was constantly in the top 20 but never the world’s best team, apart from the first few years, when CS:GO was disregarded by many organizations. Because of this, NiP never won a Major.

This will probably be f0rest’s biggest disappointment as a former professional player. Other than that, he’s accomplished a lot.

Now, at 36 years old, he has decided to return to NiP as a content creator after almost five years of experimenting with Dignitas and also on his own. No doubt, thanks to his 400.000 Twitch followers and also his remarkable career, he will have a long and successful career as a CS2 streamer for NiP.