The Shanghai Major is about to start and its first stage features 16 teams. All of them had to survive challenging qualifiers, which means there are no weak competitors in the race. But relative to each other, some of these teams are significantly stronger than others.
The question is: are there any underrated rosters that could cause major upsets and advance to the second stage despite not looking capable of this performance?
The Famous Teams
Here are the eight teams that should advance to the Elimination Stage of the Shanghai Major if all we take into account is reputation:
- Virtus.pro
- Team Liquid
- Complexity
- BIG
- The MongolZ
- Cloud9
- Imperial Esports
- MIBR
Potential Dark Horse #1: Passion UA
Passion UA was created in August 2023 and in just 15 months, they’ve already entered the top 30 with a roster full of little-unknown players.
In the RMRs for the Shanghai Major, this team defeated giants like Virtus.pro, Team Spirit, and Astralis. They also won maps against BIG and HEROIC.
Their first match at the Major will be against BIG, who already proved they can beat them, but ambitious teams tend to learn very quickly from their failures.
If Passion UA defeat BIG, they could easily advance to the second stage of the tournament despite not being among the favorites in most people’s eyes.
Potential Dark Horse #2: Rare Atom
Rare Atom went from being ranked 198th in October this year to being ranked 58th today. This team demonstrated a level of talent and determination that could allow it to do better than expected at the Shanghai Major.
Another thing to keep in mind is that most of the players are Chinese, which means they will receive a lot of emotional support from their fans.
Potential Dark Horse #3: Wildcard
This international roster led by Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz dominated the American RMR and defeated opponents like Team Liquid, paiN Gaming, and 9z Team. These results clearly indicate that Wildcard is capable of causing huge upsets.
