FACEIT Major London

The thirteenth CS:GO Major, held in London, saw Astralis claim their second championship and Fnatic's historic Legend streak end.

The FACEIT Major: London 2018, also known as FACEIT Major 2018, or London 2018, was the thirteenth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship, the second Major of 2018, and first organized by FACEIT. It featured twenty-four professional teams from around the world and took place in London, United Kingdom. The group stages were held in Twickenham Stadium, and the playoffs were played in front of a live crowd in the SSE Arena, Wembley. The London Major was the sixth consecutive major with a prize pool of $1,000,000.

Quick Facts

Year: 2018
Location: London, United Kingdom
Winner: Astralis
Game: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Prize pool: $1,000,000 USD

Lore & Background

The top sixteen teams from the previous Major, Boston 2018, automatically qualified for the FACEIT Major while another eight teams qualified from their respective regional qualifiers. The eight from regional qualifiers and the bottom eight teams from Boston 2018 (together called the 'Challengers') competed in the New Challengers group stage, a Swiss-system tournament. The top eight from this stage then advanced to face the top eight teams from Boston ('Legends') in a second Swiss-system group stage, the New Legends stage.

The top eight from this stage advanced to the playoffs. FaZe Clan, MIBR, and Natus Vincere were the only incoming Legends to retain their Legend status at this Major by advancing to the playoff stage. Team Liquid, compLexity Gaming, BIG, HellRaisers, and Astralis were new Legends. Defending champions Cloud9, along with mousesports, Fnatic, G2 Esports, and Winstrike Team, were knocked out in the New Legends stage, thus losing their Legends status.

Fnatic failed to advance to the playoffs for the first time in the team's history; the organization had been a Legend at every Major until London. This also ended Freddy 'KRiMZ' Johansson's run as one of the only players to attend every Major and become Legends. This left Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer as the only player to become a Legend at every Major in CS:GO history, and MIBR as the only team to be Legends at every Major it had attended. This Major was also significant in that no majority-Swedish team became Legends after Ninjas in Pyjamas fell to MIBR in the New Legends stage.

Cloud9 also became the second team in CS:GO history to lose its Legends status after winning the previous Major, along with Team EnVyUs. The grand finals pitted Natus Vincere and Astralis against each other. Natus Vincere defeated BIG in the quarterfinals and MIBR in the semifinals while Astralis defeated FaZe Clan and Team Liquid respectively. In a fairly convincing two map sweep, Astralis took down Natus Vincere for its second Major championship to draw level with MIBR and the former Team EnVyUs French core for the second most Major titles.

Reader's Guide

FACEIT largely retained the Major format from Boston 2018 that had been announced by Valve and ELEAGUE, where the offline qualifier that had taken place before early Majors was rebranded as the 'New Challengers stage' and became an official part of the full Major. The Major cycle began with four Minors: Americas, Asia, CIS, and Europe. Two teams from each qualifier moved on to the New Challengers stage. The New Challengers stage featured sixteen teams: the bottom eight teams from the previous Major's New Legends stage and the eight teams from the Minors.

These teams played in a sixteen team, Swiss-system format. The top eight teams from this stage moved on to the New Legends stage. The 16-team New Legends stage featured the eight teams advancing from the New Challengers stage and the eight Legends from the Boston Major. Like the New Challengers stage, the New Legends stage used a 16-team, Swiss-system format.

The top eight teams from this stage moved on to the playoff bracket and gained Legend status for the following Major. In round five of each Swiss group stage, the remaining six teams played a best-of-three instead of the previous best-of-one. The group stage used the Buchholz system for seeding the Swiss-system, rather than random draw. In the playoffs, now known as the 'New Champions stage,' eight teams played in a single elimination, best-of-three bracket.

These playoffs seeded teams based on how difficult their opponents in the group stage had been, determined by adding up opponent wins from the New Legends stage. On April 20, 2018, Valve announced that the revamped Dust II would be replacing Cobblestone in the Active Duty map pool.

Did You Know?

Each regional qualifier (Minor) had a US$50,000 prize pool with first place receiving US$30,000, second place US$15,000, and third place US$5,000.
All four Minors were held in London at the Twickenham Stadium to combat any last minute visa issues.
The Asia Minor saw controversy when Fierce Tiger was disqualified for fielding a VAC-banned player under a false alias.