Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024

The second CS2 Major, won by Team Spirit behind 17-year-old MVP donk.

The Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 was the second Counter-Strike 2 Major Championship and the twenty-first Counter-Strike Major overall, held in Shanghai from November 30 to December 15, 2024, with a US$1,250,000 prize pool. Team Spirit beat FaZe Clan 2-1 in the final, and the 17-year-old donk was named MVP, the youngest and highest-rated ever.

Quick Facts

Game: Counter-Strike 2
Location: Shanghai, China
Start date: November 30
End date: December 15, 2024
Administrator: Valve; Perfect World
Format: Two 16-team Swiss-system group stages; 8-team single-elimination playoff
Host: Perfect World; PGL
Teams: 24

Facts from the source article.

Background

It was the first Major organised by Perfect World and the first since Rio 2022 with every stage in front of large crowds: the Opening and Elimination stages at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center and the playoffs at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center. PGL, the Romanian organiser of earlier Majors, acquired the English-language broadcast rights in July 2024. Defending champions Natus Vincere, winners over FaZe at Copenhagen 2024, went out to HEROIC in the Elimination Stage.

Twenty-four teams qualified through Regional Major Ranking events for Europe, the Americas and Asia, all played in Shanghai in November; four European RMR teams received direct Elimination Stage berths under the Valve Regional Standings, after Perfect World had briefly and mistakenly applied the pre-Paris 2023 rulebook mid-event. The Swiss-system Opening Stage ran November 30 to December 3, the Elimination Stage December 5 to 8, and the eight-team best-of-three playoffs December 12 to 15, with Buchholz scores used for seeding. The map pool was Ancient, Anubis, Dust II, Inferno, Mirage, Nuke and Vertigo.

On December 6 The MongolZ secured qualification to the Playoffs Stage with a victory over HEROIC, making them the first Asian team to compete in the playoffs of a Major. On November 1, 2024, PGL announced the full talent lineup for the Major's English-language broadcast, with hosts James Banks, Richard Lewis and TechGirl.