With each Counter-Strike Major, players have the chance to select their own Pick’Ems and earn prestigious awards if they’re correct. The case is no different with the Perfect World CS2 Shanghai Major, though it feels like the predictions are tougher than ever this time.
The tournament is divided into two stages: Opening and Elimination, with the latter featuring both a Swiss System competition and single-elimination playoffs. Like always, players may pick their predictions in each stage, and if they get the majority of them right, they can upgrade their Coins. A better Coin means you receive more Souvenir Tokens to exchange for containers with sweet skins—if you purchase the viewer pass, that is.
You can enjoy the Pick’Ems challenge without any rewards if you don’t. More importantly, though, you can show off your Coin to prove you’re a true expert in CS2 esports.
Here’s how to make Pick’Ems for the CS2 Shanghai Major and the best ones to choose.
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How to make Pick’Ems for Perfect World CS2 Shanghai Major
If you’re new to CS2, you may be out of the loop in terms of how to make the Pick’Ems themselves. You need to purchase the viewer pass to participate in the challenge and get rewards.
The base version of the viewer pass costs $10. However, if you want to have three Souvenir Tokens at the start, you can pay $18 to purchase them alongside the Viewer Pass.
Buying the Pass is all but challenging. Simply turn on CS2 and head over to the left side of the screen, where the Major hub is located. Enter it, and you’ll see the option to buy the viewer pass once again on the left of your screen. If you proceed, you need to fill out your details to finish the Steam transaction.
Whether you have the viewer pass or not, you can make the Pick’Ems by dragging the teams’ logos into specific categories in the Major hub. It’s simple and intuitive, and you shouldn’t have any issues with this part.
Best Pick’Ems for the Elimination Stage of Perfect World CS2 Shanghai Major
Look at us. Making six correct predictions for the Elimination Stage and finally upgrading our Shanghai Major coin. Who would’ve thought? I had faith, but I wouldn’t bet on it. In all seriousness, the Pick’Ems for the Elimination Stage went smoothly because most of the favorites made it with the exception of NAVI, who lost at the expense of HEROIC. But, to be fair, the latter deserved it with the way they competed in China so far.
With all eight playoffs team locked, we also have our playoffs bracket set. This time around, we need two correct quarterfinals choices, one proper semifinal guess, and make a correct prediciton for the Grand Final. It sounds a bit tougher, doesn’t it? Especially since, in our humble opinion, each of the quarterfinals might go either way.
With that in mind, though, we’ll still do our best to make correct predictions.
Who will make it to the semifinals of Perfect World CS2 Shanghai Major?
Let’s first break down the quarterfinals. One side of the bracket is a bit easier to predict than the other. It’s the one with The MongolZ, who should repeat their Elimination Stage victory over MOUZ and reach the semifinals. Although if MOUZ have a better day than the last few, they could also finish MongolZ’s major dreams.
As far as Spirit vs. Liquid goes, it’s a bit of a coin toss. On one side, we have a much more organized team in the form of Spirit, who seems to have higher ceiling with donk and their other stars. Liquid, on the other hand, are exceeding expectations, but they haven’t faced a top contender yet. However, their star players like ultimate and Twistzz are also having a great tournament. In the end, we predict Spirit’s experience to prevail.
Vitality has shown nothing but domination in Shanghai, and their level of play should be unreachable by struggling FaZe Clan. However, if there is a squad that’s fired up in the playoffs, it’s NEO’s men.
HEROIC, like Liquid, surpassed expectations and have the firepower to possibly advance further. But G2 Esports is likely too big of a force for them to not crumble upon.
Who will win the Perfect World CS2 Shanghai Major?
If we land the above predictions right, we’re left with The MongolZ vs. Spirit and Vitality vs. G2. The Asian representatives were called to play “like major winners,” according to s1mple. But, they lack Major experience on the grand stage, unlike Spirit. Therefore, once again we predict the CIS squad to progress further if they don’t get too overconfident.
Vitality vs. G2 is the hardest possible matchup to predict. If we were to name two of the strongest teams in CS2 at the moment, it would be these two. So the pick here should be your call. We’re going for Vitality simple because they’re almost flawless so far, and have ZywOo. Then again, G2 have m0NESY and NiKo, so it’s bound to be a battle to remember if it comes to it.
In the final, we’d expect Vitality (or G2, if you picked them to win the semifinal) to prevail over Spirit. ApeX and his men are hungry for a trophy since IEM Cologne 2024 in August, and this could be their chance to claim it. Their heads are in the right place, especially after that comeback versus FURIA, so they’re obviously locked in. Spirit could surprise everyone, especially if donk shows up, but so far in Shanghai they’ve been more than vulnerable.
On the side note, all three of m0NESY, ZywOo and donk are running for the title of the best player of 2024. With Shanghai Major being the last and biggest event to prove themselves, we hope these three will play like never before.
Best Pick’Ems for the Elimination Stage of Perfect World CS2 Shanghai Major
So, here we are. We botched the Opening Stage Pick’Ems of Shanghai CS2 Major, with only two of our 10 picks (FURIA and BIG) being correct. To be fair, predicting 3:0 and 0:3 scores was always hard, but this time around the 3:1 and 3:2 were as well. I mean, who would’ve guessed VP and Complexity won’t make the next stage at all, while teams like MIBR and Wildcard would?
As much as we’d like to mourn our Diamond Coin, let’s not give up on our hopes to reach at least the Gold Coin. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the Elimination Stage Pick’Ems.
Why are G2 and Vitality the best picks for 3:0?
Let’s do this one more time. According to Valve’s ranking, G2 and Vitality are currently the best and third-best teams in the world. And that’s true. They and Natus Vincere are definitely the three strongest squads in the world. So why pick G2 and Vitality as the two picks to go 3:0?
Well, if they go 2:0, there are hardly any scenarios where they face each other in the Qualification Games. Additionally, they face opposition they could take down easily in the opening matches. G2 seem like perfect opponents for The MongolZ since they play on similar maps and are more experienced, but the Asian team is on a 10-match win streak. Still, G2 should overpower the underdogs here.
As far as Vitality goes, they’re facing GamerLegion, who are simply a level below ZywOo and his crew. It would make perfect sense if you want to replace either G2 or Vitality with NAVI, so the choice is yours. Given the former’s current form, we just feel like Liquid could upset Aleksib’s squad in the opening match.
Who will make it in the remaining six spots?
We already explained why NAVI is a must-have for advancement; whether you do it in a 3:0 bracket or 3:1/3:2 one is up to you. The other three squads that feel almost certain to make it are MOUZ, Spirit, and FaZe Clan.
The former didn’t lose a single game in the RMRs, even taking down NAVI in the final clash. MOUZ are stacked with talent and always show up at the big tournaments, so we expect nothing less from them in the Elimination Stage. Similar arguments can be made for FaZe and Spirit. However, they’re both struggling with consistency, with Spirit qualifying for the event as the last team. But we still believe their firepower and experience will come in handy.
As for the last two, we picked Liquid and The MongolZ, two of the best teams in the Opening Stage. Both squads swiftly defeated their opposition and look pretty warmed up for the Elimination Stage. They’re capable of upsetting the top-tier competition from around the world and, on paper, have more arguments to defeat other teams on a similar level, like FURIA, HEROIC, and Pain.
However, they could also fail. The Swiss Stage is often full of upsets, so seeing Liquid and The MongolZ, or any other of the teams we chose to advance, fumble, would be nothing new.
Who will go 0:3?
We have to admit, picking the 0:3 teams in the Elimination Stage of this Major feels like the toughest part. We went with BIG and MIBR for a few reasons. First, they barely made this part of the tournament with a 3:2 score in the Opening Stage. Secondly, looking at their gameplay, they look a few steps behind the stronger contenders.
On the other hand, they both bring in experience and have fairly decent opening matches in the form of HEROIC and 3DMAX for BIG and MIBR, respectively. With that in mind, we advise you to follow your heart in terms of the 0:3 picks. Wildcard and paiN also feel reasonable, especially given their tough first opponents (FaZe and MOUZ).
Best Pick’Ems for the Opening Stage of Perfect World CS2 Shanghai Major
Those who don’t have Shanghai as their first Pick’Ems rodeo know claiming a Diamond Coin and nailing all three parts of the tournament is a tough nut to crack. That seems especially true this time around for the Opening Stage since all the teams competing in it look to be somewhat equal in their quality and skill.
There are three categories you need to pick teams for 3:0, 3:1 and 3:2, and 0:3. You need to select two squads that will go undefeated in the Opening Stage, two that won’t secure a single win, and six that will make it through despite experiencing losses. To upgrade your Coin, you need at least five correct picks out of 10. With that in mind, our Pick’Ems for the Opening Stage look as follows.
Why are Complexity and Virtus.pro the best picks for 3:0?
Picking 3:0 teams is always tricky since one loss could ruin their chances of achieving that score and your Pick’Ems simultaneously. That is especially true in the first two Swiss rounds, which are played in BO1 format.
That’s why looking at the opening matches for all teams is important. Both Virtus.pro and Complexity have relatively easy opponents in their first games in the form of MIBR and FlyQuest, respectively. With high seeding, they shouldn’t face tough opposition in the second rounds as well, and there are few scenarios where they play each other in the first three rounds. That’s why we advise you to choose them. Other solid squads like Team Liquid, FURIA Esports, and The MongolZ are also fine.
Who will make it in the remaining six spots?
Here’s a selection that should be easier than the previous one. Although it’s vital to remember that if a team ends up being 3:0, but you have them as 3:1 or 3:2, you don’t get the point.
We advise you to go for FURIA and Liquid because they look overall as some of the strongest telikes in the mix, with massive amount of talent in their rwever, they’re pretty inconsistent, so we wouldn’t be surprised if they drop a game or two, especially since they play GamerLegion and Cloud9 first, respectively.
BIG and The MongolZ are also solid choices. One could argue they are even viable 3:0 options, and that would make sense. In our eyes, they’re just a bit unpredictable in terms of form, but their prowess and experience should help them reach the Elimination Stage.
We chose FlyQuest and Cloud9 as the remaining two teams that will qualify, but we’re far from certain about them. They both have veterans who know how to compete at such a high level. They also performed fairly well recently. However, their consistency often leaves a lot to be desired. If you’re not sure about them, you can pick squads like Fnatic, MIBR, or GamerLegion, who are strong candidates as well.
Who will go 0:3?
No one would want to leave the most important tournament of a year early, but some teams will have to. Picking 0:3 squads is always tricky, especially since the weakest links on paper often pull off a surprise or two. But, if we were to point to the Opening Stage’s weakest links, we’d choose Rare Atom and Wildcard.
Despite both teams having a bit of experience, we feel like enduring the pressure of a Major stage might prove too much for them at the moment. Additionally, their weak seeding doesn’t improve their chances of facing opponents with a similar level in the following rounds of the Swiss Stage. However, similar cases could be made for Passion UA or Imperial, whom you may select as 0:3 as well.
Published: Dec 9, 2024 07:00 am