The Asia and Americas RMRs for the PW Shanghai Major 2024 are officially underway, and we already have our first two teams qualified for one of the biggest CS2 tournaments of the year. The MongolZ and Rare Atom have made the cut, but they’re not the only interesting results worth talking about so far. Let’s take a look at the highlights from both RMRs so far.
The MongolZ and Rare Atom secure PW Shanghai Major 2024 spots
Credit: Perfect World
Coming into the PW Shanghai Major 2024 Asia RMR, The MongolZ were the biggest favorites to make it through. Two matches against Alter Ego and DRILLAS later, they’ve achieved that goal, reaching their third consecutive Major in convincing style. Although they dropped a map to DRILLAS, the results here felt like a bit of a foregone conclusion.
The real surprise here is Rare Atom making it through. Their run of GR and TALON won’t be seen as the toughest path to a Major of all time, but you can only beat who’s in front of you. It’ll mean the world to Rare Atom, who are now attending their home Major in China, not to mention kaze reaching his first Major since 2019’s IEM Katowice.
Favorites Liquid and FURIA occupy 1:1 bracket
Credit: Perfect World
Over in the Americas RMR, favorites Liquid and FURIA find themselves occupying the 1:1 bracket at this early stage. Realistically, these two teams were probably seen as absolute locks to reach the PW Shanghai Major 2024, but things haven’t quite worked out as planned so far. Liquid bounced back from an opening defeat to Wildcard to demolish KRÜ 13:2, but there remains many question marks about this team’s consistency. Keep your eye on this one.
Meanwhile, FURIA followed a similar path. An overtime defeat against Legacy in the opener wasn’t the start they were looking for, but FURIA made short work of Case afterward to ensure things didn’t get out of hand at this early stage. Up next for FURIA is BOSS, who were just a round away from reaching the 2:0 bracket against Complexity. Don’t write them off here.
ohnePixel’s DRILLAS still in with a shot
Credit: Perfect World
It’s the storyline everyone is following – streamer ohnePixel’s team DRILLAS have managed to stay alive to keep their Major hopes alive. Seeing the man himself behind the players has been undeniably hilarious, but you have to imagine he’s not talking tactics when on the mic.
As for the quality of the CS itself – they’ve looked surprisingly decent. DRILLAS edged past Lynn Vision in the opening match, and even managed to take a map against The MongolZ before falling to defeat at the hands of the big favorites. In the Lower Bracket of the Asia RMR, DRILLAS now face FlyQuest. The Aussies are probably the best team left in the tournament, so if DRILLAS can make it past this test, we’d have them down as actually reaching the Major. If they did, it would be one of the best CS2 esports stories of the year.
Amouranth’s Wildcard sitting pretty for Major spot
Credit: Perfect World
Part-owned by streamer Amouranth, Wildcard were something of a, well, Wildcare for the PW Shanghai Major 2024 Americas RMR. Names like Sonic and stanislaw inspire the belief that this team could produce a surprise result in China. After two games, Wildcard find themselves in the 2:0 bracket, and will now have three opportunities to qualify for the PW Shanghai Major 2024.
You can’t say their run isn’t legit, either. Beating Liquid in an overtime opener is no mean feat, and taking down paiN Gaming 13:10 showed it wasn’t a fluke. Yes, it’s best-of-one games, but they more than deserve to be on the cusp of reaching their first-ever Major. Now, it’s just 9z that stands between them and the PW Shanghai Major 2024. We reckon they’ll do it.
See below for the current state of play going into the next day of action:
Asia RMR
Credit: PGL
Americas RMR
Credit: PGL