With four exhilarating matches across two days, the PW Shanghai Major 2024 Quarter-Finals are now complete. We’re down to our final four teams now, closing out the 2024 CS2 season in style. But who made it through and is in with a chance of winning the biggest CS2 tournament of the year? Come dive into the Playoffs so far.
MOUZ end The MongolZ’s dream
Credit: Perfect World
In our PW Shanghai Major 2024 Quarter-Finals preview, we had this match as a complete tossup. As it turns out, we just ended up on the wrong side of the coin. We thought The MongolZ would beat MOUZ 2:0; instead, the exact opposite happened. This was a match where the stage environment was everything. On map one, The MongolZ were 12:6 up and on the verge of a flying start. However, the pressure got the best of them as they crumbled to lose in overtime. They simply never recovered for map two.
Take nothing away from MOUZ, though. Individually, every single player on the team was contributing, so it never felt like they were carrying dead weight en route to the Semi-Finals. Getting the job done in two here should alleviate any of their own stage jitters as we move into the final stages of the PW Shanghai Major 2024.
Spirit topple Team Liquid
Credit: Perfect World
In the second of yesterday’s matches, Spirit were able to walk over Team Liquid in 2:0 fashion. We had this one being more of a brawl, but we did get the victor right in the end. Spirit did well on map two of Dust2 to gain a commanding lead, which was too much to overcome for Liquid, even as they looked to mount an impressive comeback.
On the day though, the plaudits went to donk, who put on one of the finest Major Playoff performances in a very long time. His stats at the PW Shanghai Major 2024 were already incredible, and amazingly, they only seem to be going up the deeper he gets into the tournament. If Spirit wins the Major from this position, we’re talking about donk’s 2024 being the greatest rookie year of all time, bar none.
G2 survive Heroic scare
Credit: Perfect World
Today’s matches began with G2 vs. Heroic, a match that on paper, should have been a stomp. However, Heroic looked set to shake things up and ruin our Shanghai Major CS2 Pick’Ems in one fell swoop by taking a surprising map one victory. G2 had it all to do. And that they did, in an impressive reverse sweep to keep NiKo in with a shot of winning his first Major.
The big names will get the highlights, but G2 were down and out of this one without the incredible malbsMd. His 1v3 clutch in overtime of map three kept G2 in this one, and we suspect the team would already be at de_airport if he hadn’t pulled off what seemed to be impossible. Looking at the CS2 odds, you’ve got to have G2 down as favorites based on the teams left in the tournament.
FaZe finally find form against Vitality
Credit: Perfect World
Just about everyone had written FaZe Clan out of their match against Vitality before a bullet had even been fired, me included. However, this roster over the last three years has made a habit of reminding everyone why you should never count them out of any scenario, no matter how dire it looks. Their rough performance at this Major so far had us all fooled, as they took down Vitality 2:1 in the PW Shanghai Major 2024 Quarter-Finals.
Despite an awful 2024 by his own lofty standards, ropz is the single reason FaZe Clan have made it through to the Semi-Finals. His scoreline reads 61:35 across the three maps – for context, his closest teammate had just 40 kills. FaZe may be the CS2 betting underdog for the rest of this Major, but there’s always an inevitability about these players in a big-stage environment.