Counter-Strike 2’s Shanghai Major opening matches have wrapped with some surprising outcomes, setting the stage for a much tougher Elimination Stage Pick’ems.
Elimination stage pick’ems are now live in CS2, with the top eight teams awaiting their challengers from the qualification rounds. The opening stage was full of surprises. Many had counted out MIBR and placed their bets on Cloud9 and Virtus.Pro to advance, with some even believing the latter might secure a 3:0.
The standout teams that progressed, however, were Passion UA and “don’t call them Amouranth’s team” Wildcard Gaming alongside some of the favorites in the stage. The elimination stage will prove if these dark horses have what it takes to beat the top eight teams in CS2, or if they were flashes in the pan.
NaVi and G2 Esports are likely to be the first to advance to the Shanghai Major’s playoffs and there are unlikely to be surprises behind them.
Here are Jaxon.gg’s choices for the Shanghai Major elimination stage pick’ems:
For the elimination stage, the prediction to make is that things shake out in a generally predictable way. It’s not uncommon to see upsets in the opening stage of a Counter-Strike major, only to see those dark horses get brought back to earth in the next stage. For the 3:0 picks, the safe bets are NaVi and G2 Esports.
This year, there are a few contenders for the 3:0 pick, with MongolZ also in the mix. However, NaVi stands out as the strongest candidate, showing peak form heading into the event. Their first match is against Team Liquid, whom they already defeated at IEM Rio 2024. Despite a challenging path ahead, including potential clashes with Heroic and Team Vitality, NaVi remains the favorite to secure a flawless 3:0 run.
G2 Esports is another easy pick, having defeated Vitality, Liquid, and even NaVi fairly recently. All eyes will be on Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, and the long-time coordination between the Kovaaks will help G2 beat the newer lineups of 3DMax and Team Spirit, provided they can get past MongolZ.
For the 0:3 pick, there are once again three solid choices in Team GamerLegion MIBR, and Wildcard Gaming. Of those three, Wildcard has the best chance to exceed expectations. MIBR, on the other hand, hasn’t inspired much confidence and should be looked at as the safest pick to go 0-3.
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