While favourites G2 and Spirit still made it through, it was BIG and 3DMAX that topped the Shanghai Major European RMR B.
We now know all of the teams qualified for the Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024, with the conclusion of the tournament's European Regional Major Ranking (RMR) B event on Sunday (November 24).
BIG, 
3DMAX, 
G2 Esports, 
HEROIC, 
Virtus.pro (VP), 
Passion UA, and 
Team Spirit were the final seven teams to qualify for the Shanghai Major. However, a miscommunication between CS2 developer Valve Software and Shanghai Major organiser Perfect World Esports regarding the seeding for teams qualified to the Major has made it unclear which teams will be starting in the Opening Stage and Elimination Stage.
An update from Valve and Perfect World on the finalised seeding for the Shanghai Major is expected to be released before the tournament kicks off in proper on Saturday (November 30). Here's how the seven qualified teams from the Shanghai Major's European RMR B earned their spots in the main tournament:
Many expected G2 and Spirit to be the ones leading the qualified teams out of the European RMR B. However, BIG and 3DMAX surprised everyone by winning in the first three rounds and securing themselves a spot in the Major's Elimination Stage. But with the seeding debacle between Valve and Perfect World, it is unclear if BIG and 3DMAX will be able to retain their hard-earned spots in the Elimination Stage.
BIG kicked off their campaign with a 13-9 win over Sashi Esports in Anubis in round one before taking down Heroic 13-8 in Ancient in round two. Round three then saw BIG pull off a 2-1 reverse sweep over Passion UA with wins at Dust II (13-5) and Mirage (13-9) to earn a tentative spot in the Elimination Stage.
Meanwhile, 3DMAX had arguably the most impressive run in the European RMR B to take a provisional spot in the Elimination Stage. They defeated TSM 13-11 in Vertigo in round one then outlasted Eternal Fire in double overtime in Nuke, 19-16, in round two. 3DMAX then faced G2 in round three, where they managed to score an incredible 2-1 reverse sweep with wins in Dust II (13-6) and Ancient (13-11).
G2 – who defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) in round one (13-7 in Nuke) and 9Pandas in round two (16-13 in overtime at Dust II) – were still in the running for a spot in the Elimination Stage despite getting upset by 3DMAX. They defeated rivals Spirit in a rematch of this year's BLAST Premier World Finals championship match in three games in round four with wins at Ancient (13-9) and Nuke (16-14 in overtime).
HEROIC and VP were the two other teams to finish with a 3-1 record, and would have been pit in a fourth place tiebreaker for the final spot in the Elimination Stage had the format used by Perfect World in the European RMR A event been followed. As it stands, it is unclear which of these two teams, if any, will be taking that Elimination Stage spot.
HEROIC defeated Parivision 13-8 in Ancient in round one before falling to BIG in round two. They then bounced back by defeating NiP 13-5 in Anubis in round three and taking down Passion UA in three games in round four with 13-7 wins at Vertigo and Mirage.
Meanwhile, VP lost in the opening round against Passion UA 13-16 in overtime at Mirage. They righted themselves by scoring back-to-back 13-10 wins in Ancient against TSM in round two and 9Pandas in round three. VP then defeated Sashi in three games in round four with wins at Inferno (13-8) and Mirage (13-4).
Three teams finished the European RMR B with 3-2 records – namely Passion UA, NiP, and Spirit – with just two spots in the Shanghai Major remaining. Passion UA would take the first of those last two spots by scoring a 2-0 sweep over a shorthanded Astralis without Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz in Inferno (13-9) and Ancient (13-11) in round five.
The rest of round five then saw Spirit sweep Sashi in Mirage (13-8) and Vertigo (13-6) while NiP took down 9Pandas in three games with wins at Ancient (13-10) and Mirage (13-8). That then set up a seventh place tiebreaker match between Spirit and NiP, with Spirit sweeping their opponents at Mirage (13-5) and Vertigo (13-11) to become the seventh and final team qualified for the Shanghai Major through the European RMR B.
BIG, 3DMAX, G2, HEROIC, VP, Passion UA, and Spirit round out the 24 teams qualified for the Shanghai Major proper. They will be joined by European RMR A winners Team Vitality, MOUZ, Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan, Cloud9, Fnatic, and GamerLegion; Americas RMR winners Wildcard Gaming, MIBR, Team Liquid, compLexity Gaming, paiN Gaming, Imperial Esports, and FURIA Esports; and Asia-Pacific RMR winners The MongolZ, Rare Atom, and FlyQuest.
The Shanghai Major proper is split into three stages: the Opening Stage from November 30 to December 3, the Elimination Stage from December 5 to 8, and the Playoff Stage from December 12 to 15, with 24 teams fighting for the lion's share of $500,000 out of the $1.25 million prize pool, and a spot in the second CS2 Major championship.
