Image: Perfect World Esports
Meanwhile, Cloud9, Virtus.pro, and Rare Atom make it five teams that fell in the Shanghai Major's Opening Stage.
The action continues to heat up in the Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 as three more teams advanced to the Elimination Stage while three others had their runs ended in the third day of the tournament's Opening Stage on Monday (December 2).
GamerLegion, 
FURIA Esports, and 
paiN Gaming emerged victorious in the Opening Stage's round four Advancement Matches to join Team Liquid and The MongolZ among the teams to qualify for the Elimination Stage. Over in the Elimination Matches, it was 
Cloud9, 
Virtus.pro, and 
Rare Atom that were sent home packing.
Here's how all the action in day three of the CS2 Perfect World Shanghai Major Opening Stage went down:
GamerLegion, FURIA, and paiN advane to Elimination Stage
The fourth round of the Opening Stage saw three out of eight spots in the Elimination Stage get claimed. GamerLegion and 
FlyQuest entered the round having lost in the round three Advancement Matches to MongolZ and Liquid, respectively. Meanwhile, FURIA, paiN, 
Passion UA, and 
BIG were coming off crucial victories in the round three mid seed matches.
The first match of the round between FURIA and BIG opened with BIG taking a comfortable 13-5 win in Nuke. FURIA then struck back in map two at Mirage, pulling off a 10-2 first half before surviving a second half rally to take the 13-11 win and force the series to a decider. With a spot in the Elimination Stage on the line in Dust II, 
Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo and his squad didn't waste any time as they dominated BIG, 13-3, to advance to the next stage.
With FURIA already moving onto the next stage, paiN looked to follow their countrymen as they soundly swept FlyQuest. Game one in Vertigo was a nail-biter as both squads ended the two halves in regulation with six rounds apiece, but a 4-2 run in overtime handed paiN the 16-14 win in the opening map. FlyQuest then looked shaken in map two at Inferno, where paiN won comfortably 13-6 to become the second Brazilian team to qualify for the Shanghai Major's Elimination Stage.
Round four's third Advancement Match featured GamerLegion taking down Passion UA in three maps to become the fifth team to qualify for the Elimination Stage. GamerLegion won the series' opening map in Inferno (13-6) before Passion UA tied things up in Mirage (13-5), only for GamerLegion to turn a 9-3 first half in Ancient to a 13-9 win that allowed them to advance further into the Major.
Cloud9, Virtus.pro, and Rare Atom get eliminated
Over in the round four Elimination Matches, Rare Atom couldn't follow up on their massive upset over Fnatic in the previous day as they fell to 
MIBR in three maps. MIBR kicked things off with a 13-9 win in Inferno before Rare Atom revived the hopes of the Chinese crowd present in the arena by equalising the series with a 13-11 win in Anubis. However, the glimmer of hope created by Rare Atom's game two win was quickly snuffed out as MIBR closed out the series with a 13-4 stomp in Ancient.
Up next was a showdown between two iconic North American organisations, with
Complexity Gaming proving themselves superior as they soundly swept a Cloud9 squad that notably had no American players in its roster. 
Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski led the way for Complexity as they outlasted Cloud9 in overtime at Vertigo, 16-13, before securing a spot in round five with a 13-8 win in Ancient.
Finally, Wildcard ended the day with a huge upset over Virtus.pro by way of a 2-1 reverse sweep. Virtus.pro looked like they would win the series as expected after taking the opening map at Ancient (13-10), only for Wildcard to rack up comfortable wins in Inferno (13-7) and Anubis (13-8) to instead be the ones living to fight another day.
With the day's results, GamerLegion, FURIA, and paiN advanced to the Elimination Stage, leaving just three spots up for grabs between the remaining six teams in the Opening Stage. Meanwhile, Cloud9, Virtus.pro, and Rare Atom have been knocked out in 20th-22nd place and will take home $10,000 in consolation.
The final round of the Shanghai Major Opening Stage will see one more set of best-of-three matches determine the last three teams advancing to the Elimination Stage. BIG will be taking on Complexity, MIBR will face FlyQuest, while Wildcard will be matched up against Passion UA. The winners of those matches will round out the 16 teams competing in the Elimination Stage while the losers will have to settle for 17th-19th place finishes.
The CS2 Perfect World Shanghai Major is the second-ever Major Championship for CS2, and will feature 24 of the best teams from all across the globe gunning for the lion's share of a $1.25 million prize pool, as well as the prestigious right to be called CS2 Major champions. The tournament is split into three distinct 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.
For everything you need to know about the CS2 Perfect World Shanghai Major, check here.
