Pick’ems are back for the Shanghai Major, and we call exactly which teams will advance to the next stage.
WIN.gg has a reputation for top performances at pick’ems. Readers who followed our picks got a platinum coin at both the Stockholm Major and the Antwerp Major, and we still have enough gas in the tank for a repeat at Shanghai. We analyzed all the top predictions from personalities and meshed them with our own analysis for a top-tier chance at securing silver.
Here are our pick’ems for the Shanghai Major on the way to our third platinum coin.
The group stage for the Shanghai Major is an easy stage for pick’ems, and we think The MongolZ and Virtus.pro will earn the 3-0 slots.
2024 is the year of The MongolZ. The Mongolian squad earned several unexpected top finishes including second at Skyesports Championship and a win at Thunderpick World Championship over Heroic. Frankly, the team would look more at home starting in the elimination stage, and it’s expected to reach the playoffs. The second slot is tough with Liquid, Complexity, and Furia in the contest, but we give it to VP. Betting on Americans is rarely the smart choice in Counter-Strike.
As for the advancers, we chose the following teams to break out of the Shanghai Major pick’ems.
Furia, Liquid, Complexity, and Cloud9 need no introduction, but paiN and Passion may draw some attention. While overshadowed by Furia, paiN is arguably a top-three team in the American scene. The squad did stumble with a freak loss to Wildcard on Nuke in the RMR. However, we’re willing to write that off as a fluke. The team is also fresh off a big win at ESL Challenger Season 48, which it won over MiBR, Bestia, and Imperial.
Passion UA is our hottest take, but hear us out. The Ukrainian squad blazed through the RMR with a dominant 2-0 win over Astralis. That was after taking maps from Virtus.pro and Team Spirit, two teams that will undoubtedly go far. An EPL win here, a CCT Cinderella run there, and the team clearly has the potential to advance.
Other possible picks for the group stage are German side BIG, Brazilian stack MiBR, and Fnatic led by Freddy “blameF” Johansson. Fans of Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa can select Wildcard in her honor.
The best 0-3 pick’ems at the Shanghai Major are hometown hero Rare Atom and South American straggler Imperial.
Rare Atom will have the crowd on its side, but that’s really the only thing it has going for it. The squad had an unusually easy path in the RMR, not facing The MongolZ, FlyQuest, Lynn Vision, or any of the other contenders. Chinese CS2 is still a few steps behind the other regions, so we have to bestow it an 0-3 prediction.
As for Imperial, the team simply isn’t what it used to be. The team’s unstable roster hasn’t paid off the way it sometimes does for Europeans. It lost to both of the other SA arrivals and only entered thanks to some layups from KRÜ and Red Canids. While it would be fun to see João “felps” Vasconcellos dominate at a major in 2024, we prefer to bet on the opposite.
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