Shanghai Major Opening Stage First Matchups Revealed

On 30 November 2024, the Opening Stage of the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 will kick off in China at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center, and every Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) esports fan should be excited about the start of the crowning event of the year.

As the second-ever CS2 Major Championship, there's a lot of honor to defend for teams, glory to achieve, and a nice payday with the prize pool at $1.25 million. Only the top eight teams from the Opening Stage will join the eight teams directly qualified for the Elimination Stage. 

Read More: All Qualified Opening & Elimination Stage Teams at Shanghai Major

With eight teams getting eliminated in the Opening Stage, every matchup counts. Following a minor debacle with team seeding after the RMR events finished up, Valve has updated its global ranking, and as such, we now have the opening matchups set, as confirmed by Perfect World on X.

According to the latest Valve Regional Standings, the 24 teams qualified for the Shanghai Major will be seeded into matchups in the Opening and Elimination stage. From November 30 to December 15, these teams will compete for the ultimate glory of becoming the Shanghai Major… pic.twitter.com/rtx9eliuyQ

— CS_PerfectWorld (@CS_PerfectWorld) November 26, 2024

Below, you'll find all eight first-round matchups in the Opening Stage of the Shanghai Major. 

• FURIA vs. GamerLegion
• MIBR vs. Virtus.pro
• Team Liquid vs. Cloud9
• FlyQuest vs. Complexity
• Wildcard Gaming vs. fnatic
• Passion UA vs. BIG
• Rare Atom vs. The Mongolz
• Imperial vs. paiN Gaming

Remember, elimination and advancement matches are BO3, while the rest of the matches are BO1, which means the matchups above are BO1, just to be clear.

The Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 Opening Stage will run from 30 November to 3 December 2024, and the top eight teams will join the Elimination Stage, which then runs from 5 to 8 December. The top eight teams who survive the Elimination Stage will compete from 12 to 15 December in the Playoffs Stage. Basically, there's a lot of CS2 esports action to look forward to.

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