Best Picks For The Perfect World Shanghai Major Pick’Em — Elimination Stage

After a very… interesting opening stage, the elimination stage of the Perfect World Shanghai Major will begin on the 5th of December this year, and with it, another set of 10 predictions that need to be made. Unfortunately, my predictions for the opening stage did not manage to reach five correct placements, so the precious diamond coin is unattainable. So, as I said in the Opening Stage predictions, this is the hardest Major to predict yet, but I do think I could at least get the gold coin, so here are my predictions.

3:0

Vitality — One of the top five teams in the world right now, Vitality has a good chance of even winning the Major, so they are sure to make it into the next stage. They’re probably the best team on the scene currently, and if not that, then second best.

Natus Vincere — NaVi, the current #1 team in the world according to HLTV rating and winners of the last CS2 Major, are 100% going to make it into the next stage, especially with their first matchup being Team Liquid, making it almost a guaranteed win for them. In almost every Major, they go up against Vitality in the 2:0 bracket, so putting both teams together here is a 90% sure point towards the challenge.

3:1/3:2

The MongolZ — Managing to go 3:0 against teams that are considered to be much better than them in the Opening Stage, the MongolZ are looking really serious this Major, and are most likely making it to the preliminaries.

FaZe — With Karrigan, ropz, and broky on the roster, getting an easy first match against Amouranth’s (yes, you read that right) team, Wildcard, it’s hard to see them doing anything but winning matches.

Team Spirit — The #4 best team right now with one of the most interesting players on their roster, Spirit are sure to make it into the next stage, even though their performance in the RMR was suboptimal.

G2 — Though they’ve been on a bit of a downfall lately, G2 is still #2 in HLTV rankings and is not very likely to be eliminated. I’d go so far as to say m0NESY and NiKo alone guarantee an advancement to the next stage.

Heroic — Whilst they were doing kinda awfully lately, HEROIC is going up against not-that-great BIG in their first match, and they are still #5 in HLTV ranking, so it’s not far-fetched to think they’ll go 3:2.

MOUZ — Whilst not the best team in the world without any particularly big names (that’s not to say that the players are no-names, Brollan and xertioN are amazing and pretty popular), it’s still very likely that they’ll make it to the next stage, especially if they get matched against the non-EU teams (sorry rest of the world, but Europeans are just better at CS).

0:3

Wildcard  — Even though the players there are incredible and should be commended for their victories in the Opening Stage, it’s hard to imagine them winning any matches against such strong teams. 

paiN — Albeit a fantastic team, it’s hard to see them winning any matches against so many top-tier teams. It’s not impossible for them to even make it to the next stage, but it’s about as likely as a meteor hitting earth tomorrow.

Conclusion

This is indeed the hardest Major yet, but I’m way more confident in these predictions than I was about the Opening Stage. This is full of well-known teams that are reliable and I don’t imagine many surprises are going to happen with so many well-established teams playing.