The Qualifying Round of the Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 began on Thursday (December 5), with the participation of 8 teams gaining direct entry and 8 teams passing the Opening Round. A total of 16 teams will compete to win 8 spots in the Playoffs round.

The MongolZ, Team Vitality, HEROIC, and MIBR are holding a big advantage heading into the Playoffs after winning the first two rounds of the 5-round Swiss Qualifier. Meanwhile, expected teams such as NAVI, G2 Esports and Team Spirit only achieved a 1-1 record after the first day of competition.

Developments on the first day of the Qualifying Round:

The MongolZ, Vitality, HEROIC, and MIBR led after the first day of competition

The MongolZ is the most impressive team since the beginning of the Shanghai Major. After convincingly passing the Opening Round, the Mongolian team continued to win the first two rounds of the Qualifiers: defeating G2 Esports with a score of 13-10 on the Inferno map and continuing to overcome MOUZ with a score of 13-10. 16-13 in a match that went to extra time.

Team Vitality also showed strong performance as Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut continued to affirm his position as the best player in the world this year. The French team opened their Qualifying campaign with victories over GamerLegion (13-7 on Mirage map) in the first round and FURIA Esports (16-13 in overtime on Mirage) in the second round.

HEROIC and MIBR are the two remaining teams ending the first day of competition with a 2-0 record. HEROIC defeated BIG (13-7 on Mirage) and FaZe Clan (13-8 on Ancient), while MIBR overcame 3DMAX (13-11 on Vertigo) and surprisingly took down NAVI (13-11 on Inferno).

Overview of the remaining teams:

8 teams ended the first day with a 1-1 record including: G2 Esports, NAVI, Team Spirit, FURIA, MOUZ, FaZe Clan, 3DMAX and Team Liquid. Meanwhile, GamerLegion, BIG, paiN Gaming and Wildcard Gaming have not won any victories and are facing the risk of early elimination.

Second day of competition:

The second day of the Qualifiers will see two teams advance to the Playoffs through matches in the high bracket round 3, while two other teams will be eliminated after the lower bracket matches. The middle bracket matches will determine the situation of 8 teams with 1-1 records.