FACEIT Major: London 2018
The FACEIT Major: London 2018, also known as FACEIT Major 2018, or London 2018, was the thirteenth Major Championship of the video game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the second Major tournament of 2018, and first organized by FACEIT, the organizers of the Esports Championship Series. It featured twenty-four professional teams from around the world. The tournament took place in London, United Kingdom. While the group stages will not be played in front of a live crowd in Twickenham Stadium, the playoffs were held in the SSE Arena, Wembley. The top sixteen teams automatically qualified for the FACEIT Major based on their top sixteen placements from the last major, the ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, while another eight teams qualified from their respective regional qualifiers. The top eight teams from Boston (Legends) received a bye to the second phase of the group stage while the other sixteen teams (Challengers) had to go through the first and second group stages in order to reach the playoffs. The London Major was the sixth consecutive major with a prize pool of $1,000,000 since Valve announced the prize pool increase from $250,000 at MLG Major Championship: Columbus.[1][2]
| 2018 | |
 The FACEIT Major 2018 logo | |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Sport | Counter-Strike: Global Offensive |
| Location | London, United Kingdom |
| Dates | September 5, 2018–September 23, 2018 |
| Administrator(s) | Valve FACEIT |
Tournament format(s) | Two 16 team Buchholz group stages 8 team single-elimination playoff |
| Venue | Twickenham Stadium The SSE Arena, Wembley |
| Teams | 24 teams |
| Purse | $1,000,000 USD |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  |
| 1st runners-up |  |
| 2nd runners-up |   |
| MVP | |
FaZe Clan, MIBR, and Natus Vincere were the only returning Legends at this Major. compLexity Gaming, Team Liquid, BIG, HellRaisers, and Astralis were new Legends. Defending champions Cloud9, mousesports, Fnatic, G2 Esports, and Winstrike Team were knocked out in the New Legends stage, thus losing their Legends status. Fnatic was knocked out in the group stage, meaning for the first time in Major history Fnatic would not be Legends as an organization; this also meant that no roster core became Legends at every Major after the loss. This would also end Freddy "KRiMZ" Johansson's run as being one of the only players to attend every Major and become Legends. This left Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer as the only player to become a Legend at every Major and MIBR as the only team to become Legends at every Major since its Major debut, when the team debuted at ESL One Katowice 2015 as Keyd Stars. This Major was also significant in that no majority-Swedish team became Legends after Ninjas in Pyjamas fell to MIBR. Cloud9 was also just the second team in Global Offensive Major history after Team EnVyUs to not retain its Legends status after winning the previous Major.
The grand finals pitted Natus Vincere and Astralis. Natus Vincere defeated BIG in the quarterfinals and MIBR in the semifinals while Astralis defeated FaZe Clan and Team Liquid on its way to the finals. In a fairly convincing two maps, Astralis took down Natus Vincere for its second Major championship to tie with MIBR and the former Team EnVyUs French core for the second most Major titles.
Background
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve. It is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series. In competitive play, the game pits two teams against each other: the Terrorists and the Counter-Terrorists. Both sides are tasked with eliminating the other while also completing separate objectives. The Terrorists must either plant a bomb or kill the entire Counter-Terrorist team, while the Counter-Terrorists must either prevent the bomb from being planted by killing the entire Terrorist team or defusing the bomb. At the end of each round, players are rewarded based on their individual performance with in-game currency to spend on more powerful weapons in subsequent rounds. Winning rounds results in more money than losing, and completing objectives such as killing enemy players gives cash bonuses. However, the more consecutive rounds a team loses, the more money the losing team earns, with the loss bonus capping after five rounds; once that team wins a round, the loss round bonus resets to the minimum amount each player could earn after a round.
The current defending champion is Cloud9, which became the first North American team to win a Major and just the third non-European team to win a Major. The Swedish team Fnatic won three Majors to be the most decorated CS:GO team in history, and MIBR from Brazil coming in second with two Majors, both with different organizations.
Format
On December 13, 2017, the general manager of ELEAGUE Christina Alejandre announced a partially new format designed by Valve and ELEAGUE. The offline qualifier would now be part of the main stage and would be rebranded as the "New Challengers stage" and the FACEIT Major is expected to keep the same format.[3] In the grand scheme of things, the format was virtually the same since implementing the sixteen team Swiss system at ELEAGUE Major 2017 over the GSL format.
There are four regional qualifiers – Americas, Asia, CIS, and Europe. Two teams from each qualifier move on to the New Challengers stage. Each minor featured eight teams. Eight teams qualify from the closed qualifier to the minor. Each minor has two groups of four and the top two teams from each group move on to the bracket stage. There, the four teams play in a four team, double elimination, best of three and the top two teams move on to the major.[4]
The "New Challengers stage," formerly known as the offline qualifier, features sixteen teams: the bottom eight teams from the last major's, ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, New Legends stage and the eight teams from the minors. These teams play in a sixteen team, Swiss-system format. The top eight teams from this stage move on to the next phase of the major.
The group stage, now known as the "New Legends stage" will feature the sixteen teams that are normally a part of the main stage. These teams include the top eight teams from the Boston Major and the top eight teams from the New Challengers stage. Like the Challengers stage, the Legends stage is a sixteen team, Swiss-system format. The top eight teams from this phase move on to the top eight.
FACEIT's format for the New Challengers and the New Legends stages was slightly different. In round five of each Swiss group stage, the remaining six teams play in a best of three instead of the standard best of one.[5] In addition, the group stage will use the Buchholz system for seeding rather than a random draw. Essentially, the teams with the hardest strength of schedules will earn the higher seeds after the first round; strength of schedule is determined by how many wins the team's opponent has had.[6]
In the playoffs, now known as the "New Champions stage," eight teams will play in a single elimination, best of three bracket. Teams will play until a winner is decided in the finals.[2] The New Champions stage will also be slightly different. Rather than a randomizing the teams with the teams with the same records, these playoffs would seed teams based on how difficult their opponents were. This is determined by adding up how many wins the opponents had in the New Legends stage.[5] Many complaints arose from the last Major after SK Gaming had to play two series – one against Fnatic in the quarterfinals and another against Cloud9 in the semifinals – on the same day, when no other team had to. Before, three quarterfinal series were played on the first day of the playoffs and the remaining quarterfinal series and the two semifinals sets were played in the second day. This meant the winner of the last quarterfinals would only have a few hours rest between their games when their opponent in the semifinals would be fully rested. In response to this, FACEIT gave the quarterfinals two days of space, so that two could be played on day one and two could be played on day two so that all players could get full rest. All four quarterfinals would also not be crammed into one day, as this would lead to the organizers going overtime with the time they booked the venue and staff members would not be tired.
Regional qualifiers
Each regional qualifier, called "Minors", featured eight teams, whether through direct invitation or through qualifiers. Each minor featured two groups of four teams; these groups were in GSL double elimination formats, which was the format used at every major until the ELEAGUE Major, with the initial matches and winners match being best of ones and the losers and decider series being best of three. Two teams of each group qualify for the bracket phase, which is a four team, double elimination, best of three bracket. Two teams qualify for the major qualifier from each minor.
Each minor also had a US$50,000 prize pool with first place receiving US$30,000, second place taking in US$15,000, and third place raking in the last US$5,000.[8] In addition, all four minors will be held in London at the Twickenham Stadium to combat any last minute visa issues before the actual Major starts.[9]
Asia Minor
The Asia Minor ran from July 16 to July 20. Two teams were invited to the Asia Minor, unlike the last Asia Minor, in which all eight teams were invited. Two teams qualified from the Southeast Asia qualifier (which includes India), one team from the East Asia qualifier, one team from the Middle East qualifier, one team from the Oceania qualifier, and one team from the China qualifier. Each open Asian regional qualifier was a single elimination bracket.[10]
Controversy ensued in the China qualifier. Fierce Tiger had won the China qualifier via forfeit from VG.FlashGaming due to the latter's internet issues. VG.Flash suspected that its internet had been "sabotaged" before the match was about to start. FACEIT decided that the match would be replayed. Fierce Tiger was unhappy with the decision, saying that VG.Flash should be held accountable for its own issues and that its players were already on vacation. Fierce Tiger later said that it would not surrender its China qualifier win and hoped that FACEIT would could reach a "verdict with fair play in mind."[11] FACEIT administrators also realized that three of Fierce Tiger's four matches resulted in forfeits, with the other match being a 16–0 against Team MAX, making a possibility of a denial-of-service attack or match fixing likely. After speculations arose about the mysterious new fifth player Fierce Tiger brought on to the team who went by the alias "tbgirl", FACEIT learned and eventually confirmed with Valve that "tbgirl" was actually a player named Kun "LEo" Hou. LEo had recently been banned by Valve with a VAC ban. A VAC ban is an official ban by Valve if a player is caught cheating with Valve's anti-cheat system and any player with a VAC ban would be ineligible to play at a Valve-sponsored tournament and would last a lifetime. Fierce Tiger tried to hide "LEo"'s new identity and knowingly let the banned player play. In the end, FACEIT disqualified Fierce Tiger and Roar eSports would face off against VG.Flash in the final.[12]
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- Notes
- 5Power Club had three players with visa issues, so the team was forced to gather three players with visas to the United Kingdom quickly before the event started.
- Signature Gaming's visa applications were denied by the British embassy. FACEIT decided to find a replacement instead of running the event with seven teams like the CIS Minor. The semifinalists runner-ups at the Southeast Asia qualifier, B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape and Devious, played to replace Signature. B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape would stroll its way into the Asia Minor.
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The Asia Minor kicked off with a stunner. SCARZ Absolute was the dark horse team to qualify from the East Asia qualifier, as MVP PK was the favorite; however, MVP PK was upset early on to give SCARZ Absolute a path to make it to the Minor. The Minor started with SCARZ Absolute defeating arguably Asia's number two team VG.Flash Gaming. Renegades was able to defeat B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape in a comfortable win as the favorites to win the Minor moved on. In Group A's winner's match, SCARZ Absolute pulled off another upset as the Japanese team was just able to hold back the Aussies, led by Takemori "takej" Shogo, who went huge in the game and SCARZ was the first team to move on to the bracket stage. VG.Flash struggled as one of its star players YuanZhang "Attacker" Sheng was injured. B.O.O.T-d[S] was able to the team from the China qualifier in a relatively close three maps as VG.Flash was eliminated after qualifying for the Boston Major back in January. Renegades once again cruised to an easy series win against B.O.O.T-d[s} to move on to the bracket stage. In Group B, TyLoo opened up with a closer than expected win against 5Power Club, as the latter was playing with three stand-ins. In the other opening match, Uniquestars from Israel put up a strong performance, but it was not enough as Tainted Minds led by Joshua "INS" Potter's 25 kills allowed the Australian team to pull off the comeback. In the winner's match, TyLoo absolutely throttled Tainted Minds 16–2 to easily take the first seed. Uniquestars was able to pull off a series win against a notable Asian team in a close best of three. However, the team from Israel could not pull past Tainted Minds as the latter was able to figure out Uniquestars in the end.
The bracket stage started off with a thriller, as the two rivals from the Asia and Oceania region met once again in the Asia Minor. TyLoo barely took the first map as it went the full thirty rounds. Renegades took the next map into overtime. In the third map, Renegades had the early 9–6 lead, but TyLoo won ten of the next eleven rounds to dominate Australia's best and move on to the winner's finals. SCARZ Absolute could not pull off another upset as the first map went easily to Tainted Minds. The next map was much closer, but Tainted Minds was able to secure the series and face off against TyLoo as some of the Tainted Minds players looked to go back to the Major. SCARZ's mini-run came to an end as the Japanese fell to Renegades, but was able to take a map off the Australians as for the second straight year, an East Asian team came in fourth. TyLoo continued to stroll as it defeated Tainted Minds to secure a spot at the Major. Renegades made quick work of Tainted Minds as the compatriots duked it out. For every Asia Minor barring the first one at Columbus, Renegades and TyLoo were in the top two at the Minor. At the Columbus Asia Minor, TyLoo was disqualified due to Quanqing "qz" Wu having an unknown VAC ban, but Renegades still made it in the top two, as The MongolZ topped the other teams. In the finals, Renegades took revenge against TyLoo as the Australians took the first seed in the Asia Minor to face an easier opponent in the first round of the New Challengers stage.
CIS Minor
The CIS Minor ran from July 10 to July 13. All eight teams in the CIS Minor came from the closed qualifier. In the closed qualifier, eight teams were invited and another eight teams qualified from four separate open qualifiers. The closed qualifier was a sixteen team, best of three, Swiss system format and the top eight teams moved on to the CIS Minor.[15]
Before the Minor even started, Nemiga Gaming was denied visas to the United Kingdom, so the team was unable to attend the Minor. Instead of finding a replacement, FACEIT decided to run the event with seven teams.[16] Visa denial issues also forced two additional teams (PLINK-TECH and Monolith Gaming) to play with stand-ins.[17] This Minor was notable in that it would be the first Major in which Yegor "markeloff" Markelov would not participate in after his FlipSid3 Tactics team lost to three unknown teams in the CIS closed qualifier.
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With Nemiga Gaming out, Group A effectively ran as a three team, double elimination bracket with HellRaisers given a bye. PLINK-TECH dominated pro100 in the first match of Group A, as Rassim "Jyo" Valijev lead the way. In the winner's match, HellRaisers took down PLINK after going down 10-11 by taking six rounds in a row to secure a spot in the playoffs. In the decider's series, pro100 and PLINK split games. The third map went to overtime on Mirage, but it was pro100 to get revenge by sweeping the overtime to eliminate PLINK and move on to the playoffs. In Group B, AVANGAR fell to forZe in a game that forZe's terrorist side dominated. In the other initial match, Team Spirit was led by Dmitriy "Dima" Bandurka's 22 kills in a blowout 16–2 win over Monolith Gaming. Team Spirit took down forZe in the winner's match to take the top seed in the group. AVANGAR won a first close map against Monolith and then comfortably strode into the decider's series in the second map to eliminate Monolith. forZe took the first map, but AVANGAR took the second map. Led by Alexey "Qikert" Golubev's 23 kills, AVANGAR was able to take the final map of the group stage to move on to the bracket phase and to eliminate forZe.
In the bracket stage, pro100 took down Team Spirit in two maps to send the Russian team down to the loser's bracket. HellRaisers was able to take care of AVANGAR in the other series as the favorites for the CIS Minor moved on. HellRaisers was able to take down pro100 in two games in a relatively closer series to secure a spot at the Major, thanks to the firepower of Özgür "woxic" Eker, while pro100 still needed one more win to make it to the Major. Last Major's surprise team AVANGAR didn't even make it to the big stage this time as Team Spirit was able to dominate the Kazakh team on the third map. Team Spirit the strolled into the Major by easily taking down pro100 to finalize the two CIS teams. In the first place decider, HellRaisers survived Spirit's comeback bid after being up 10–5 to take the game 16–14. Spirit answered by taking the next map on Mirage easily 16–6. Spirit looked to take the final map after going up 12–3 at the half. However, the Russian squad was only able to pick up just two rounds on its counter-terrorist side as w0xic dominated the second half with 40 kills and HellRaisers completed the comeback at 16–14 to take the first seed at the CIS Minor. When HellRaisers defeated pro100 in the winner's final, Vlаdуslаv "bondik" Nеchуроrchuk became the first player to qualify for the Major via three Minor qualifiers. With HellRaisers, he qualified through both the Europe Minor and CIS Minor; when he was on loan to the Chinese team TyLoo, he qualified through the Asia Minor.
Europe Minor
The Europe Minor ran from July 19 to July 22. The Europe Minor will be exactly like the CIS Minor. All eight teams in the Europe Minor will come from the closed qualifier. In the closed qualifier, eight teams will be invited and another eight teams will qualify from four separate open qualifiers. The closed qualifier will be a sixteen team, best of three, Swiss system format and the top eight teams move on to the Europe Minor.[18] Notably, Ninjas in Pyjamas were able to qualify for a Major for the first time in over two years.
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Group A began with OpTic Gaming breezing past 3DMAX. Meanwhile, ENCE eSports barely edged it out over the former players of Team EnVyUs, who were playing under the brand LeftOut. In the winner's match, René "cajunb" Borg and Nicklas "gade" Gade were able to lead OpTic to a close 16–13 win over ENCE to secure a spot in the top four. In the battle between two French teams, LeftOut looked to move on as 3DMAX was barely known even in France. However, 3DMAX's new roster were able to upset ex-EnVyUs in three maps to eliminate some of the best French players in the scene. ENCE took care of 3DMAX in two relatively close games as both French teams in Group A were eliminated from championship contention. Sprout Esports's new lineup started strong with a win against Team Kinguin. Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) won its first ever Europe Minor game, but just barely over Red Reserve. Sprout defeated the Ninjas to move on to the bracket phase as the organization looked to head back to the Major. Red Reserve took down Team Kinguin in two close maps. With Kinguin being eliminated, this would be the first time the legendary Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas would not play at a Major after attending the first one with Universal Soldiers and the next eleven with Virtus.pro. Red Reserve failed to get revenge against NiP in two close games as NiP was one step closer to going back to a Major.
OpTic started with an easy map win over NiP, but the Swedes bit back with an overtime win in the second. In the third map, OpTic cruised to the series in at 16–3 to move on to winner's final. On the other side, ENCE easily took down Sprout in two maps as allu looked to head back to a Major. The Ninjas started the loser's side strong as it dominated Sprout. Sprout barely took the next map at 16–14, but NiP bounced back to take the third map in a close 16–13 win, led by Fredrik "REZ" Sterner's 28 kills. ENCE and OpTic split the first two maps in their series, but with the help of Nicklas "gade" Gade, OpTic was able to secure a spot in the FACEIT Major. In the loser's bracket, NiP finally found its stride as it was the two old school legends in the game to come through and knock out ENCE from the Major. In the grand finals, NiP rolled over OpTic to take the first seed in the Minor and finally go back to a Major after missing three straight.
Americas Minor
The Americas Minor ran from July 7 to July 11. Unlike the previous America Minors, no team was directly invited to the Americas Minor. This time, six teams will come from the North American closed qualifier and two teams will come from the South American open qualifier. In the North American closed qualifier, eight teams will be invited and another eight teams will come from four separate open qualifiers. These teams will play in a sixteen teams, best of three Swiss system format and the top six teams will move on to the Americas Minor. The South American open will have two open qualifiers and each will be a single elimination, 1024 team bracket.[19]
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- Notes
- Three teams were tied for sixth place at the North American closed qualifier. The tiebreaker was determined by whichever team had the best map win to loss difference. Swole Patrol (8-5) was able to beat out Luminosity Gaming (6-5) and Team One (6-6) to take the last spot in the Americas Minor.
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NRG Esports kicked off the Minor in a closer-than-expected match against Swole Patrol. Despite Ryan "fREAKAZOiD" Abadir's 19 kills, it was Ethan "nahtE" Arnold to outclass Swole. In the next match, it was the experienced but struggling Não Tem Como (NTC) against the inexperienced but rising eUnited. Despite NTC taking the halftime lead, eUnited was able to pull away with the game lead Kaleb "moose" Jayne's 22 kills. The winner's match saw NRG taking a massive 13–2 lead and then denying a comeback attempt by eUnited to book a spot in the bracket. NTC was able to take care of Swole Patrol with relative ease to stay alive. eUnited made quick work of NTC in the first match and then squeaked out a win in the second map to head to the bracket stage and eliminate NTC. Group B started with compLexity Gaming taking down Furia eSports with relative ease. In the other match, Rogue strolled through its second half against Team Dignitas. In the winner's match, Rogue was able to win a close map against compLexity to secure a spot in the bracket phase. Team Dignitas won the first match against Furia easily, but the second was close as Furia sent the game to overtime after being down 14–8. However, Dignitas was able to scrape away with the win, to eliminate the second South American team. Dignitas kept it close with compLexity in the first match, but it was the latter team to win the map. compLexity would change tides as it would completely trample Dignitas 16–1 in the second match to move on to the top four and to eliminate Dignitas.
Rogue completely dominated eUnited in the first map of the bracket phase, which included a 15-0 first half. eUnited responded by taking the next map in a fairly comfortable win. Rogue was able to clinch the series in a close game with the help of Ricky "Rickeh" Mulholland and Rogue sent eUnited to the loser's bracket. NRG easily won the first map against compLexity Gaming as the favorites to take the Minor was on a good start. However, compLexity looked to get its organization back to its Major since EMS One Katowice 2014 and just about took the game in overtime after being down 13–8. compLexity would pull off the upset series win by completely shutting down NRG's offense on Inferno as compLexity would just one series win away to going to the major. Rogue was the first qualifying team to head to the FACEIT Major as Spencer "Hiko" Martin would head back to the big stage after being a finalist at ESL One Cologne 2016 and compLexity was sent down to the loser's bracket. NRG took a close one against eUnited, but eUnited bounced back to take the next map in another close game. On Dust II, eUnited took a massive halftime lead and looked to upset a top ten team. Will "dazzLe" Loafman lead the dominating win to eliminate NRG from Major championship contention. compLexity swept eUnited to secure a spot at the Major. compLexity would be at the Major for the first time since 2014. In the first place decider, compLexity rolled over Rogue in the first map. compLexity took a huge lead on the second map, but Rogue brought it all the way back to 14–15. However, compLexity was able to clutch it out in the thirtieth round to take the top seed in the Americas.
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- Notes
- Immortals acquire the MIBR (Made in Brazil) brand. The SK Gaming players' contracts expired and Immortals picked up the roster. Immortals announced that they would be playing under the MIBR tag.
- Quantum Bellator Fire sold its team to a newly formed organization called Winstrike Team.
Top twenty players in the tournament
The top 20 players of 2017 were ranked by HLTV.org. Below is the list of players in the top 20. Of the top twenty, only Ricardo "boltz" Prass did not attend the Major, as he was benched from MIBR. Players who dropped out of the top 20 from 2016 include Richard "shox" Papillon (#6, France, G2 Esports), Patrick "f0rest" Lindberg (#7, Sweden, Ninjas in Pyjamas), Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom (#9, Belgium, Team EnVyUs), Robin "flusha" Rönnquist (#10, Sweden, Fnatic), Jegor "flamie" Wasiljew (#12, Russia, Natus Vincere), Emil "Magisk" Reif (#14, Denmark, North/OpTic Gaming), Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund (#18, Sweden, Ninjas in Pyjamas), Lincoln "fnx" Lau (#19, Brazil, SK Gaming/Immortals), and Dennis "dennis" Edman (#20, Sweden, Fnatic/GODSENT).[21]
Most achievements have whether the player was the most valuable player of the tournament (MVP) or an extremely valuable player in the tournament (EVP).[22]
| World Ranking | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Name | Age | Team† | Move‡ | Highest rank | Achievements |
| 1 | |
23 | SK Gaming |  |
1 (2016, 2017) | IEM Sydney 2017 MVP, EPICENTER 2017 MVP, DH Summer 2017 MVP |
| 2 |  |
20 | FaZe Clan |  |
2 (2017) | StarLadder i-League Season 3 MVP, ESL One New York 2017 MVP |
| 3 | |
26 | SK Gaming | |
3 (2017) | ECS Season 3 MVP, 10 time EVP |
| 4 |  |
23 | FaZe Clan | NEW | 4 (2017) | ELEAGUE Premier MVP, ECS Season 4 MVP |
| 5 | |
22 | Astralis |  |
3 (2015, 2016) | ELEAGUE Major 2017 winner, five time EVP |
| 6 | |
26 | SK Gaming | |
2 (2016) | ESL One Cologne 2017 MVP, BLAST Pro Series MVP |
| 7 |  |
20 | G2 Esports | |
6 (2014, 2015) | ESL Pro League Season 5 MVP, DreamHack Masters Malmö 2017 MVP |
| 8 | |
20 | Natus Vincere | |
4 (2016) | DreamHack Open Winter 2017 MVP, two time EVP |
| 9 |  |
26 | Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan | |
2 (2015) | Three time winner, five time EVP |
| 10 | |
24 | Astralis | NEW | 10 (2017) | ELEAGUE Major 2017 winner, five time EVP |
| 11 | |
23 | Gambit Esports | NEW | 11 (2017) | PGL Major winner, four time EVP |
| 12 | |
20 | Team Liquid | NEW | 12 (2017) | Three time EVP, only North American player to be ranked in 2017 |
| 13 | |
22 | Astralis | NEW | 13 (2017) | IEM Worlds 2017 MVP, three time EVP |
| 14 | |
21 | North | NEW | 14 (2017) | DH Montreal 2017 MVP, two time EVP |
| 15 | |
19 | Astralis | |
15 (2017) | ELEAGUE Major 2017 MVP, two time EVP |
| 16 |  |
26 | mousesports | NEW | 16 (2017) | ESG Tour Mykonos 2017 MVP, first Czech to play in major and be ranked |
| 17 | |
27 | Gambit Esports | NEW | 17 (2017) | PGL Major 2017 MVP, three time EVP |
| 19 | |
25 | Fnatic, FaZe Clan | |
1 (2015) | Three time winner, five time EVP |
| 20 |  |
24 | Virtus.pro | |
4 (2014, 2015) | DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 2017 MVP, three time EVP |
†Teams on this list are based on the teams the players played for during 2017
‡From 2017
Pre-major ranking
HLTV.org rank teams based on results of teams' performances. The rankings shown below reflect the September 3, 2018 rankings.[23]
The HLTV.org World Ranking ranks the best teams in the competitive field of the game. The world ranking is based on teams' achievements over the past year (with severe decay in points throughout each month), recent form over the last 2 months, and performance at the last 10 LAN events. All of that is predicated around a 3-man core each team is required to have in order to retain their past points. Points cap at 1000 points. The rankings started with the ESG Tour Mykonos 2017, in which mousesports defeated Team Liquid and concluded with North upsetting Astralis at DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018.
Teams that were in the top 30 but failed to qualify for the major include NRG eSports (#9, United States), Heroic (#13, Denmark), ENCE eSports (#18, Finland), Ghost Gaming (#22, Canada), Luminosity Gaming (#23, Brazil), Imperial Esports (#24, Lithuania), AGO Esports (#25, Poland), Fragsters (#26, Denmark), AVANGAR (#27, Kazakhstan), and Team Kinguin (#28, Poland).
| World ranking | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place | Team | Points | Move1 | Peak2 | Low2 | Best Major placing3 | Best achievements2 |
| 1 | |
982 | |
1 | 8 | 1st at Atlanta 2017 | ECS Season 5 winner ELEAGUE Premier 2018 winner ESL Pro League Season 7 winner |
| 2 | |
709 | |
2 | 10 | 2nd at Cluj-Napoca 2015 2nd at Columbus 2016 |
SL i-League Season 5 winner ESL One Cologne 2018 winner |
| 3 | |
482 | |
3 | 14 | 2nd at Cologne 2016 | cs_summit 2 winner ECS Season 5 runner-up ELEAGUE Premier 2018 runner-up |
| 4 | |
477 | |
4 | 17 | 5th at Atlanta 2017 5th at Kraków 2017 |
DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 winner DreamHack Open Valencia 2018 winner |
| 5 | |
472 | |
2 | 8 | 5th at Boston 2018 | SL i-League Season 4 winner V4 Future Sports Festival winner |
| 6 | |
457 | |
1 | 6 | 2nd at Boston 2018 | ELEAGUE Premier 2018 winner IEM Sydney 2018 winner ESL Belo Horizonte 2018 winner |
| 7 | |
358 | |
1 | 8 | 1st at Columbus 2016 1st at Cologne 2016 |
Adrenaline Cyber League 2018 winner Moche XL Esports winner ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 winner |
| 8 | |
271 | |
6 | 14 | 1st at Cologne 2014 | 5th at SL i-League S5 3rd at DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 |
| 10 | |
220 | |
2 | 10 | 1st at Winter 2013 1st at Katowice 2015 1st Cologne 2015 |
Intel Extreme Masters XII - World Championship winner World Electronic Sports Games 2017 winner |
| 11 |  |
277 | |
6 | 31 | 5th at Kraków 2017 | ESEA Season 27 winner ESL One Cologne 2018 runner-up |
| 12 | |
178 | |
10 | 30 | 2nd at Boston 2018 Asia Minor | SL & ImbaTV Chongqing winner Qi Invitational runner-up |
| 14 | |
136 | |
4 | 25 | 5th at Boston 2018 | 5th at SL i-League Season 4 5th at ECS Season 5 5th at ESL One Cologne 2018 |
| 15 | |
128 | |
13 | 21 | 5th at Katowice 2014 5th at Winter 2014 |
DreamHack Open Tours 2018 runner-up Moche XL Esports runner-up |
| 16 | |
128 | |
10 | 19 | 9th at Cologne 2015 | 5th at SL i-League S4 5th at IEM Sydney 2018 |
| 17 | |
115 | |
15 | 48 | 2nd at London 2018 Europe Minor | DreamHack Summer 2018 runner-up 5th at ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 |
| 19 | |
108 | |
10 | 21 | 1st at Kraków 2017 | 3rd at DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018 3rd at DreamHack Open Tours 2018 |
| 20 | |
102 | |
10 | 22 | 1st at Katowice 2014 | V4 Future Sports Festival runner-up CS:GO Asia Championships 2018 runner-up |
| 21 | |
99 | |
2 | 21 | 1st at Boston 2018 | 5th at World Electronic Sports Games 2017 cs_summit 2 runner-up |
| 29 | |
70 | |
21 | 55 | 3rd at Winter 2013 | 5th at DreamHack Open Summer 2018 |
| 30 | |
70 | |
22 | 63 | 2nd at London 2018 Americas Minor | DreamHack Open Austin 2018 runner-up |
| 31 |  |
– | |
12 | 31 | 9th at Boston 2018 | World Electronic Sports Games 2017 runner-up DreamHack Open Austin 2018 winner |
| 36 | |
– | |
23 | 37 | 2nd at London 2018 CIS Minor | SL & ImbaTV Chongqing 2018 runner-up ESEA Season 27 runner-up |
| 47 | |
– | |
12 | 51 | 5th at Boston 2018 | M.Game League #2 winner 3rd at World Cyber Arena 2017 |
| 211 | |
– | |
14 | 211 | 9th at Boston 2018 | 5th at SL & ImbaTV Chongqing 2018 |
1Change since August 27, 2018 ranking
2Since end of ELEAGUE Boston Major
3Best major placements may not necessarily reflect teams' current rosters
Relevant tournaments
| Valve-sponsored Major | |
| Premier tournament | |
| Relevant major tournament |
The following list shows the relevant tournaments to the rankings. From top to bottom, the tournament becomes more relevant to the rankings. Those in gold indicates the tournament was a Major, meaning Valve, the developers of the game, sponsored the tournament to host a CS:GO Major. A premier tournament means it offers an outstanding prize pool, is frequently played offline, and features the best players from all over the world. A major tournament simply means the tournament features a large prize pool and a good number of top teams; the major tournaments that are shown below are only shown because a team from the major participated in the event. This list also shows where the tournament took place, the number of teams at the tournament, the winner and runner-up, prize pool, and – if applicable – HLTV's most valuable player of the tournament.
| Tournament | Location | Teams | Winner | Runner-Up | Prize Pool | MVP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESG Tour Mykonos 2017[24] |  |
8 | |
|
€200,000 | |
| DreamHack Open Montreal 2017[25] | |
8 | |
|
US$100,000 | |
| ESL One New York 2017[26] | |
8 | |
|
US$250,000 | |
| ESEA Season 25: Global Challenge[27] | |
8 | |
 |
US$50,000 | |
| The World Championships 2017[28] |  |
8 | |
 |
US$100,000 | |
| ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier[29] | |
16 | |
|
US$1,000,000 | |
| DreamHack Open Denver 2017[30] | |
8 | |
|
US$250,000 | |
| EPICENTER 2017[31] | |
10 | |
|
US$500,000 | |
| StarLadder i-League Invitational #2[32] | |
8 | |
|
US$150,000 | |
| iBUYPOWER Masters 2017[33] | |
8 | |
|
US$100,000 | |
| Intel Extreme Masters Season XII - Oakland[34] | |
12 | |
|
US$300,000 | |
| BLAST Pro Series[35] | |
6 | |
|
US$250,000 | |
| DreamHack Open Winter 2017[36] | |
8 | |
|
US$100,000 | |
| ESL Pro League Season 6[37] | |
28 | |
|
US$1,000,000 | |
| ROG Masters 2017[38] |  |
6 | |
|
US$250,000 | |
| Esports Championship Series Season 4[39] |  |
20 | |
|
US$750,000 | |
| ESEA Season 26: Global Challenge[40] | |
8 | |
|
US$50,000 | |
| ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018[41] | |
24 | |
|
US$1,000,000 | |
| cs_summit 2[42] | |
8 | |
|
US$150,000 | |
| StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 4[43] | |
16 | |
|
US$300,000 | |
| Intel Extreme Masters Season XII – World Championship[44] | |
16 | |
|
US$500,000 | |
| World Electronic Sports Games 2017[45] | |
32 | |
|
US$1,500,000 | |
| V4 Future Sports Festival[46] |  |
8 | |
|
US$597,000 | |
| DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018[47] | |
16 | |
|
US$250,000 | |
| Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII - Sydney[48] | |
16 | |
|
US$250,000 | |
| ESEA Season 27: Global Challenge[49] | |
8 | |
|
US$50,000 | |
| ESL Pro League Season 7[50] | |
40 | |
|
~US$1,593,478.93 | |
| DreamHack Open Tours 2018[51] | |
8 | |
|
US$100,000 |  |
| Adrenaline Cyber League 2018[52] | |
4 | |
|
US$100,000 | |
| StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 5[53] | |
16 | |
|
US$300,000 | |
| DreamHack Open Austin 2018[54] | |
8 | |
|
US$100,000 | |
| Esports Championship Series Season 5[55] | |
20 | |
|
US$840,000 | |
| ESL One Belo Horizonte 2018[56] | |
8 | |
|
US$200,000 | |
| CS:GO Asia Championships 2018[57] | |
8 | |
|
US$300,000 | |
| DreamHack Open Summer 2018[58] | |
8 | |
|
US$100,000 |  |
| ESL One Cologne 2018[59] | |
16 | |
|
US$300,000 | |
| DreamHack Open Valencia 2018[60] |  |
8 | |
|
US$100,000 | |
| ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018[61] | |
8 | |
|
US$1,000,000 | |
| ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018[62] |  |
8 | |
|
US$300,000 | |
| DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018[63] | |
16 | |
|
US$250,000 | |
1Although HLTV.org awarded the MVP award to coldzera, ESL deemed TACO to be the MVP.
2Although HLTV.org awarded the MVP award to tarik, ELEAGUE deemed Skadoodle to be the MVP.
3Although mousesports won the event, HLTV.org and StarLadder gave the MVP award to Natus Vincere's s1mple.
4Although HLTV.org awarded the MVP award to s1mple, DreamHack deemed gla1ve to be the MVP.
5Although North won the event, HLTV.org gave the MVP award to HellRaisers' ISSAA.
6Although HLTV.org awarded the MVP award to MSL, DreamHack deemed v4lde to be the MVP.
|
New Challengers stage
The New Challengers stage took place from September 5 to September 9, 2018. The Challengers stage, also known as the Preliminary stage and formerly known as the offline qualifier, will be a sixteen team swiss tournament: after the randomly-drawn Day 1 games, teams will play other teams with the same win-loss record. Every round will consist of one game. In addition, teams will not play the same team twice unless necessary and teams will be randomly chosen for the first two rounds; afterwards, rounds three through five will use the Buchholz system, meaning that seeding will take place for next matchups. In addition, round five matchups will be a best of three rather than a best of one. Any team with three wins would qualify for the New Legends stage, and any team with three losses would be eliminated.
In the first round, teams from pool one will be matched up against teams in pool four. Teams in pool two will play teams in pool three. One team from a pool is randomly decided to face off against a randomly decided team in another pool. Teams in pool one are Gambit Esports, Space Soldiers, Vega Squadron, and a randomly decided team among Astralis, BIG, and Team Liquid. Teams in pool two are the two other teams from Astralis, BIG, and Team Liquid; North; and Virtus.pro. Teams in pool three are the Minor winners: Renegades, HellRaisers, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and compLexity Gaming. Teams in pool four are the Minor runner-ups: TyLoo, Team Spirit, OpTic Gaming, and Rogue.
In the second round, the winners in the first round will face each other in the "high" matches, in which teams with a 1–0 record will play against each other; the losers will face each other in the "low" matches, in which teams with a 0–1 record will play each other.
In the third round, the winners of the high matches (teams with 2-0 records) from round two will face each other. The winners of these two matches will qualify for the major. The losers of the high round and the winners of the low round (teams with 1-1 records) will face each other in the "mid" matches. The losers from the previous low matches (teams with 0-2 records) will face each other in round three's low matches. The losers of these low matches are eliminated. Twelve teams remain in the Challengers stage.
In the fourth round, the losers of the high matches and the winners of the mid matches (teams with 2-1 records) will face each other in round four's high matches. The winners of those high matches qualify for the next phase of the Major. The losers of the mid matches and the winners of the low matches (teams with 1-2 records) will face each other in the low matches of round four. The losers of these matches are eliminated from the Major. Six teams remain.
In the last round, the remaining teams will face off (teams with 2-2 records). The winners of these matches will qualify for the New Legends stage and the losing teams will be eliminated from the Major. Instead of a best of one, these games will be a best of three. In the most ideal of situations, the Swiss format should allow teams to have a harder time each time they win and have an easier time each time they lose.
| Place | Team | Record | RD | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | |
3-0 | +20 | OpTic Gaming 16-4 Mirage |
High match HellRaisers 16-9 Inferno |
High match Vega Squadron 19-17 Cache |
New Legends stage | New Legends stage |
|
3-0 | +17 | Virtus.pro 16-5 Mirage |
High match TyLoo 16-12 Train |
High match Astralis 28-26 Mirage |
New Legends stage | New Legends stage | |
| 3–5 | |
3-1 | +26 | compLexity Gaming 16-4 Inferno |
High match Rogue 16-13 Inferno |
High match Ninjas in Pyjamas 26-28 Mirage |
High match Team Spirit 16-3 Dust II |
New Legends stage |
|
3-1 | +1 | Astralis 4-16 Inferno |
Low match Space Soldiers 16-11 Inferno |
Mid match BIG 16-12 Inferno |
High match Vega Squadron 19-15 Inferno |
New Legends stage | |
|
3-1 | -1 | North 19-17 Overpass |
High match Team Liquid 9-16 Inferno |
Mid match Gambit Esports 16-14 Overpass |
High match OpTic Gaming 25-23 Train |
New Legends stage | |
| 6–8 | |
3-2 | +23 | Renegades 16-6 Overpass |
High match Vega Squadron 16-19 Train |
Mid match compLexity Gaming 12-16 Inferno |
Low match Gambit Esports 16-8 Nuke |
OpTic Gaming 2-0 |
|
3-2 | +10 | Team Spirit 16-14 Mirage |
High match BIG 19-16 Train |
High match Team Liquid 17-19 Cache |
High match compLexity Gaming 15-19 Inferno |
North 2-0 | |
|
3-2 | +8 | Gambit Esports 19-17 Inferno |
High match Ninjas in Pyjamas 16-12 Train |
Mid match OpTic Gaming 26-28 Inferno |
Low match Renegades 16-10 Inferno |
Team Spirit 2-0 | |
| 9–11 | |
2-3 | -4 | HellRaisers 17-19 Overpass |
Low match Team Spirit 13-16 Nuke |
Low match Virtus.pro 16-6 Mirage |
Low match Rogue 25-23 Inferno |
Vega Squadron 0-2 |
|
2-3 | -6 | Vega Squadron 14-16 Mirage |
Low match North 16-13 Nuke |
Mid match Rogue 16-4 Overpass |
High match Astralis 3-16 Dust II |
TyLoo 0-2 | |
|
2-3 | -21 | Team Liquid 4-16 Mirage |
Low match Virtus.pro 16-13 Mirage |
Mid match TyLoo 28-26 Inferno |
High match HellRaisers 23-25 Train |
BIG 0-2 | |
| 12–14 | |
1-3 | -6 | Tyloo 17-19 Inferno |
Low match Renegades 16-10 Train |
Mid match HellRaisers 14-16 Overpass |
Low match BIG 8-16 Nuke |
Eliminated |
|
1-3 | -11 | Space Soldiers 16-10 Inferno |
High match Astralis 13-16 Inferno |
Mid match Team Spirit 4-16 Overpass |
Low match North 23-25 Inferno |
Eliminated | |
|
1-3 | -18 | BIG 6-16 Overpass |
Low match Gambit Esports 10-16 Train |
Low match Space Soldiers 19-15 Inferno |
Low match TyLoo 10-16 Inferno |
Eliminated | |
| 15–16 | |
0-3 | -15 | Rogue 10-16 Inferno |
Low match compLexity Gaming 11-16 Inferno |
Low match Renegades 15-19 Inferno |
Eliminated | Eliminated |
|
0-3 | -24 | Ninjas in Pyjamas 5-16 Mirage |
Low match OpTic Gaming 13-16 Mirage |
Low match North 6-16 Mirage |
Eliminated | Eliminated |
| Round 5 scores | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Score | Map | Score | Team |
|
12 | Overpass | 16 | |
|
23 | Inferno | 25 | |
|
– | Mirage | – | |
|
6 | Dust II | 16 | |
|
14 | Train | 16 | |
|
– | Nuke | – | |
|
16 | Inferno | 8 | |
|
16 | Mirage | 13 | |
|
– | Train | – | |
Space Soldiers and Rogue kicked off the FACEIT Major: London 2018 on Inferno. Space Soldiers' Engin "ngiN" Kor could not attend the Major due to visa issues, so the coach Canpolat "hardstyle" Yildiran was forced to sub in, setting Space Soldiers back from its usual peak. Hunter "SicK" Mims lead the way with 23 kills and Daniel "vice" Kim found some crucial kills to get to 22. Despite İsmailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş's 17 kills and Buğra "Calyx" Arkın's 16 kills, Space Soldiers fell as hardstyle struggled. Virtus.pro (VP) and Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) was the next map in the battle between two fallen greats. NiP would dominate this game as only Michał "MICHU" Müller came alive for VP. NiP's in-game leader Dennis "dennis" Edman came alive along with Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson in the dominating 16–5 win. The one-time Major champions Gambit Esports faced off against China's best in TyLoo. This game turned to be a tight one as Rustem "mou" Telepov of Gambit went huge with 36 kills. However, TyLoo's two Indonesians Hansel "BnTeT" Ferdinand and Kevin "xccurate" Susanto lead the way in an overtime victory. BIG faced off against Renegades in the next match. The two squads historically had very close games, but this time BIG overwhelmed Renegades with Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz's 27 kills while Fatih "gob b" Dayik followed up with 26. Tizian "tiziaN" Feldbusch set the tone in the pistol round with an incredibly fast shot to set the tone of the game. The Aussies' star player Justin "jks" Savage only had 9 kills in the affair. Two Russian teams met in the first round with Vega Squadron going against Team Spirit. Spirit looked to run away with the match after a 12-3 halftime score, but Vega came all the way back to make to tie it at 14. A Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov 1 vs. 2 clutch in round 29 allowed Vega to complete the comeback North vs. HellRaisers was the next match in what was portrayed to be the most competitive match, as HellRaisers was a solid team and a seemingly slumping North team went on to win DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018, the last big event before the Major. Philip "aizy" Aistrup kept North in the game with some clutch kills to compete with Issa "ISSAA" Murad's 37 and Özgür "woxic" Eker's 34, but it was Bence "DeadFox" Böröcz who had two massive rounds in overtime to secure the victory for HellRaisers. North made a huge comeback to have the game head to overtime Team Liquid vs. OpTic Gaming was up next. The North American side dominated the Danes throughout the map. Day 2 began with a round one match in Astralis versus compLexity Gaming. The match was initially supposed to be played on the first day, but with Twickenham Stadium suffered a site-wide network outage, forcing FACEIT to play the match on day two.[64] Astralis took a massive lead and didn't look back. Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz and Peter "dupreeh" Rothmann both had at least 20 kills each while only Bradley "ANDROID" Fodor had more than 10 kills for compLexity.
Ninjas in Pyjamas and TyLoo started off the second round. The game was close at the half before each team went on a run of its own; in the end, it was NiP to win, with Christopher "GeT RiGhT" Alesund getting crucial kills towards the end of the game and his long time teammate Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg taking 23 kills. Hui "DD" Wu lead the way for TyLoo and Ke "captainMo" Liu had some important kills, but the Chinese team fell short. BIG and Vega was a back and forth affair that headed to overtime. Although Owen "smooya" Butterfield had 28 kills for BIG, Anton "tonyblack" Kolesnikov and Dmitriy "jR" Chervak had 30 kills each to upset BIG as it looked to have another surprise run at a Major. HellRaisers had a strong start against Liquid, but Liquid came back by taking ten of the last eleven rounds in the first half. HellRaisers struggled in the gun rounds as Liquid generally cruised to victory. Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken and Epitácio "TACO" de Melo lead the way over ISSAA's 20 kills. Vlаdуslаv "bondik" Nеchуроrchuk struggled for HellRaisers with just 41.4 average damage per round. Rogue and Astralis was the next match on Inferno. Rogue started off strong and won the second pistol round, but a weak Astralis buy somehow defeated Rogue and world's best took eleven of the last thirteen to avoid the upset. Casper "cadiaN" Møller and Ricky "Rickeh" Mulholland both had at least 20 kills each. Although Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth did not have much impact as usual, dev1ce and dupreeh stepped up again. In Gambit vs. Renegades, mou shut down the hopes of Renegades and Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev helped with 22 kills. Karlo "USTILO" Pivac and Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad topped the scoreboard for their team, but it was not enough as the Australian team dropped to 0–2. Spirit took everyone by surprise by taking a massive lead against North on Nuke and got to match point at 15–6, but North suddenly had seven rounds in a row. Vadim "DavCost" Vasilyev had a crucial opening kill while only on a pistol and Victor "somedieyoung" Orudzhev held it down after the bomb was planted to hold on for the win. Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen lead his team with 22 kills, but Spirit had dominated for most of the match. The two teams that were blown out in round one met in round two. Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski did the most for VP and Michał "snatchie" Rudzki and Paweł "byali" Bieliński had a lot of influence towards the end of the map as VP attempted to come back from a 15–8 deficit, but Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke's confidence gave OpTic a huge advantage early on and was able to hold on in the end. compLexity took a huge lead against Space Soldiers at the half, but the Turks took six rounds in a row to make it close. However, compLexity was able to stifle the comeback and kept Space Soldiers winless. Calyx and XANTARES lead the way again, but Rory "dephh" Jackson's 26 kills was more than enough. Ahmet "paz" Karahoca struggled for Space Soldiers in the losing effort.
The first decider match happened between Team Liquid and Vega Squadron. Vega continued to be the surprise in the early goings as it took a 7–3 lead, but Liquid was able tie the game at 12 after exploiting Vega's poor counter-terrorist side. Liquid got to match point first but would later fall flat as Vega's control of the map proved superior to send the game to overtime. Three crucial kills in the 35th round by Twistzz and a strong hold by Nicholas "nitr0" Cannella in the 36th round allowed Liquid to be the first team to advance to the New Legends stage. Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski and Keith "NAF" Markovic both performed well. Chopper tried to run over Liquid with 27 kills and Igor "crush" Shevchenko followed up with 22, but Pavel "hutji" Lashkov only had 10 kills as Vega was edged out. The next match between NiP and Astralis was a big one as it became one of the longest games in Major history. The game headed to quadruple overtime as NiP edged out Astralis to take a top spot in the Legends stage and took down the world's best. Although dupreeh had 54 kills for Astralis and Fredrik "REZ" Sterner had 38 for NiP, Lekr0 went big for his team with 50 kills while on the other side Emil "Magisk" Reif struggled for Astralis. compLexity was able to take another win over BIG as they went back and forth trading rounds in the second half. Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz lead the way with 24 kills and the young Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker and veteran Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan followed closely with 22 each. Spirit dominated Rogue as the Russians took the last ten rounds as Pavel "COLDYY1" Veklenko's 21 kills highlighted the blowout, even with Victor "somedieyoung" Orudzhev struggling. Gambit versus HellRaisers was another close affair as Nikolay "mir" Bityukov and Kirill "ANGE1" Karasov lead the kill tally for their respective teams. In the end, HellRaisers was able to come back from a 14–12 deficit to win the game at 16–14. Mikhail "Dosia" Stolyarov only had 9 kills in the effort. OpTic took a massive 10–2 lead, but TyLoo would come back all the way to make it 13–11 in the Chinese team's favor and the game was tied at 15 to head to overtime. In triple overtime, OpTic finally edged out TyLoo to go up 2–1. Haowen "somebody" Xu had a huge game with 49 kills, but k0nfing went bigger with 51. Renegades was able to eliminate Engin "MAJ3R" Kupeli's Space Soldiers in the first elimination match. Aaron "AZR" Ward lead the server with 26 kills as the Noah "Nifty" Francis-lead Renegades lived for another day. Mirage would be byali's last map with VP as North dominated the Poles. Filip "NEO" Kubski continued to struggle throughout the year as he ended up with just 9 kills and pashaBiceps only had 4 after the latter said this would most likely be his last Major.
Astralis bounced back immediately from the previous day to thrash Team Spirit 16–3. Xyp9x came in big time with 26 kills and Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander's team looked to take another Major. Players such as Dmitry "S0tF1k" Forostyanko struggled throughout the map for Spirit as it was forced to a best of three final round. The Asia Minor rematch went in favor of TyLoo this time as BnTeT and xccurate lead the way to stay alive at the Major. Renegades had struggled throughout and the team that it normally would beat eased its way to the fifth round. HellRaisers and OpTic set another chaotic overtime. Although Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer and Nicklas "gade" Gade did well for their team, Jakob "JUGi" Hansen could not come up big when his team needed him to as HellRaisers, led by ISSAA's 43 kills, moved on to the next phase of the Major. BIG wanted to show its Cologne 2018 run was not a fluke by at least making the top sixteen at the Major. Although Johannes "nex" Maget struggled for the Germans, mou could not perform as much as he did before and smooya lead BIG with 25 kills. The PGL Major MVP Abay "HObbit" Khassenov performed at a subpar level as Gambit was eliminated. Yet another overtime came through between compLexity Gaming and Vega Squadron. hutji was able to break the 30 kill barrier, but the teamwork of compLexity shut down Vega in overtime to send the team to the New Legends stage. North and Rogue had a tight first half contest, but North could not figure out Rogue's defense in the second until at 14–8, when North came back and sent the game to overtime. Despite players such as Nikolaj "niko" Kristensen struggling early, North was able to win the game in triple overtime to send Rogue home.
TyLoo started very strong with an 11-4 halftime lead, even holding somedieyoung to just one kill by the end of the half. Team Spirit got quite close with 12 rounds, but somebody had a big game with 27 kills. A wrong read by Spirit in the last round allowed TyLoo to have an easier time to enter the B bombsite as TyLoo took map one. Spirit got off to a much better start at 9–4, but TyLoo was able to salvage the half at 9–6. Towards the end of the second map on Inferno, TyLoo was in a very advantageous situations in two rounds, but BnTeT made a crucial mistake by going too aggressive into a weak Spirit buy and then other TyLoo players went for a high risk play that did not pan out in round 29 to let Spirit get to map point. However, Spirit crumbled in round 30 against a weak force buy from TyLoo as neither team capitalized on the other team's mistakes and another Inferno game headed to overtime. A sloppy but entertaining overtime ensued as both teams came back from massive man disadvantages and somehow made the rounds work. Neither team won a terrorist round in overtime until the third overtime when Spirit won two of the three. In the end of the mess, TyLoo was able to dig its way to victory. Players on both side such as Dmitriy "Dima" Bandurka and DD had impactful kills to keep the game close. In the next series, BIG dominated on Dust II as it took an 11–0 lead before OpTic even got a round on the board and never looked back. Players on OpTic such as René "cajunb" Borg never came alive in the loss. The second map was much closer as OpTic was able to climb back from a 9–3 score. Despite tying the score five times throughout the match, the Danish team never had the lead in the series despite k0nfig's 25 kills in the second map as OpTic was eliminated from Major championship contention. North looked to come back from a 0–2 record and Vega Squadron looked to avoid being eliminated after starting 2–0. The first map on Inferno did not end up being a close and messy one, unlike the other Inferno matches at the Major. Led by chopper's 24 kills, Vega comfortably cruised to a map win as it was finally able to break through a back and forth first eleven rounds. Map two was much closer after the first half ended at 8–7 in favor of Vega. North would take a 13–9 lead, but Vega's players calmed their nerves and proceeded to take the last seven rounds to eliminate North from the Major.
New Legends stage
The New Legends stage, formerly known as the Group stage, used the same format as the Challengers stage. This stage takes place from September 12 to September 16, 2018.
Cloud9, FaZe Clan, Natus Vincere, and MIBR were teams in pool one based on their top four placement at the Boston Major. Fnatic, G2 Esports, mousesports, and Winstrike Team were teams in pool two based on their quarterfinals finish at the Boston Major. Team Liquid and Ninjas in Pyjamas were placed in a third pool for going undefeated in the New Challengers stage. Astralis, compLexity Gaming, and HellRaisers were in a fourth pool after going 3–1. BIG, TyLoo, and Vega Squadron were in a fifth pool for going 3–2. The two teams in pool three were randomly drawn to play two teams from pool two. Two randomly selected teams from pool four were drawn to play the other two teams from pool two. The remaining team from pool four was matched against a randomly selected team from pool one. The three teams from pool five were randomly selected to play a randomly selected team from the three remaining teams in pool one.[65]
| Place | Team | Record | RD | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | |
3-0 | +25 | Fnatic 16-4 Inferno |
High match G2 Esports 16-11 Cache |
High match BIG 16-8 Nuke |
New Champions stage | New Champions stage |
|
3-0 | +19 | Winstrike Team 16-7 Mirage |
High match Ninjas in Pyjamas 16-10 Mirage |
High match Astralis 19-15 Inferno |
New Champions stage | New Champions stage | |
| 3–5 | |
3-1 | +26 | Natus Vincere 16-14 Inferno |
High match Vega Squadron 16-4 Inferno |
High match Team Liquid 15-19 Inferno |
High match MIBR 16-0 Dust II |
New Champions stage |
|
3-1 | +19 | Astralis 14-16 Inferno |
Low match FaZe Clan 16-12 Overpass |
Mid match Ninjas in Pyjamas 16-6 Train |
High match Fnatic 16-9 Mirage |
New Champions stage | |
|
3-1 | +19 | FaZe Clan 16-5 Dust II |
High match TyLoo 16-7 Train |
High match compLexity Gaming 8-16 Nuke |
High match HellRaisers 16-9 Train |
New Champions stage | |
| 6–8 | |
3-2 | +22 | BIG 5-16 Dust II |
Low match Natus Vincere 12-16 Overpass |
Low match mousesports 16-8 Mirage |
Low match TyLoo 16-4 Mirage |
G2 Esports 2-0 |
|
3-2 | +19 | G2 Esports 20-22 Dust II |
Low match Cloud9 19-16 Overpass |
Mid match TyLoo 16-10 Overpass |
High match BIG 9-16 Train |
Fnatic 2-1 | |
|
3-2 | +6 | TyLoo 13-16 Inferno |
Low match mousesports 16-6 Dust II |
Mid match G2 Esports 16-4 Inferno |
High match Astralis 0-16 Dust II |
Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-1 | |
| 9–11 | |
2-3 | -10 | mousesports 16-12 Mirage |
High match Team Liquid 10-16 Mirage |
Mid match Natus Vincere 6-16 Train |
Low match Vega Squadron 16-11 Train |
MIBR 1-2 |
|
2-3 | -27 | compLexity Gaming 4-16 Inferno |
Low match Winstrike Team 16-7 Inferno |
Mid match Vega Squadron 16-14 Inferno |
High match Natus Vincere 9-16 Mirage |
HellRaisers 1-2 | |
|
2-3 | -29 | HellRaisers 22-20 Dust II |
High match compLexity Gaming 11-16 Cache |
Mid match MIBR 4-16 Inferno |
Low match Cloud9 22-19 Inferno |
FaZe Clan 0-2 | |
| 12–14 | |
1-3 | -7 | Cloud9 16-4 Mirage |
High match Astralis 4-16 Inferno |
Mid match Fnatic 14-16 Inferno |
Low match Ninjas in Pyjamas 11-16 Train |
Eliminated |
|
1-3 | -15 | Vega Squadron 4-16 Mirage |
Low match HellRaisers 16-19 Overpass |
Low match Winstrike Team 19-16 Inferno |
Low match G2 Esports 19-22 Inferno |
Eliminated | |
|
1-3 | -24 | MIBR 16-13 Inferno |
High match BIG 7-16 Train |
Mid match HellRaisers 10-16 Overpass |
Low match FaZe Clan 4-16 Mirage |
Eliminated | |
| 15–16 | |
0-3 | -21 | Team Liquid 7-16 Mirage |
Low match Fnatic 7-16 Inferno |
Low match Cloud9 16-19 Inferno |
Eliminated | Eliminated |
|
0-3 | -22 | Ninjas in Pyjamas 12-16 Mirage |
Low match MIBR 6-16 Dust II |
Low match FaZe Clan 8-16 Mirage |
Eliminated | Eliminated |
| Round 5 Scores | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Score | Map | Score | Team |
|
19 | Mirage | 17 | |
|
9 | Dust II | 16 | |
|
2 | Cache | 16 | |
|
2 | Mirage | 16 | |
|
22 | Dust II | 25 | |
|
– | Overpass | – | |
|
15 | Cache | 19 | |
|
16 | Mirage | 10 | |
|
11 | Train | 16 | |
G2 Esports and HellRaisers commenced week two of the Major. The French started very strong with 6–0 lead and then a 9–3 lead, but HellRaisers made it a salvageable half with a 10–5 score. The second half would be all HellRaisers at first, but G2 made some adjustments and the game headed to an overtime once again. ISSAA lead his team with 43 kills, but Richard "shox" Papillon's 42 was able to counter it as G2 was able to take the game in double overtime to get off to a favorable start. Winstrike Team looked to replicate its Cinderella run from the last Major, but after taking the pistol round, Team Liquid took the next six and never looked back to easily take the game. Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov and Savely "jmqa" Bragin had 12 kills each, but NAF and ELiGE's 25 were more than enough to down the Russian team. BIG stunned FaZe Clan as smooya absolutely dominated the map. Finn "karrigan" Andersen lead FaZe with 15 kills, but star players such as Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács and Håvard "rain" Nygaard struggled. compLexity Gaming had a major upset over the most decorated Global Offensive squad with a big blowout. stanislaw had 23 kills and ANDROID was close by with 22. William "draken" Sundin had the most kills for the Swedes with 15, but Robin "flusha" Rönnquist could not get things started as he ended with just 4 kills. MIBR had a huge lead at 11–2, but TyLoo was able to tie the game at 12. Some key individual plays from TyLoo saved the game as another upset took place. Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo had 27 kills to lead the server, but had little impact in the second half, and Marcelo "coldzera" David was second with 25. TyLoo was led by xcurrate's 24 kills. GeT_RiGhT had a vintage performance against mousesports as the Ninjas in Pyjamas won a close. Robin "ropz" Kool had 23 kills in the losing effort, but it was not enough in the end. The biggest match of the day delivered as Astralis, the number one ranked team in the world, defeated Natus Vincere (Na'Vi), the number two ranked team. Although star player Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostylievhad 24 kills, Magisk came alive to match that total as Astralis took the game in the 30th round. Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev had just 6 kills and 21 deaths in the game. The defending champions Cloud9 struggled ever since winning the Major, and this game against Vega Squadron was no exception. jR and 24 kills and tonyblack had 21 to sweep up Cloud9. Timothy "autimatic" Ta did fairly well with 15 kills, but Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham only had 8.
BIG was the first team to go up 2-0 after easily taking down TyLoo on train. xcurrate came up big again with 18 kills, but 24 kills from nex combined with a 13-2 halftime lead allowed BIG to win. Fnatic and Winstrike had a close first half, but Winstrike's defense could not hold up at all in the second half. flusha bounced back with 20 kills and Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson had 23 kills. Aurimas "Kvik" Kvaksis did good damage for his team, but his in-game leader Nikita "waterfaLLZ" Matveyev struggled. Astralis was able to easily take down Vega Squadron, especially with Magisk and dev1ce taking more than 20 kills each, to move up to 2–0. HellRaisers was able to avoid an 0-2 hole against Cloud9 after losing a 10–5 lead. Martin "STYKO" Styk had the best performance with 32 kills, but Skadoodle and Will "RUSH" Wierzba could not perform the same. For HellRaisers, woxic's 28 kills helped HellRaisers get the overtime win. compLexity went up to a surprising 2-0 after not even being favorites to get out of the New Challengers stage. However, after nearly giving up a 13–2 lead, the North American team was able to shut down the French comeback. shox and Kenny "kennyS" Schrub lead G2, but stanislaw and ShahZaM were able to negate them. Liquid was able to get one step closer to a Legends spot for the next Major after taking down NiP. f0rest had 20 kills, but it was not enough as Liquid had three players with at least 20 kills. FaZe had a strong 10–5 lead, but Na'Vi's defense was too strong for FaZe in the second half and last Major's runner-ups were suddenly 0–2 in the group stage. Everyone started to show up for Na'Vi, including Egor "flamie" Vasilyev and Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko with 20 kills. FaZe's two star players Håvard "rain" Nygaard and Nikola "NiKo" Kovač struggled as they finished at the bottom of the scoreboard. A potential playoffs match showed up in the second round of the second group stage in the form of MIBR and mousesports. Tarik "tarik" Celik lead the way for the majority-Brazilian team to overrun mousesports, despite Fernando "fer" Alvarenga and Jake "Stewie2K" Yip struggling at the bottom of the server. Miikka "suNny" Kemppi had some impact with 16 kills to try to help Chris "chrisj" de Jong's team, but mousesports fell well short.
After draken's controversial tweet that Winstrike Team should not be at the Major because of poor performance, Vega sought revenge for its CIS compatriots. Things looked good for Vega after 7–0 start and then a 10-5 halftime lead. However, KRiMZ's 30 kills and a crucial 1 vs. 3 Jesper "JW" Wecksell clutch lead Fnatic to a close 16–14 victory to get just one win away from another Legends spot. TyLoo appeared to fall flat after its comeback win over MIBR as woxic's 27 kills lead HellRaisers to winning the last nine of eleven rounds of the game. Cloud9 avoided elimination as Skadoodle showed up huge along with autimatic's 32 kills. Despite Kvik's 32 kills, Gregory "balblna" Oleinick struggled with just 14 kills in the overtime loss as the Russian team was the first team in the Legends stage to be eliminated. compLexity continued to surprise after cruising to a win over BIG to go undefeated. yay had 26 kills to lead the server and dephh won the UK vs. UK battle against smooya to be the first ever player from the United Kingdom to be a Legend at a Major. Na'Vi had a dominant second half as NiP's defense could not hold up against the Ukrainian squad. REZ and Lekr0 both struggled with just 5 kills for NiP as they dropped to 1–2. What was once supposed to be the Brazilians' kryptonite did not do anything today as MIBR overpowered G2 Esports. After G2 picked up its first round in the fourth round, MIBR won eight unanswered and eventually took the map. Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro was the only player for Kevin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans's team to get double digits in kills, but fer's 19 kills and FalleN dying just three times in the twenty round game disallowed G2 from much success. Astralis could not take a 3–0 victory once again as Team Liquid looked to be the best ever North American team of all time by taking down the world's number one in overtime. Liquid had a 13–2 lead, but Astralis came all the way back to send the game to overtime. dupreeh had 26 kills, but NAF's 28 was able to counter that in the close win. mousesports players such as Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný and Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski struggled as mousesports was eliminated by FaZe Clan and would have to go through the Minor system again. Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer showed some vintage moments with 23 kills and NiKo was right behind him at 22 to stave off elimination.
BIG was the next team to head to the playoffs after a dominant counter-terrorist side over HellRaisers as smooya became the second British player to become a Legend. smooya was able to outfrag ISSAA and gob b continued to put up big numbers when in the past the BIG in-game leader rarely did. woxic struggled with just 8 kills as HellRaisers needed to play in a round five. NiP was able to take revenge against Vega Squadron back when Vega upset NiP 16–2 in the Atlanta 2017, which resulted in NiP missing its first ever Major. Despite hutji finally showing up with 21 kills and chopper with 20 kills, Lekr0 and REZ were able to carry NiP to a dominant terrorist side as the Swedes stayed alive. FaZe looked to replicate Cloud9's Major run after going down 0-2 and then went up to 2-2 after dominating TyLoo. BnTeT was the only TyLoo player with a positive kill to death difference, but NiKo and GuardiaN allowed FaZe to run away with the match. Fnatic and Natus Vincere went back and forth for the first half, but Na'Vi's offense led by Denis "electronic" Sharipov's 27 kills was able to lead the team to the New Champions stage. The battle of the struggling teams between G2 Esports and Cloud9 headed to another Inferno game that went to overtime. Cloud9 had two match points, but it was G2 to actually take its only match point led by shox's 35 kills and kennyS came alive in overtime to eliminate Cloud9. Skadoodle and Maikil "Golden" Selim each had at least 30 kills, but Cloud9 would be the third defending Major champion to not regain its Legends status after Team EnVyUs at MLG Major Championship: Columbus and Gambit Esports at ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018. Astralis faced off against MIBR next, and Astralis won the past six maps between the two teams. Astralis proved its dominance over the two time Major winners in MIBR to have the first 16–0 in Major history. dev1ce swept up MIBR with 24 kills in the very easy win as Astralis moved on.
For the first time in Global Offensive history, Fnatic as an organization and KRiMZ as a player would not be Legends. Fnatic was able to take the first map in overtime thanks to KRiMZ's 32 kills. The second map swung the other way as ISSAA continued to show his dominance on Dust II with 28 kills. JW had 23 kills, but KRiMZ regressed heavily as he only contributed with 8 kills and 5 assists. The last map was a complete wipeout as ISSAA continued his stride and bondik helped out with 20 kills. KRiMZ tried to step up again with 14 kills, but Richard "Xizt" Landström could not lead his team to a top eight finish. In FaZe Clan versus G2 Esports, FaZe was able to climb out of its 0-2 hole to head back to the playoffs. Mirage was a dominant performance by olofmeister with his 24 kills. shox and kennyS tried to do something, but the rest of their team lagged behind in the loss. The next match was much closer. G2 had a 15–7 lead and the third map on Overpass looked inevitable. However, FaZe won the last eight rounds in regulation to send the game to overtime. A massive whiff by shox onto karrigan, who had his back turned, in a 1 vs. 1 boosted FaZe to a win. NiKo had 45 kills in the double overtime victory as FaZe survived the group stage. MIBR bounced back after the humiliating loss to Astralis. NiP was able to save itself after going down 15–8, but even with GeT_RiGhT's 33 kills, MIBR was able to sweep the overtime to take the next map. The Swedes responded in the second map, led by the two longest tenured players for NiP in f0rest, who is often considered to be the best 1.6 player along with NEO, and GeT_RiGhT. coldzera had 24 kills, but the rest of MIBR could not find their rhythm. A tense third map ensued for the final spot in the playoffs. After MIBR took 10 rounds on the less favorable side, NiP did the same for five rounds to tie the game at 10. However, the double AWP setup for MIBR was the needed adjustment to take six of the last seven rounds to become the last team to be Legends at every Major since its debut. f0rest had 23 kills, but FalleN and Stewie2K had 21 kills each to stifle NiP's terrorist side in the end. With NiP's loss, this meant no Swedish team would be in the top eight for the first time in Major history.
New Champions stage
The New Champions Stage is a best of three double elimination bracket. where Teams play until a winner is decided. This stage is taking place at the Wembley Arena between September 20, 2018 and September 23, 2018. Brackets were revealed shortly after MIBR defeated NIP in the last map of the group stages. Teams were seeded first based on their record in the New Legends stage and then based on strength of schedule.[66]
Bracket
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | ||||||||||||
| 4 | | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 8 | | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 8 | | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 7 | | 1 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 6 | | 0 | ||||||||||||
Quarterfinals
BIG vs. Natus Vincere
The rematch of the grand finals at ESL One Cologne 2018 took place. BIG seemed revitalized after placing second at the event and that confidence showed as the Germans came away with six wins in the group stages as the team many chose as the dark horse faced a tough opponent in the quarterfinals. Natus Vincere was one of the favorites to become a Legend at this Major. After falling to Astralis in a close match that went the distance, Na'Vi ran past its opponents to only sustain the one loss. Historically, Na'Vi won nine maps to BIG's three maps in the twelve meeting between the two teams, including a 3–1 series win at Cologne 2018. 82% of Pick'em predictions went in favor of Natus Vincere.
Casters: James Bardolph & ddk
| Map Vetoes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BIG | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| Mirage | Cache | Dust II | Nuke | Train | Inferno | Overpass | |
| Natus Vincere | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
Na'Vi started strong on Dust II with a 5–0 lead before BIG took two of its own. In the eighth round, BIG took the round slowly as the German team decided to split the team up to the B bombsite through two different chokepoints. gob b took down electronic in the middle area before s1mple traded out tabseN then completely caught gob b off guard by rotating from the window area of the B bombsite to the doors area. smooya was to catch Edward in the middle area, but flamie and Zeus took down nex and smooya, respectively, forcing tiziaN to back off and save his rifle. Na'Vi went on to go up 12-2 going into the fifteenth round, where BIG had to buy up with weak weapons. Na'Vi was able to delay an A bombsite hit with good utility usage, and with about 50 seconds left in the round, Zeus threw a flashbang for electronic towards the catwalk area, which leads the middle area to the A bombsite, which lead to an easy kill onto smooya. With the help of Zeus, electronic followed up with kills onto gob b, nex, and tabseN. tiziaN did what he could, but electronic took home the ace to end the half. Na'Vi ended the game with eleven rounds in a row to cruise to the map win. s1mple and electronic lead all players with 21 kills each. BIG's star players tabseN and smooya struggled, with tabseN garnering just 6 kills and smooya with 7.
BIG had a much better start to Nuke by winning the pistol round, but Na'Vi proved to be relentless as it won a force buy round. Na'Vi was up 4-2 heading into the seventh round after BIG just won the sixth. Edward got the first kill of the round onto smooya with forty seconds left. Na'Vi let the clock run down very low with under twenty seconds left before deciding to hit the B bombsite. tabseN was alone in the B bombsite with less than ten seconds left, so just one kill could delay Na'Vi long enough for BIG to win the round. However, tabseN was focused on a noisy electronic that Zeus was able to take down the German as electronic barely survived with eleven health points. Even though tiziaN took down Zeus, gob b made the call to back away, especially after tiziaN was killed by flamie. Na'Vi used that round as momentum as it went on to win eight unanswered before BIG finally took the last round. BIG hoped to make a comeback after winning the pistol round and then the two anti-economy rounds. A crucial 20th round, with Na'Vi up 13–6, took place. With just over a minute left, BIG tried to find a way to the B bombsite. tiziaN overstepped into the sight of flamie and flamie was able to kill both tiziaN and gob b and took down the bomb that gob b was carrying. Na'Vi started to get a little bit more aggressive and it paid off as Edward took down nex. smooya was able to take down Edward, but tabseN lost a duel to Zeus's AWP. smooya ran to try to retrieve the bomb, but electronic was waiting to deal a huge blow to BIG. Na'Vi was able to close out the game with ease to move on to the semifinals. Edward and flamie lead the server with 20 kills. tabseN had 16 kills and tiziaN had 15, but smooya with just 10 kills in front of his home crowd was not enough to take down the Ukrainian giants.
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Score | Map | Score | Team |
|
2 | Dust II | 16 | |
|
6 | Nuke | 16 | |
|
– | Overpass | – | |
compLexity Gaming vs. MIBR
compLexity Gaming surprised the Counter-Strike world after going through the New Challengers stage with its only loss against the world's best in Astralis and then sweeping up competition in the New Legends stage with ease to go undefeated, even topping Team Liquid in round differential. Meanwhile, MIBR had to struggle through after being upset by TyLoo. Even with two easy wins against mousesports and G2 Esports, MIBR was crushed by Astralis in the first shutout in Major history before scraping past Ninjas in Pyjamas. Historically, MIBR has the edge 3–1, but all four meetings were online matches, thus making this the first LAN match between the two. 78% of Pick'em predictions went in favor of MIBR.
Casters: HenryG & Sadokist
| Map Vetoes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MIBR | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| Nuke | Overpass | Train | Inferno | Dust II | Mirage | Cache | |
| compLexity | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
Another one-sided affair took place between the two teams on Train. The Made in Brazil core of FalleN, fer, and coldzera had the longest win streak on Train when the Brazilians were with SK Gaming in Global Offensive history at 17. A form of this dominant SK showed in this match as MIBR took an 8–0 lead before a 1 vs. 2 clutch by yay gave compLexity its first round. compLexity took the next round to get a bit closer. In the eleventh round, MIBR started to execute towards the B bombsite with under 25 seconds left. Stewie2K ran through a molotov thrown by yay in an attempt to slow down MIBR and then proceeded to kill ANDROID. yay was hiding in a corner and was ready to pounce, but a very quick reaction by FalleN was no match for yay, opening up the B bombsite with a little over ten seconds left. Stewie2K took down dephh in the connector area, which connects the two bombsites. ShahZaM found a target onto coldzera, but since he put a bullet to only his leg, coldzera was able to survive and Stewie2K was able to pounce on ShahZaM. stanislaw tried to make a play, but FalleN was able to catch the Canadian in-game leader sneaking up and MIBR won the round. compLexity was able to take the last two rounds of the half to make it 4-11, but MIBR was too strong on the defense for compLexity to do anything. fer lead all players with 22 kills and coldzera had 20. stanislaw had a poor game with just 3 kills.
The second map turned out to be much closer. MIBR took a 3–0 lead after not taking a point of damage in the pistol round with the help of coldzera's four kills, but compLexity was able to tie the game at 3. In the seventh round, the two teams traded kills three ways as compLexity headed to the A bombsite as dephh planted the bomb. FalleN and Stewie2K tried to take the retake slowly, but after ANDROID let Stewie2K onto the site where a battered dephh was hiding, the Canadian made up for it by taking down Stewie2K on the site and then took down FalleN to take the lead. MIBR responded by tying the game up at seven heading into the last round of the half. There, coldzera took down ANDROID and tarik killed stanislaw, but ShahZaM and yay traded out the two players. Stewie2K went through a smoke grenade to catch dephh off guard, but yay was able to trade shortly before ShahZaM planted the bomb. FalleN created a distraction for fer as he fell to ShahZaM, so fer pounced on yay, but ShahZaM was able to win out the duel to win the half for his team. MIBR was able to take the second half pistol round, but the two quietest players in the first half, stanislaw and ShahZaM, went big to win a force buy. In round 21, after MIBR won just one round and was in the potential to get its economy reset, stanislaw took down Stewie2K and tarik after a molotov was misthrown by MIBR and dephh backed his teammate up by taking down coldzera. FalleN was able to take down stanislaw through a smoke grenade, but MIBR was still in a 2 vs 4. fer somehow took down yay and ANDROID near the A bombsite to make it a 2 vs 2. dephh took down fer, but FalleN was able to win a 1 vs 2 clutch to secure the 2 vs. 5 scenario. compLexity won the next round thanks to stanislaw, forcing MIBR to go on a weak buy with just pistols as the following round would essentially decide the game. MIBR wasted little time and started a play to the A bombsite. A flashbang by coldzera caught yay at the perfect time to allow tarik to get a kill. ANDROID was playing nearby yay and he was so concerned about tarik dropping down that FalleN was able to get a backstab to suddenly make it a 5 vs. 3. stanislaw was able to take down FalleN, but not before the MIBR captain killed dephh. ShahZaM and stanislaw backed off to save their guns, but stanislaw was caught out by fer as the bomb exploded, giving MIBR the round. The round turned out to be the turning point as MIBR got to map and series at 15-12 heading to the 28th round. With under thirty seconds left, MIBR executed to the A bombsite. ShahZaM missed an AWP shot, allowing Stewie2K to punish with a kill. ANDROID traded out Stewie2K, but coldzera traded right back and then planted the bomb. fer got a lucky shot through a smoke grenade to take down yay and FalleN was watching the flank and was rewarded with a kill onto dephh. stanislaw was able to trade, but fer responded with the final kill of the series to move on to the semifinals. FalleN topped the scoreboard with 24 kills and fer followed closely with 23. After a rough first map and first half, stanislaw stepped up with 20 kills, but missed shots with the AWP from ShahZaM and yay not showing up proved costly in the loss.
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Score | Map | Score | Team |
|
4 | Train | 16 | |
|
12 | Inferno | 16 | |
|
– | Cache | – | |
Team Liquid vs. HellRaisers
North America's best went undefeated in the two group stages, with its only tough matches being in the third rounds, in which Vega Squadron and Astralis both took Liquid to overtime. However, Liquid was able to seal the deal in the end. HellRaisers had to really struggle through as six of its eleven maps went thirty or more rounds. In the end, HellRaisers was able to stave off Fnatic to eliminate the legendary Swedish team in the group stage for the first time in Major history. Team Liquid and HellRaisers were 1–1 in past meetings before the Major, but Liquid defeated HellRaisers 16–9 in the New Challengers stage. 95% of Pick'Em predictions went in favor of Team Liquid.
Casters: HenryG & Vince Hill
| Map Vetoes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Liquid | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| Train | Nuke | Mirage | Dust II | Inferno | Overpass | Cache | |
| HellRaisers | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
Day two of the playoffs began on Mirage, Team Liquid's map choice. Liquid got off to a hot start with a 7–0 start before HellRaisers took one of its own. In the ninth round, Liquid decided to fly into the A bombsite. bondik was able to take down TACO, but he was traded out by ELiGE. HellRaisers stood ground as woxic took down NAF and ANGE1 killed Twistzz. ANGE1 tried to get out of the corner he was in, but ELiGE was ready. ISSAA did a lot of damage to ELiGE, but ELiGE was the one who found the kill to even the playing field. nitr0 boosted ELiGE onto the stairs area, which is near the middle area in the A bombsite, to catch woxic off guard. ELiGE finally went down to DeadFox, but nitr0 was able to successfully trade as Liquid won a round it was not supposed to. This led to another four rounds in favor of Liquid before HellRaisers took the last two rounds to end the half. HellRaisers took the second half pistol round and then the following two anti-economy rounds. The two teams exchanged one round each and then Liquid took two more to get to map point. With HellRaisers on just pistols heading to the 23rd round, Liquid seemed to have eased its way into a win. HellRaisers put two people in the apartments area, which leads from the terrorist spawn area to the B bombsite, and three players on the catwalk, which leads from the middle area to the B bombsite. A missed smoke from HellRaisers to block off vision for anyone near catwalk actually gave them an edge as woxic was able to see NAF through a gap to take him down and then plant the bomb. Liquid decided it was not worth going for and opted to save the weapons they had. HellRaisers got to ten rounds as the teams headed to the 26th round. HellRaisers and Liquid were fighting for middle control as soon as the round started, but as woxic tried to shoot at a Liquid player, his teammate bondik jumped in front of his bullet and was killed. TACO followed up onto woxic and NAF took down ANGE1 to suddenly make it a 2 vs. 5. ISSAA was able to kill TACO, but NAF was ready to trade, leaving DeadFox alone. DeadFox was able to make it fairly close by killing NAF and Twistzz, but could not win the fight against nitr0 as Liquid took Mirage. ELiGE lead all players with 27 kills. After a poor first half, woxic went up to 23 kills to try to carry the momentum into the next map.
A chaotic pistol round went in favor of HellRaisers and then the international squad went up 4–0. Liquid responded with six unanswered rounds before the two teams traded two rounds heading to the fifteenth round, as HellRaisers were only on four pistols and a SSG, a much inferior version of the AWP. TACO quickly went to the long area, which leads from the terrorist spawn to the A bombsite, and even though he went down to four health points, he found a kill onto ANGE1. ELiGE peeked the middle area to deal a headshot to woxic to give Liquid a significant advantage. Liquid proceeded to go into the A bombsite, where nitr0 took down bondik and ISSAA and NAF killed DeadFox to take a 9–6 lead as the two teams switched sides. The second pistol round was even more disorderly than the first. HellRaisers decided to go to the B bombsite, where only TACO was waiting. TACO took down ISSAA before being traded out by bondik. ANGE1 caught nitr0 trying to flank and bondik planted the bomb. NAF found a quick kill onto bondik, but woxic took down Twistzz and then an instant headshot onto ELiGE. However, woxic ran out of bullets, allowing NAF to take down the Turk. DeadFox peeked to his disadvantage as NAF found a kill onto him and then missed shots by ANGE1 allowed NAF to run over and kill ANGE1 and defuse the bomb with less than a second left, giving Liquid a crucial round. In the next round, HellRaisers decided to force buy rather than the tradition method of saving. With about 45 seconds left, HellRaisers ran from the catwalk area, which leads from the middle area to the A bombsite, and ran across to the aforementioned bombsite. nitr0 took down ANGE1 and ISSAA, but bondik took down both nitr0 and ELiGE and then followed up onto Twistzz. TACO traded out DeadFox to even the playing field as woxic planted the bomb. TACO was trying to create a distraction for NAF, but bondik saw the Canadian player and took him down. TACO finally killed bondik, but woxic traded to give HellRaisers the round. This lead HellRaisers on a ten-round win streak to close out Dust II and to tie the series. Although NAF had 25 kills to lead the server, the struggling bondik went huge with 24 kills, and it was much needed as HellRaisers' star player ISSA was mostly quiet.
The third map went to Cache, which was historically a good North American map at Majors. Liquid most notably upset Fnatic on this map at ESL One Cologne 2016 to become the first North American team to play in a Major grand finals, where the fell to SK Gaming, which is now with MIBR. Liquid jumped to a 4–0 lead, but after HellRaisers won with a weak buy, they pulled the deficit to one. In the eighth round, DeadFox found a kill onto ELiGE, but could not follow up onto NAF. NAF tried to escape, but bondik sprayed into a smoke grenade to keep the HellRaisers man advantage. Liquid then quickly executed to the A bombsite, where TACO took down ISSAA. ANGE1 killed TACO, but Twistzz traded to open up the bombsite. bondik tried to take down Twistzz, but he fell. woxic tried to bait any players out of position, but Liquid kept in place. woxic was able to take down nitr0, but an immediate trade from Twistzz gave Liquid the round. This led to a 10-3 scoreline before HellRaisers took the final two rounds of the half. Liquid quickly took series point by going up 15–5, but HellRaisers took three straight and looked for an easy fourth as the Liquid players were saving their money to get better weapons for the next round. HellRaisers took to slowly with under forty seconds left. ANGE1 and ISSAA dropped down from the vents area, which connects the middle area to near the B bombsite, but TACO somehow found kills onto both of them. bondik took down TACO, but Twistzz found a headshot onto DeadFox before being traded by bondik. The last two HellRaisers members tried to get onto the site since time was running low, but nitr0 ran in to take down both bondik and woxic and Liquid stole away the round to move on to the semifinals. The two Canadians, NAF and Twistzz, lead the way with 24 and 23 kills, respectively. woxic had 18 kills, but ISSAA was absent throughout the series as HellRaisers fell.
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Score | Map | Score | Team |
|
16 | Mirage | 10 | |
|
10 | Dust II | 16 | |
|
16 | Cache | 8 | |
Astralis vs. FaZe Clan
A once competitive matchup when the two teams sat on top of the world rankings showed up in the quarterfinals. Astralis suffered two losses in the two group stages, but both matches were close as they headed to overtime. Meanwhile, FaZe Clan showed some signs of regression and some signs of struggled were confirmed when NiKo said that he was calling for the team once the team went down 0-2 instead of FaZe's usual in-game leader karrigan. The plan worked as FaZe had some favorable opponents to make the run back complete to a playoffs appearance. Historically, Astralis leads FaZe 23–19 in maps, but FaZe has the edge in LAN matches 17–13. 82% of Pick'em Predictions went in favor of Astralis.
Casters: Anders Blume & moses
| Map Vetoes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FaZe Clan | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| Nuke | Cache | Mirage | Inferno | Train | Dust II | Overpass | |
| Astralis | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
FaZe decided to choose Mirage against Astralis. FaZe had the standard 3–0 start before the first gun round. With under 30 seconds left, FaZe executed to the A bombsite. Magisk was able to catch off NiKo in the palace area, which is one of two ways to enter the A bombsite from the terrorist spawn, but rain was able to even it out with a kill onto dev1ce and olofmeister took down Xyp9x from the middle area. Magisk pushed into the ramp area, which is the second way to enter the A bombsite from the terrorist spawn, and took advantage of a missed shot by GuardiaN, but karrigan traded it out to keep FaZe on the man advantage. However, the clock was down to fifteen seconds, and gla1ve's kill onto karrigan sealed the win as karrigan was carrying the bomb. Although olofmeister traded out gla1ve, the last two FaZe members were too far away to get to the bomb and plant it, allowing dupreeh to simply hide and win the round. With some luck, however, olofmeister planted the bomb at the last possible second. dupreeh found some luck of his own with a kill through a wall onto rain. dupreeh started to defuse the bomb, but that baited out olofmeister to take the fight, which dupreeh won and gave Astralis its first round. This spurred nine consecutive rounds by the Danes to suddenly go up 9–3. FaZe won the next round, but Astralis did not back down to end the half at 11–4. Astralis looked to easily take the map after the first pistol round and went against an anti-economy round, as FaZe force bought with four pistols and an SSG sniper rifle. Astralis wasted no time to execute to the A bombsite, but Xyp9x was met with a bullet to the head by karrigan's SSG and NiKo followed up with a headshot onto dupreeh. gla1ve tried to get the bomb planted to give Astralis a better chance at winning the round, but he was exposed to NiKo, who took advantage. dev1ce took down karrigan with his molotov shortly after and Magisk finally planted the bomb. rain killed Magisk and dev1ce could not do much more as GuardiaN took him down as FaZe had a lifeline. FaZe answered back with seven consecutive rounds to bring the game to a 12–11 score. Astralis took two rounds, FaZe took one, and then Astralis got to match point. FaZe took the next round two heading into the thirtieth round. FaZe had five rifles, but no AWPs; however, Astralis had three pistols and an inferior rifle to stop the game from heading to overtime. A huge mistake from FaZe allowed dupreeh to sneak up onto GuardiaN for an easy kill, giving Astralis an entry point to the A bombsite. NiKo tried to trade, but dupreeh was too accurate and took him down. rain was able to trade from the ramp area, but that meant he was pinched in from many angles. rain found another one onto gla1ve before Magisk traded, giving FaZe a chance. dev1ce spotted out karrigan, leaving olofmeister alone. olofmeister tried to take the fight with dev1ce, but Magisk was there to get the final kill, giving Astralis the map. dupreeh lead all players with 31 kills and Magisk had some impact with 21 kills. olofmeister lead FaZe with 25, but it was too late for the comeback to happen.
The next map went to Inferno. The pistol round started with FaZe on the counter-terrorist side and rain pushed up the banana area, which leads from the terrorist spawn and lower middle area to the B bombsite, to find an easy kill onto dev1ce. olofmeister found a swift kill onto gla1ve in banana. With under 30 seconds left, Xyp9x and Magisk went from the arches area near the A bombsite to the counter-terrorist spawn as dupreeh came from banana to pinch in the B bombsite. Xyp9x won a duel against olofmeister and an already damaged rain fell to the same player and the bomb was planted. NiKo took down Xyp9x and karrigan followed up onto Magisk. dupreeh found a quick headshot onto GuardiaN as karrigan was defusing the bomb. karrigan was very low on health, but NiKo was able to back him up to get the win. FaZe went up to 10-3 and Astralis had a weak buy. If FaZe won this round, Astralis would have another weak buy in the last round of the half, putting the Europeans in a prime position to take the second map. Astralis went to the B bombsite, where only olofmeister was in the site itself. Astralis rushed in and Magisk took down a helpless olofmeister. karrigan traded, but gla1ve took down the FaZe captain, opening up the bombsite. rain nearly caught out gla1ve after the bomb was planted, but dev1ce was quicker. NiKo and GuardiaN eventually lost their guns, putting FaZe's economy in a poor spot. The half ended 10–5 in favor of FaZe. The second half started with nine straight rounds for the Danish team. FaZe tried to break Astralis's defense, but it seemed almost nothing could break and Astralis moved on to the semifinals. dev1ce and rain lead the server with 26 kills each, but it was dev1ce's team to come out on top. NiKo had struggled throughout the series and ended up at the bottom of the scoreboard with 14 kills.
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Score | Map | Score | Team |
|
16 | Mirage | 14 | |
|
16 | Inferno | 12 | |
|
– | Overpass | – | |
Semifinals
Natus Vincere vs. MIBR
Both teams had relatively good times in the quarterfinals, as both defeated the home crowd favorites in two maps. Natus Vincere demolished BIG and MIBR defeated compLexity Gaming on compLexity's best map. Historically, MIBR leads the head to head, 16 maps to Na'Vi's 15, but Na'Vi won the most recent meeting between the two 2–1 at StarSeries & i-League Season 5. However, MIBR's core defeated Na'Vi's core at the Columbus 2016 grand finals for a non-European's first Major title. 74% of Pick'em predictions favored Natus Vincere over MIBR.
Casters: Anders Blume & moses
| Map Vetoes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Natus Vincere | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| Cache | Nuke | Overpass | Dust II | Mirage | Inferno | Train | |
| MIBR | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
The two rosters played one of the most memorable games of all time on Overpass at the Intel Extreme Masters Season X World Championship when the Brazilians were with Luminosity Gaming and defeated Na'Vi in double overtime. However, times changed as Stewie2K and tarik are now in the places that TACO and fnx vacated and s1mple and electronic replaced GuardiaN and seized on the roster. The first rounds went back and forth as Na'Vi took three and MIBR took four before Na'Vi took three more. MIBR took one more after coldzera won a 1 vs. 1 against flamie with an impressive headshot with the desert eagle heading into round number twelve. There, tarik and fer started the round by getting aggressive, but a flashbang blinded them both, leading s1mple to kill them both. FalleN found flamie in the connector area, which links the two bombsites. With about twenty seconds left, electronic creeped up to catch coldzera off guard. Stewie2K tried to make a very risky play by jumping down from the heaven area, which is an elevated position to see above the B bombsite, to stop the bomb planter with seven seconds left, as a bomb plant needs around four seconds, but s1mple was able to take the kill. FalleN backed off to save his AWP, but Edward hunted him after Zeus died. Na'Vi closed out the half with a 10–5 lead. The Ukrainian team jumped to map point quickly at 15-5 heading to the 21st round. With just over a minute left, fer took down electronic. MIBR executed to the A bombsite, and the timing was perfect as Zeus had just rotated to the B bombsite and the second s1mple turned his back, fer peeked to take down the star player. Na'Vi saw no chance in winning the round and backed off to save their guns. MIBR creeped a bit closer and got to double digits. In the 26th round, almost no action ensued for about 85 seconds when s1mple took down tarik and electronic won a fight against fer. However, coldzera doubled up onto s1mple and electronic, suddenly favoring MIBR. The bomb was planted, but coldzera was taken out by flamie shortly after. Stewie2K lost the fight against flamie before FalleN took down Edward. Zeus started to defuse, forcing FalleN to rush in, but flamie was there to get the kill to secure the map. s1mple topped the charts with 26 kills and electronic had huge impact with 24 kills. FalleN had 21, but the rest of MIBR fell flat until the end, when Na'Vi already reached map point.
Although embarrassed by Astralis in the New Legends stage, MIBR opted to pick Dust II despite Na'Vi not being as strong as other teams on other maps, such as Inferno. In the past, Zeus's Na'Vi was considered to be the best team on Dust II. Na'Vi jumped to a 7–0 lead before MIBR took home three. Na'Vi took three and MIBR took one heading into the fifteenth round. fer was able to take advantage of s1mple's missed shots and aggressiveness on the catwalk area to give MIBR an early advantage. With about forty seconds left, MIBR started to go to the A bombsite when Na'Vi predicted MIBR would go B. Zeus found a kill onto Stewie2K in the counter-terrorist spawn before dying to fer, but electronic traded him out to keep the playing field even. coldzera caught electronic trying to go through the middle area and followed up onto Edward. flamie finally took down the two time number one player of the year, but FalleN took down flamie as MIBR had a salvageable 5–10 deficit. However, MIBR's defense was weak and mistakes from the Brazilians and Americans could not garner them a single round in the second half, sending Na'Vi to the finals. s1mple and electronic cemented themselves as the world's best duo as both had over 20 kills. tarik and coldzera had double digits, but MIBR as a whole could not figure out its Dust II as it was knocked out of the tournament.
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Score | Map | Score | Team |
|
16 | Overpass | 10 | |
|
16 | Dust II | 5 | |
|
– | Train | – | |
Team Liquid vs. Astralis
North America's best and Europe's best duked it out in the semifinals. Both teams were favorites to win the trophy, but only one of the two could head to the finals. In past meetings prior to the Major, Astralis dominated Liquid 26–8, but Liquid defeated Astralis in the New Legends stage at this Major, making the winner hard to predict. The Pick'em predictions were quite even, as 59% had Astralis winning and 41% had Team Liquid winning.
Casters: HenryG & Sadokist
| Map Vetoes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Astralis | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| Cache | Train | Nuke | Mirage | Overpass | Inferno | Dust II | |
| Team Liquid | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
Astralis was widely regarded to be the best team on Nuke as the Danes had a 17-game win streak on it, only rivaled by MIBR's own 17 game win streak on Train. Nuke would begin as a messy fight. The two teams traded rounds before Astralis took a 4–1 lead. That score became 5-2 heading into the next round. Liquid were on a poor buy with an inferior rifle, two sub-machine guns that are mostly effective close range, and two pistols. Astralis headed to the B bombsite with just about a minute left. gla1ve found TACO and Xyp9x took down nitr0. Magisk found NAF jumping around before ELiGE finally found a kill onto dev1ce and then followed up onto Xyp9x. Magisk's high explosive grenade took down ELiGE, but Twistzz found the newest Astralis member shortly after. gla1ve planted the bomb as Twistzz started to get aggressive. Twistzz ran out of bullets on the AK-47 he picked up, so he had to use his pistol. Twistzz isolated gla1ve, but only had one bullet left. dupreeh threw out a flashbang, but Twistzz turned around and with his last bullet hit a headshot to kill dupreeh and defuse the bomb. The half still went in favor of Astralis as Nuke is a very counter-terrorist sided map and Astralis took nine on the terrorist side. Liquid started strong with a pistol round win, but Astralis returned the favor by taking the next round with a force buy. Liquid was able to salvage one more round, but Astralis's defense was too strong as the Danes extended its Nuke win streak to 18. Magisk lead all players with 22 kills, but Xyp9x and gla1ve were close by with 21 kills each. ELiGE had 18 and NAF and Twistzz won Liquid some rounds, but TACO's struggles in the playoffs continued with just 8 kills.
Liquid chose Mirage as it was the map Astralis seemed most shaky on, as it lost to Ninjas in Pyjamas in quadruple overtime and nearly blew the game against FaZe in the quarterfinals. However, Astralis started on the counter-terrorist side, which was a struggling point for Liquid and many other teams in the tournament. Astralis took a 5–0 lead before Liquid found a round. dupreeh tried to rush up middle, but ELiGE was able to kill him before dupreeh could do much. However, dev1ce scoped up to take down TACO right after. dupreeh had put in significant damage towards ELiGE before going down and Xyp9x used that information to throw a grenade to the top of middle to perfectly take down ELiGE. With over thirty seconds left, Twistzz found a quick headshot onto gla1ve and followed up onto Magisk. In a quick turn of events, dev1ce took down nitr0 from near the counter-terrorist spawn through a smoke grenade and Xyp9x took down NAF, leaving Twistzz alone. Twistzz tried to plant, but once he was spotted by Xyp9x, he tried to back away, where dev1ce was waiting to take him down. This killed the Liquid momentum as Astralis went on to win six unanswered. Astralis lead the half 12–3. Liquid won a must-win pistol round, but that all turned into vain as a surprise buy from Astralis won the next round. Astralis got to match point and Liquid took three heading into the 23rd round. nitr0 found dev1ce in the middle area to start Liquid off strong. Astralis executed to the B bombsite and Magisk started things with a kill onto TACO. gla1ve quickly took down ELiGE and NAF was completely blinded when he fell to dupreeh. Magisk and dupreeh combined to take down nitr0 and then dupreeh killed Twistzz to lead Astralis back to another Major final. Xyp9x had 19 kills and three other Astralis players followed behind with 18 kills each. While ELiGE and Twistzz showed up for Liquid, Liquid's third star player NAF was mostly absent with just 6 kills and 18 deaths.
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Score | Map | Score | Team |
|
8 | Nuke | 16 | |
|
7 | Mirage | 16 | |
|
– | Dust II | – | |
Finals
The world's top two teams met in the grand finals. Natus Vincere was able to take down an old rival in MIBR. Astralis defeated the world's number three in Team Liquid in a much anticipated semifinals. The two cores of Edward, Zeus, and flamie against dupreeh, dev1ce, and Xyp9x had a long history, as Astralis leads the head-to-head 45–31. The teams also met once at this Major, in which Astralis edged out Na'Vi 16–14. However, the most recent best of three between the two went in favor of Na'Vi 2–1 at ESL One Cologne 2018. With Astralis defeating Liquid, this would guarantee a European team would win the Major for just the second time since MLG Major Championship: Columbus in 2016. 69% of Pick'em predictions had Astralis taking home the trophy.
Casters: James Bardolph & ddk
| Map Vetoes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Natus Vincere | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| Train | Cache | Nuke | Overpass | Dust II | Mirage | Inferno | |
| Natus Vincere | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
The finals began on Nuke, with Natus Vincere on the counter-terrorist side, the much more favored side on the map. Astralis quickly ran a path to the B bombsite, but electronic spotted the team going there. Astralis put up a smoke grenade, but it worked in favor of flamie as he found a quick headshot onto dev1ce. gla1ve, however, killed s1mple at nearly the same time. electronic took down Xyp9x and flamie maneuvered around the B site and killed gla1ve. Magisk took down Edward, but flamie traded. dupreeh finally killed flamie, but Zeus traded to give Na'Vi the early lead. Na'Vi took a 3–0 lead, but Astralis bought some ideal weapons in the fourth round and went on a nine run tear before Na'Vi finally responded. In the fourteenth round with Astralis up 9–4, Astralis tried to quickly take control of the outside area, electronic sprayed down Xyp9x, but Magisk was able to trade. Edward thought he had a chance to take back the advantage, but Magisk's aim was better. gla1ve took down Zeus, but flamie found two in gla1ve and Magisk near the A bombsite. Astralis knew where to Na'Vi players were, so they went to the B bombsite to plant. dev1ce found a kill onto s1mple and then took down flamie, who was trying to defuse the bomb inside a smoke grenade as Astralis won an important round. Astralis took an 11–4 lead heading into the half. Na'Vi took the second half pistol and looked to get back into the game. However, Astralis took the next round on a force buy, only to have Na'Vi win a force buy of its own in the round after that. In the 19th round, Astralis were on four pistols and an SSG on dev1ce. Na'Vi looked to go down the secret area, which leads from the outside area to outside the B bombsite, but gla1ve threw out a smoke grenade to delay Na'Vi. That delayed Na'Vi so much that it only had 20 seconds left to find kills and plant the bomb. As Na'Vi rushed down, electronic found two headshots onto Magisk and dupreeh. dev1ce took down s1mple, Edward took down Xyp9x, and dev1ce killed Edward. Zeus finally flanked dev1ce, but flamie planted the bomb too late with three seconds left in the round, giving Astralis the round. Although gla1ve was out of the action on the B bombsite, he was the hero of that round. That killed any momentum Na'Vi had and Astralis cruised to a comfortable win. Four players on Astralis had at least 17 kills. electronic had 17 kills, but s1mple – the player many consider to be the best player of 2018 – had the fewest kills at just 9.
Overpass was the next map. Prior to Astralis's acquisition of Magisk, the Danes were still considered to be one of the best on the tactical-based map. Aside from the MIBR core when it was with SK Gaming, Astralis was the only team to have beaten FaZe Clan on the map during FaZe's success in 2017. Astralis took a 4–0 lead before Na'Vi bit back with three rounds. The score was tied up at five later on heading to the eleventh round. All Astralis had was the saved AWP on dev1ce, as Astralis did not have anything other than its weak default pistols. Astralis put all five members at the B bombsite and luckily for the Danish team Na'Vi shaded four players over to give Astralis somewhat of a chance. Astralis used a clever boost over a tall wall to completely catch Zeus off guard, but electronic was able to respond onto gla1ve. electronic pushed up onto the B bombsite to kill Xyp9x, but Magisk traded. While Edward was trying to pull the Astralis players away from the B bombsite by creating distractions on A, s1mple planted the bomb on B, but Magisk was still alive. dupreeh punished s1mple. flamie was able to take down dupreeh, but Magisk traded right away. dev1ce heard Edward coming out of the connector area and no scoped him to win an improbable round. That would be a significant turning point as Astralis ended the half at 9–6 in the lead. Astralis got to fourteen rounds before Na'Vi took three. Astralis got to match point at 15-9 heading into the 25th round. Na'Vi had a limited arsenal, so it got aggressive in the connector area, forcing Astralis to stay passive. However, gla1ve called that his players should split into the connector area. gla1ve was able to kill Zeus. Magisk was downed by electronic, but Xyp9x traded. Astralis was still running low on time and ran to the B bombsite. Luckily for Astralis, nobody was on the site. Edward tried to run through a smoke with seven seconds left to stop the bomb plant, but gla1ve was there to protect dev1ce. s1mple dropped from the heaven area to backstab dupreeh and then followed up onto dev1ce. flamie started to defuse the bomb, but Xyp9x took him down. s1mple tried to trade, but Xyp9x won the battle to secure the Major trophy. gla1ve and Xyp9x lead the server with 21 kills in the Major victory. flamie had 19 kills, but s1mple had been relatively absent all series when Na'Vi needed him most. The Major victory essentially cemented 2018 as the year of Astralis.
No official MVP was given, but HLTV.org deemed dev1ce as the MVP. Astralis became the fourth squad to win multiple Major titles. Fnatic still leads all teams with three Major titles. MIBR, which won one Major with Luminosity Gaming and another with SK Gaming; the core of Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt, Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey, and Vincent "Happy" Cervoni, which won two with Team LDLC.com and Team EnVyUs; and now Astralis are in second with two Major titles. Virtus.pro, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Astralis, Gambit Esports, and Cloud9 all have one each.
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Score | Map | Score | Team |
|
6 | Nuke | 16 | |
|
9 | Overpass | 16 | |
|
– | Inferno | – | |
Final standings
The final placings are shown below. In addition, the prize distribution, seed for the next major, roster, and coaches are shown. Each team's in-game leader is shown first.
| Place | Prize Money | Team | Seed | Roster | Coach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | US$500,000 | |
IEM Katowice 2019 New Legends | |
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| 2nd | US$150,000 | |
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| 3rd – 4th | US$70,000 | |
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| 5th – 8th | US$35,000 | |
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| 9th – 11th | US$8,750 | |
IEM Katowice 2019 New Challengers | |
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.svg.png){kind=small} |
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| 12th – 14th | US$8,750 | |
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 |
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| 15th – 16th | US$8,750 | |
– |   |
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| 17th – 19th | – | |
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| 20th – 22nd | – | |
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| 23rd – 24th | – | |
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Post-Major rankings
The rankings shown below reflect the September 24, 2018 rankings, the first ranking after the Major.[67]
| World ranking | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place | Team | Points | Move1 | ||||
| 1 | |
1000 | | ||||
| 2 | |
734 | | ||||
| 3 | |
504 | | ||||
| 4 | |
415 | | ||||
| 5 | |
413 | | ||||
| 6 | |
387 | | ||||
| 7 | |
326 | | ||||
| 8 | |
318 | | ||||
| 9 | |
277 | | ||||
| 10 | |
212 | | ||||
| 11 | |
182 | | ||||
| 12 | |
180 | | ||||
| 14 | |
130 | | ||||
| 15 | |
129 | | ||||
| 18 | |
114 | | ||||
| 20 | |
92 | | ||||
| 21 | |
87 | | ||||
| 23 | |
83 | | ||||
| 24 | |
82 | | ||||
| 28 | |
66 | | ||||
| 34 | |
– | | ||||
| 35 | |
– | | ||||
| 39 | |
– | | ||||
| – | |
– | – | ||||
1Change since September 3, 2018 ranking
2Winstrike Team released four players. HLTV.org requires at least three members of a team to be included in the rankings.
Showmatch
The showmatch was played before the grand finals between Natus Vincere and Astralis. The showmatch featured Owen "smooya" Butterfield of BIG and Håvard "rain" Nygaard of FaZe Clan as captains. smooya's team consisted of FaZe Clan's olofmeister, analyst THREAT, caster James Bardolph, and the observer Sliggy. rain's team fielded compLexity Gaming's ShahZaM, caster ddk, up-and-coming player ZywOo, and analyst SPUNJ.
| Team smooya | 15-19 | Team rain |
|---|---|---|
| smooya olofmeister THREAT James Bardolph Sliggy |
Mirage | |
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