December saw the end of the Perfect World Shanghai Counter Strike 2 Major, bringing a close to months of play for one of the most prestigious titles in all of esports. A nail-biting final between Team Spirit and Faze Clan put spectators on the edge of their seats in a match that’s sure to make its way into the history books.
To those uninitiated, majors are the pinnacle of competition in Counter Strike 2, one of the world’s most popular 5 vs 5 shooters. Occurring twice a year, they’re the best opportunity a team has to write history and leave a lasting legacy. Teams save their A-game to prove themselves and vie for the title on the biggest stage the CS2 world has to offer.
Team Spirit are a relatively new team in the upper echelon of competition, playing under the logo of a dragon. Previously always on the outside of trophy consideration, they took a risky gamble on promising youngsters Danil “donk” Kryshkovets, Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov, and Myroslav “zont1x” Plakhotia under the tutelage of Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov at the start of the year, a move that has paid off in spades. They kicked off 2024 by winning IEM Katowice, in which donk had literally the best statistical performance a player has ever had in a Counter Strike tournament ever, but inconsistency plagued the roster’s results, spanning high-highs and low-lows throughout the year.
Their major campaign saw them brutalise most opposition, with donk pulling off inhuman highlights and high-stat performances. This effort would spearhead their path into playoffs and into the grand final against a worthy opponent – Faze Clan.
The latter European-mix established themselves as the most consistent team at the end of 2023 and at the start of the 2024, making final after final while winning a handful of them too. They were the favourites going into the Copenhagen Major in March, but fell to underdogs Natus Vincere at the final hurdle. However, summer came and saw their form dip, putting them outside trophy consideration for most of the year. But everyone knows what those players can achieve, and you never know when the “Faze magic” will kick in and turn a game on its head.
The narrative was similar for Faze going into Shanghai, bar one exception. Leader Finn “Karrigan” Andersen tragically lost his brother before the tournament began, and added a solemn air of dedication to their performance. Barely scraping into playoffs, analysts doubted them at every turn yet Faze defied expectations at every step, eventually landing themselves in the final against Spirit. Staring down the behemoths, they found themselves on the opposite side of where they were at the last major grand final as now the underdogs, against none other than the team that bested them in Katowice at the start of the year.
As a brief overview of the format, the final takes place across a best of three “maps”. Teams play up to 24 rounds in regulation, where the victor is the first to win 13 rounds. If both teams reach 12 rounds, the game progresses to overtime in which teams play up to 6 rounds, and the victor is the one to win 4 rounds. If this sounds overwhelming, fear not, these are elaborated further on when needed.
Each team took a map off the other at the start of the final, putting the trophy down to the decider. Hard-fought rounds and legendary highlights put Spirit strides ahead to reach 12 rounds to Faze’s 5 – it’s first to 13, so Spirit are one round away from etching their names into the history books.
I don’t know what Faze’s players must’ve been thinking at the time, sitting at the edge of oblivion while the world is watching. Whatever words were exchanged in the team had reminded the players of how resilient they truly were, and reminded the world of an uncomfortable truth – you only win if you hit 13 rounds, 12 is not enough.
12-6. 12-7. 12-8. Faze’s Robin “ropz” Kool stands alone yet secures three kills to make the score 12-9. The very next round, Faze’s Håvard “rain” Nygaard clutches a 1 vs 1 to keep the dream alive at 12-10. But the fairytale run looks like it’s about to be stopped as Faze are forced into a 2 vs 4 situation. Spirit cannot lose, Spirit shouldn’t lose. This was their round to win to get their hands on the trophy. Any other team maybe would fold here, but Faze are like no other team.
Faze’s rain gets the first kill before ropz pulls off a ludicrous jumping no-scope to get the next. Now a 2 vs 2, rain executes donk before going down himself. 1 vs 1, adrenaline is pumping through each player’s body, thousands of hours of practice culminate for this. Bullets are exchanged but it’s ropz who secures the kill on just 3% health to get the score to 12-11. Spirit were pixels away from winning, mere pixels.
It’s down to this, Faze ties the series to force overtime or take home the silver medal. Kills are being traded each way till a 3 vs 3, then down to a 1 vs 1. Spectators watch with their hearts beating in their throats. One more kill from either player will define the way history looks upon this tournament, could Faze manage the unthinkable and perform the best comeback in CS major history? The final gunfight of the round finishes, and the body hits the in-game floor. Cheer erupts.
Team Spirit are your Shanghai major winners.
Well deserved from the Russian-side, after all, donk alone had a legendary tournament-wide performance and snagged a well earned MVP award to close out what is only his first year of professional play.
But I hope, even for a second, that while reading this, you too could believe in the “Faze magic” like any other viewer that day. Karrigan went on to post on X, formerly Twitter, “Big brother, I wanted to let you know I gave everything I had” (X – @karriganCSGO). My heart can’t help but weep for Karrigan, but I know this will not be the last we see of him.
Perhaps the lunar calendar is right, as Spirit’s logo shines, 2024 was indeed the year of the dragon. Highlights galore with a passionate crowd and a nail-biting grand final, this was a major to remember.