Best Plays of the Perfect World Shanghai Major

Counter-Strike is, has, and always will be a team game. But sometimes, a player’s individual performance becomes the driving factor in whether or not the match results in a win or loss. Throughout the history of Counter-Strike there have been many players that have showed up on the biggest stage and put their teams on their backs to completely swing the game in their favor. If a play from a Major becomes so iconic, it is memorialized forever on that specific map with an in-game graffiti courtesy of Valve. Such is the case with Marcelo “coldzera” David’s jumping AWP shots on Mirage, Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer Gustafsson’s burning bomb defuse on Overpass, and Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev falling AWP double-kill on Cache. While Valve has not yet created a graffiti to commemorate some of the best moments from this specific tournament, there are a few Shanghai Major highlights that deserve to be featured on this list.

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Shanghai Major Highlights

donk 1v5 Ace Clutch vs Heroic – Elimination Stage

It’s no secret that Danil “donk” Kryshkovets is arguably the greatest talent in all of Counter-Strike, and he showed his maturity despite his young age in Spirit’s 2-1 pool match against Heroic. Down 9-12 on the second map, Mirage, donk and Boris “magixx” Vorobyev found themselves in a 2v5 after the rest of their team got wiped out. magixx was shut down trying to enter A Site, but donk quickly traded the kill for a 1v4 situation against the rest of Heroic. With the opposing team on map point and nearly zero chance to extend the game, donk proved exactly why he is deserving of all the recognition and praise he’s been getting throughout the event with two headshots on Guy “NertZ” Iluz and Abdulkhalik “degster” Gasanov followed by a spray transfer on Damjan “kyxsan” Stoilkovski and René “TeSeS” Madsen to claim the tenth round of the map for Spirit and singlehandedly keep his team alive. Though they lost the following round and the series went to a deciding third map, donk’s clutch can stand on its own as a testament to the confidence and magic produced by Spirit’s world-beating teenager

malbsMd’s Series-Defining Clutch – Playoff Stage Quarterfinals

It’s easy to overlook Mario “malbsMd” Samayoa’s place on G2’s Counter-Strike lineup, especially with the caliber of players beside him. If you didn’t know who he was before the Perfect World Shanghai Major, it’s impossible that anyone involved in the scene doesn’t know his name now. In the second OT round of G2’s quarterfinal match, malbsMd was stuck in a 1v3 pre-plant situation with his team down a round. What happened next was one of the best plays of the entire tournament as malbsMd pulled off a 1v3 clutch and even faked the bomb plant to secure kills onto TeSeS and Rasmus “sjuush” Beck. This allowed G2 to level the scoreline after dropping the first round of overtime, eventually winning the next three rounds in a row to advance into the semifinals of the tournament. It was one of the defining highlights of the entire Major, even slightly reminiscent of an equally impressive play made by fellow countryman coldzera at DreamHack Open Summer 2017. It was a moment so good, NiKo even went public saying that he thanked malbsMd countless times after the match.

iM Pistol Round Ace – Elimination Stage

Natus Vincere did not need to go through the Opening Stage of the Shanghai Major thanks to their performance at the RMR tournament, however their Elimination Stage campaign did not quite materialize into the start to a potential Major-winning run they wished for. Still, that doesn’t meant they left without any Shanghai Major highlights in the bag. One of them came from Mihai “iM” Ivan, who pulled off an ace against MIBR on NAVI’s T-side pistol round. Down 3-9 on Inferno, iM killed all five players of MIBR to clinch the opening round of the second half for his side. Each kill resulted in a headshot, which only makes iM’s highlights all the more satisfying to watch.

KSCERATO Ace in B Apartments – Elimination Stage

FURIA was one of three Brazilian teams to successfully make it past the Opening Stage alongside paiN and MIBR. On their first day of matches at the Shanghai Major’s Elimination Stage, they faced off against Vitality in a 1-0 pool game. It was neck-and-neck all throughout, with nothing over the top happening except for one impressive highlight from arguably the greatest player to ever pick up the mouse and keyboard for the organization. Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato went into another gear in China and pulled off a remarkable ace that started with him carefully hiding inside the smoked-off portion of Mirage’s B Apartments. KSCERATO got two impact frags on Vitality’s unaware players and was even able to complete a hat-trick of kills when ZywOo jumped out of the smoke. KSCERATO picked up the AWP and showed off his ability to wield the sniper rifle, landing two more shots to win the round for FURIA and give them the lead in the game. Though they missed the opportunity to finish off the win in regulation and additionally lost in overtime, KSCERATO’s solo ace was definitely one of the standout performances of the whole Major.

kauez Brazilian Derby Ace vs Imperial – Opening Stage

This entry on the list is definitely one that has gone under the radar for many people following their favorite teams at the Major. paiN’s first game of the tournament’s Opening Stage was against fellow Brazilian side Imperial. The best highlight from that match happened on Round 17, with paiN leading 11-5. Kaue “kauez” Kaschuk and his teammates advanced into Dust 2’s A Site from Short/Catwalk and were immediately put into a firefight against the defending Imperial players. kauez hit three one-tap headshots with this Desert Eagle to level the playing field before making the necessary adjustments to finish off the remaining players with a 1v2 M4A1-S clutch. This put paiN on match point with a 12-5 lead, and just one round later, all the players on his side of the stage stood up to celebrate an important win to start off their Shanghai Major journey. It was the highlight of kauez’s performance throughout the Major and undoubtedly a great addition to the team’s highlight reel.

sh1ro Major-Winning 1v2 Clutch – Grand Final

When pure technical difficulty is considered, a 1v2 clutch might fall on the bottom of this list. This is no ordinary 1v2 clutch, however, as it was the very last play of the very last round of the Shanghai Major. From the first round of the series, everyone knew the potential the Spirit – FaZe matchup had to leave a lasting impact and become a modern classic. Fast-forward three games later, the tournament had run its course and it was time for one last display of the highest quality CS2 gameplay in the world. Spirit was leading 12-11 in Round 24 of Game 3, where they managed to successfully get the bomb down with three players alive on each side. As FaZe made their final push for a retake, Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov found himself in a 1v2 for the game, the Major, and the greatest victory of his team’s lives. It wasn’t a 1v2 for long though, as sh1ro found the trade kill on Finn “karrigan” Andersen to isolate the game into a 1v1 scenario against Helvijs “broky” Saukants. sh1ro’s gaming experience played a huge part in the final performance, where he danced around the smoke and pillar perfectly to land one final headshot on broky for the final highlight in the Shanghai Major.

After hundreds of hours of total gameplay and countless games played, the Shanghai Major ended with yet another set of highlights that will not be easily forgotten by the Counter-Strike community. All the teams played a part in creating history with the first-ever Major held in China, which in turn benefits the game as a whole by boosting its image and popularity in a country with lots of potential.

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