The road to the 2024 Counter-Strike Perfect World Shanghai Major is officially underway.
- What: Counter-Strike Perfect World Shanghai Major
- When: Running through December 15
- Where: Shanghai, China
- Venue: Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center (opening and elimination stages), Shanghai Oriental Sports Center (playoff stage)
- Prize Pool: $500,000 to first place; $170,000 to second place; $80,000 to third place; and $45,000 to fifth through eighth place
Though the opening stage will not begin until November 30, the qualifying rounds to make the cut have already started. That means we have high-stakes and super-intriguing matchups galore to analyze.
Which teams are the best bets to pick up victories during the slate scheduled for Thursday, November 20? Let’s find out.
Counter-Strike Perfect World Shanghai Major Betting Lines
Below you can see the latest online esports betting odds for the jam-packed eight-matchup Counter-Strike schedule next Thursday:
We strongly recommend rechecking these Counter-Strike betting odds until you actually process your wager. Our CS:GO betting odds are accurate entering Friday, November 15. This gives all of the top online sportsbooks in the United States plenty of time to adjust their lines ahead of the November 20 start.
Pay special attention to the Perfect World Shanghai betting lines following the action on Saturday, November 16. Another full slate of qualifying rounds is taking place that day. Once they are over, we can almost guarantee the next batch of matchups—which we’ll be discussing here—will see an influx of action noticeably alter some of the betting lines.
Overview of Counter-Strike Perfect World Shanghai Major Tournament Format
For anyone new to Counter-Strike betting, here is an online sports betting guide to navigating the Perfect World Shanghai Major:
- Qualifying matchups: The showdowns we are about to predict are part of Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournaments. They always take place in the lead-up to the actual tournament.
- Points System: Teams earn points based on their performance in these qualifying rounds (or RMR matches). You earn the most possible points by beating higher-ranked opponents.
- Seeding: Counter-Strike Perfect World Seeding and, thus, matchup favorability are all at stake. Teams will be seeded in Shanghai based on how many RMR points they rack up.
- Swiss-Style Format: All of these matches we’re about to break down follow a Swiss-style bracket. This means that head-to-heads have been determined according to every team’s current record, with the goal being to create a more balanced field. As part of this RMR setup, all matches are best of three.
Ready or not, let’s get to some Counter-Strike Perfect World Shanghai predictions!
G2 Esports Enters as Heavy Favorite Over Ninjas in Pyjamas
The line for G2 Esports (-556) is interesting because Ninjas in Pyjamas (+355) technically have more experience in Majors. Their current roster has combined to play 148 maps in these settings. The members of G2 Esports total 120.
With that said, G2 Esports has far more recent experience at the major levels. They just picked up a massive victory at the Blast Premier World Final, where their Counter-Strike chops took down Team Spirit in three consecutive rounds.
Combine this with their 59 percent or better win rate across five of the primary maps–including three with 60 percent or better win rates—and it is tough to pick against them here.
Does B8 Stand a Chance Against Team Spirit?
Team Spirit (-400) enters their matchup with B8 (+268) as the second heaviest favorite on the Counter-Strike slate. This is…not the least bit surprising.
Though Team Spirit ultimately couldn't get the job done, they made it all the way to the championship round at the Blast Premier World Final. Their ability to hang with G2 Esports, who swept them 3-0 to win it all, is obviously in question. But B8 isn’t G2 Esports.
On the contrary, B8 is still trying to find their footing on a global scale. They put up a nice fight at ESL Challenger Katowice in October, but they invariably dropped consecutive rounds to SAW—and it wasn’t even kind of close.
Frankly, we do not expect this matchup to be all that close, either. Brace for Team Spirit winning in straight rounds.
Astralis vs. 9 Pandas is Almost Too Close to Call
This is perhaps the matchup to which we’re looking most forward. The Counter-Strike betting lines for Perfect World Shanghai say it all. Astralis (-122) is favored to win, but only barely. 9 Pandas (-109) is the underdog and still not paying out even money.
A general lack of major tournament experience may be artificially deflating 9 Pandas’ chances. In fact, according to HLTV.org, their roster doesn’t currently have any major experience. To that end, it says a lot that they’re not a heavy underdog. Especially when Astralis tends to measurably increase their kills-to-deaths ratio during major events.
And yet, with the exception of a letdown against 500 at the YaLLa Compass Fall tournament, 9 Pandas has been on something of a tear. They absolutely dominated ECLOT during European Pro League Season 20, picking up victories across every map other than Ancient. They also dominated during Winline Insight Season 6.
Map versatility is the difference for us. The members of 9 Pandas seem more comfortable across a wider range of boards, which is why we are going with the “upset.”
Can Eternal Fire Hold Ground When They Take On Aurora?
Here we have another matchup in which the Counter-Strike Perfect World odds are seemingly impacted by a lack of major experience. Aurora (+239) enters as a fairly heavy underdog against Eternal Fire (-345). Notably, the former also does not have any major events under their belt, per HLTV.org.
While this is something to factor into the equation, we are not sold on Eternal Fire as this heavy of a favorite. They got rocked by Natus Vincere at their last major appearance, the PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen. They also only managed to win one of five rounds at the PGL Major Antwerp Challengers.
Oh, and you might like to know that the latter tournament took place in 2022. That means Eternal Fire has just one major event on its resume since then. And when you bake in how much their kills-to-deaths ratio suffered during the Major Copenhagen, it gets harder to invest in their victory.
Sure, Aurora made it through just two rounds at the Hellcase Cup 11. But they lost to a powerhouse in NAVI Junior—and they put up a real fight while doing so. Considering they also upended 9 Pandas en route to that matchup, we view Aurora as a sleeper team to watch—not just here, but throughout the entire tourney.
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