NA Experts predict Americas Major performance

Figuring out how the North American region will do at the Major is always a difficult question. For years, you could expect at least one team from the region to qualify for the playoffs, but now that seems to be a challenge all within itself.

FURIA and paiN have come to North America and found incredible success within the region. paiN have propelled themselves to new highs and are one of the dark horses to make a miracle run through the Challengers Stage this year. FURIA will be skipping this stage entirely while Liquid and Complexity will be forced to battle their way through.

In a questionnaire sent out to several of North America's finest experts, we asked questions about which teams will advance, what record they will end up with, and who the best players will be.

Team Performance

For paiN, 55% of respondents said that the team would advance through to the next round with 40% of all respondents saying they would go through with a 3-2 record. This was more than Complexity, where only 50% of respondents believe they will advance. For those that responded, 45% said Complexity would fail to move on with a 2-3 record, while 50% said they would do it with a 3-2 record. Not a lot of hope for either underdog squad.

As for Liquid, they were overwhelmingly believed to go through to the New Legends Stage, with only one expert believing that they will fail with a 2-3 record. The majority of our experts see the legendary North American team qualifying to the next round with a 3-1 record.

When looking at FURIA's chances in the New Legends stage, most of our experts see them as going through with a 55% vote, however the votes are split as to whether they qualify 3-2 or 3-1.

Player Performance

Our experts over here in North America currently believe that paiN superstar Felipe "skullz" Medeiros will be the best performing Brazilian player, with FaZe standout Russell "Twistzz" Van Dulken as the best performing North American player of this first stage of the Major cycle. However, the title of overall best performing player at the entire Major will undoubtedly be going to Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato who earned that nod from half of the voting team.

Other players considered to be up to the task are Romeu "zevy" Rocco for the Brazilians, Keith "NAF" Markovic for the North Americans, and Randy "YEKINDAR" Smith, aka Mareks Gaļinskis, as the best overall performing player.

Team Expectations

Some of the most interesting responses came from where our experts believe both Liquid and FURIA will finish. The majority of votes for FURIA saw them reaching the quarterfinals while 25% of votes saw Liquid making it as far as the semifinals in this event. To do so would be an incredible accomplishment for both teams who have not looked consistently amazing so far this year.

For paiN and Complexity, well, the votes are split between where exactly they get eliminated, but almost everyone believes that they will not make it to the playoffs stage. In fact, only one of our experts expects that Complexity would make it so far as the semifinals. Gosh, what a dream that would be!

Hopes for the Region

For the region, there are a lot of expectations from fans on what teams should reasonably achieve given that both FURIA and Liquid are top 10 teams, while Complexity and paiN have threatened before on the international stage. Given that this will be the final CS:GO Major held, the pressure to perform is at an all-time high, and if we want to send off North America on a good note, now is the time to perform.

When asked, our experts had only one thing on their mind: just make playoffs. Out of all of the minimum expectations for the region, the same sentiment was shared over and over again - North America has to have one team to make playoffs. They would like it to be Liquid, although it could also be FURIA, but in order to advance as a region and maintain what we even have currently, it all comes down to performing when it counts.

For others, there is also the expectation that Liquid, paiN, and Complexity could perform so well during the Challengers Stage that they bring another spot back to the Americas region for the next Counter-Strike Major in Copenhagen in 2024.

And as for what our experts say fans should expect out of the Major - they believe that at least one of paiN or Complexity will qualify to the next stage, that Liquid will finally make the playoffs again, and that FURIA will continue to show up when it matters most. This won't be the Major that we see records broken, incredible triumphs, or outlandish trophy hoisting by an American team, but it will be one that shows progress and recovery for a region that has been decimated in recent years.