PW Shanghai Major Day Eight Recap: Brazil leaves two on the doorstep
Liquid has now been confirmed as the sole representation for either American continent in the playoffs of the Perfect World Shanghai Major, joined by MongolZ, Vitality, G2, Spirit in the single-elimination bracket prior to the results overnight. The largely European field became even more predominant on the final day of play with MOUZ sweeping MIBR, HEROIC besting Natus Vincere, and FaZe outlasting FURIA to secure a regional sweep for the EU faithful.
With this the Elimination Stage has concluded. Liquid and MongolZ will comprise the sole representation in the final stage for fans outside of Europe.
MOUZ dispatches MIBR comfortably
The worst nightmare for MIBR has come to fruition. After starting out 2-0 with max round victories over both 3DMAX and Natus Vincere, the Brazilians were flying high. Turns out that we had a bit of an Icarus situation on our hands however, and the fabled Brazilian brand came crashing back down to earth with just a single map win against Liquid in their subsequent three best-of-three series to fail to advance.
In this most recent series Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin was an absolute demon in the server, accumulating 38 kills and a 1.74 HLTV rating, a kill count which doubled that of three MIBR players. He was also the final boss that denied Rafael "saffee" Costa a 1v5 on the second half pistol. The end of the half on Mirage when MIBR were down 8-4 was the closest they would come to a map victory as they conceded map one 13-5 and then fell behind 1-11 on Nuke before losing their own pick 13-6.
MIBRMOUZ| MIBR |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 André 'drop' Abreu |
23 - 26 | -3 | 71.9 | 64.9% | 0.90 |
| Lucas 'Lucaozy' Neves |
19 - 29 | -10 | 58.6 | 62.2% | 0.71 |
| Felipe 'insani' Yuji |
17 - 27 | -10 | 50.9 | 67.6% | 0.71 |
| Rafael 'saffee' Costa |
22 - 31 | -9 | 65.6 | 51.4% | 0.70 |
| Raphael 'exit' Lacerda |
17 - 29 | -12 | 46.6 | 59.5% | 0.54 |
| MOUZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin |
38 - 19 | +19 | 103.6 | 81.1% | 1.74 |
 Dorian 'xertioN' Berman |
28 - 21 | +7 | 97.5 | 73.0% | 1.43 |
 Jimi 'Jimpphat' Salo |
25 - 19 | +6 | 65.5 | 81.1% | 1.20 |
 Kamil 'siuhy' Szkaradek |
25 - 22 | +3 | 76.0 | 75.7% | 1.16 |
 Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás |
25 - 17 | +8 | 60.8 | 78.4% | 1.11 |
HEROIC best Natus Vincere in a match of momentum
Two European titans squared off in what many could have imagined as a potential Major playoff matchup, but if we knew that ahead of time then the Major wouldn't be nearly as fun as it has been. Both HEROIC and Natus Vincere grabbed 10-2 T-side leads on their respective map picks, then closed them out in convincing fashion with HEROIC taking Mirage 13-3 and Natus Vincere claiming Nuke 13-5.
Anubis was where this match became interesting, as both sides claimed six rounds in the first half. HEROIC's second half defense prevailed and helped them pull away, which would have likely been an even more compelling victory were it not for this 1v3 clutch from Mihai "iM" Ivan. It would be too little too late inevitably, and the title defense of Natus Vincere came to a close in the Elimination Stage. No one has repeated as Major champions since Astralis won three in a row, with the last coming at StarLadder Berlin 2019.
HEROICNatus Vincere| HEROIC |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guy 'NertZ' Iluz |
46 - 39 | +7 | 99.2 | 75.0% | 1.30 |
 Abdul 'degster' Gasanov |
36 - 33 | +3 | 67.0 | 73.2% | 1.07 |
 Rasmus 'sjuush' Beck |
41 - 43 | -2 | 77.2 | 67.9% | 1.04 |
 Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski |
34 - 35 | -1 | 61.4 | 71.4% | 1.04 |
| René 'TeSeS' Madsen |
32 - 39 | -7 | 65.4 | 71.4% | 0.91 |
| Natus Vincere |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov |
47 - 40 | +7 | 80.9 | 71.4% | 1.13 |
 Mihai 'iM' Ivan |
40 - 37 | +3 | 87.4 | 76.8% | 1.12 |
 Justinas 'jL' Lekavicius |
38 - 38 | +0 | 85.5 | 73.2% | 1.05 |
| Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy |
39 - 38 | +1 | 65.9 | 71.4% | 0.97 |
| Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen |
22 - 42 | -20 | 52.9 | 58.9% | 0.66 |
FaZe reverse sweep FURIA in contested series
FURIA had FaZe on upset alert early but seemed to not have enough in the tank to make it over the finish line. They took a commanding lead on FaZe's map pick, Inferno, and converted a 9-3 half into a 13-6 win. But when they had to play defense without a large lead to fall back on, FaZe was able to exploit the cracks in the South American armor. Though FURIA started Dust2 with a 7-5 halftime lead, their CT-side claimed just two victories on Dust2 before FaZe claimed their pick 13-9.
The defense continued to be a problem on the Mirage decider, as once again FaZe bullied the FURIA CT side, allowing them to successfully defend the bombsites, again, just two times in the half. FURIA mounted a valiant comeback effort on their T-side, including a ridiculous post-plant, 1v4 clutch from Felipe "skullz" Medeiros in the midst of fighting off eight match points in a row. But FaZe just needed one, and they found it in round 23 to claim the decider, the series, and the playoff berth.
FaZeFURIA| FaZe |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Robin 'ropz' Kool |
54 - 37 | +17 | 79.5 | 70.3% | 1.25 |
 David 'frozen' Čerňanský |
37 - 39 | -2 | 76.3 | 73.4% | 1.03 |
 Håvard 'rain' Nygaard |
39 - 44 | -5 | 73.4 | 73.4% | 0.97 |
 Helvijs 'broky' Saukants |
35 - 39 | -4 | 61.9 | 68.8% | 0.89 |
| Finn 'karrigan' Andersen |
34 - 40 | -6 | 57.9 | 62.5% | 0.84 |
| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
43 - 35 | +8 | 73.2 | 71.9% | 1.05 |
| Felipe 'skullz' Medeiros |
42 - 36 | +6 | 67.0 | 64.1% | 1.03 |
| Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
40 - 43 | -3 | 84.9 | 71.9% | 1.01 |
| Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
37 - 43 | -6 | 61.8 | 67.2% | 0.92 |
| Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes |
34 - 45 | -11 | 60.1 | 64.1% | 0.86 |
The first day of the Major quarterfinals will feature two matches: MongolZ vs MOUZ at 01:00AM followed by NA's last hope, Liquid vs Spirit at 04:00AM.
