Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 was the last big esports tournament for Counter-Strike 2 in 2024. It solidified the best teams of the year and proved that the classic FPS series is still a top sport to watch and bet on. Thanks to some major changes, it will likely grow even bigger in 2025.
Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 brought CS2 to China, expanding the mechanical shooter to even more countries — and growing the fanbase even further. The tournament had 1.3 million peak viewers, with fans all over the world watching Team Spirit and FaZe Clan compete in the Grand Finals on December 15, 2024. With a $1.25 million prize pool and regional pride on the line, Perfect World Shanghai was a big moment for the CS2 esports community, but it’s only going to get bigger.
Big Changes For CS2 Esports in 2025
Valve announced some game-changing updates for Counter-Strike 2 esports in 2025. This includes the removal of open qualifiers for Majors in some regions, including North America and Europe. This means that only teams with the highest Valve Ratings can qualify for events, removing many opportunities for small yet talented teams. This could spell frustration for the competitive CS2 team, including exhaustion for top-tier teams that will be grinding in every top tournament. But it also means intense matches, easy-to-follow storylines, and plenty of exciting betting opportunities for viewers.
Valve has also revealed that tournament operators for third-party events like ESL and BLAST will have to invite teams based on the Valve Ratings or hold open qualifiers. In the past, many of these third-party tournaments had partnered teams that automatically got invites. But Valve called this a “conflict of interest.” This will hopefully open these tournaments to smaller teams that may not be able to get into Valve’s Majors anymore.
Teams To Watch (And Bet On) In 2025
We have analysed all of our data for the CS2 Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 to see which teams, matches, and players were the focus of bettors. These top competitors will also likely be prominent going into the 2025 season.
The top matchups included many FaZe Clan, proving that this team is definitely one of the most popular—whether the CS2 community is betting for or against them. Match winner was the most popular bet fans made (60%).
Here are the most-watched matchups:
- Team Spirit vs. FaZe Clan
- G2 Esports vs. FaZe Clan
- Team Vitality vs. FaZe Clan
- G2 Esports vs. Heroic
- MOUZ vs. Team Spirit
- FaZe Clan vs. FURIA Esports
Player props propelled to 17% of turnover
Esports fans made bets on individual players as well — including how many kills they would get in a match and other performance-related bets. Pre-match betting was more popular than live betting (60% versus 40%), meaning players already had favourites that they felt would perform well during certain matchups. 17% of bets revolved around the number of kills players got during a match.
Here are the most bet-on pros:
- NiKo – G2
- karrigan – FaZe Clan
- ropz – FaZe Clan
- rain – FaZe Clan
- broky – FaZe Clan
Unsurprisingly, the most bet on team during the Perfect World Major was FaZe Clan. This was followed by G2 Esports, Team Spirit, MOUZ, The Mongolz, and Team Vitality. These will be the teams to watch in 2025 — they are also the teams with the most points in the Valve Ranking, so expect to see them at most Majors and other big tournaments.
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