The Perfect World Shanghai Major was a brilliant spectacle. It featured the best Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) esports teams competing for a massive $1,250,000 prize pool. At the time of writing, that's roughly R22.3 million...Here's how things went down!

We saw some big upsets in both the Opening and Elimination Stages, with one of the favorites, NAVI, not even making it to the Playoffs Stage, which ran from 12 to 15 December 2024.

Find out what went down at the Perfect World Shanghai Major Playoffs Stage by watching the video featuring highlights from the Grand Finale below, or continue reading, or both!

Team Spirit went 3-1 in the Elimination Stage to qualify for the Playoffs, and then swept Team Liquid with a convincing 2-0 in the Quarterfinals. Team Spirit went 0-1 down against an on-form MOUZ in the Semifinals. However, they bounced back with tremendous effort to win the following two maps and reverse-sweep MOUZ 2-1 to make it to the Grand Final.

On the other side of the bracket, FaZe Clan went on a beautiful run, beating two event favorites, Team Vitality with a 2-1, and G2 Esports with a 2-0, to claim their spot at the grand finale of the Perfect World Shanghai Major.

On 15 December 2024, the Shanghai Major grand finale took place between FaZe Clan and Team Spirit in front of a huge crowd at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center venue.

On Nuke, Team Spirit got a convincing 13-8 win, but FaZe Clan bounced back with a dominating performance on Ancient (13-6). On the third and deciding map, Dust2, Team Spirit won with a close 13-11 score, thereby defeating FaZe Clan in the Grand Final with a score of 2-1.

Congratulations to Team Spirit for winning the Perfect World Shanghai Major in style and taking home the lion's share of the prize pool at $500,000.

Team Spirit's star rifler, Danil "Donk" Kryshkovets, earned the MVP award (youngest ever) and earned the highest rating for a Major ever (1.49) while also breaking the Major ace record!

Header image via Perfect World.