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The battle for Shanghai Major 2024 - could there be anything better in competitive Counter-Strike 2? We don't think so, so we're keeping a close eye on what's going on at Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B.
There are 16 teams fighting for 7 slots for the next CS2 Major. Among the contenders are Astralis and 9 Pandas.
Let's try to find out which of the teams will be stronger and earn an important victory in the run-up to the distribution of slots at the Major.
Let's go.
Astralis Form
Let's open the analysis of Astralis vs 9 Pandas match with the analysis of Astralis form. The Danes will play as the number one with odds to win at around 1.3.
The Danish club has had a difficult period. They tried their best to "return" to the TIR-1 scene, but they were constantly falling short: Astralis finished top-20 at ESL Pro League Season 17 and top-14 at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR B.
At lesser tournaments, however, Astralis fared well. The world's most titled team finished Top 2 at Brazy Party, won CCT South Europe Series #4 and finished Top 4 at Pinnacle Cup V.
Returning to the S-Tier Championships, Astralis took Top 6 at IEM Masters Dallas 2023 and Top 8 at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups.
Prior to the BB Dacha, Astralis attended a number of other events. Those were ESL Pro League Season 18 and Roobet Cup 2023, where the once stellar Danes finished in the Top 16.
Just before the Long Convergence, BB Dacha Astralis finished in the Top 4 at CS Asia Championship 2023 and Top 8 at BLAST Premier: Fall Finals. The swing in performance is primarily due to roster manipulation.
- Astralis roster: dev1ce, Staehr, stavn, jabbi, CadiaN.
Before IEM Katowice 2024 they played at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024. At the end of the championship the Danes made it to the top 6 and it was enough to get to the BLAST Premier: Spring Final. The IEM Katowice 2024 Astralis failed in the dust and dust: took the top 32, not passing the Play-In stage.
Then there were two attempts to get to the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, but both were unsuccessful: TOP-11 at European RMR B and TOP-6 at European RMR Decider put an end to Astralis' participation in the home Major.
In the first match of IEM China 2024 Astralis played against steel helmet, as Monte could not make it to China. And if Monte had played there, the score would have been obviously not so crushing as 13-2 in favour of Astralis. Although, judging by the match with FaZe, where Astralis were a head and shoulders above FaZe, shutting down the top 1 team in the world with a score of 2-0, maybe Astralis are very loaded for IEM China 2024. In the play-offs of the championship Astralis met FaZe Clan again, but this time they were weaker and lost with the score 1-2 and left the tournament.
Astralis visited ESL Pro League Season 19, where they reached the TOP-4, where in the match for the grand final Ledge and Vitality. Later, they had an identical result at CCT Season 1 Global Finals and YaLLa Compass 2024.
At BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2024, Astralis played in Group A, where they finished in the top 3. They made it to the play-offs Ledge or Vp and left the tournament at the Top 6 stage. Later Astralis played at IEM Cologne 2024, where they finished top-12.
At the ESL Pro League Season 20 Long Season they were defeated by Fnatic (1-2). Next was a match against CoL (0-2). They finished ESL Pro League Season 20 as ignominiously as they started - losing to CoL and leaving the tournament at the TOP-28 stage.
After such poor results Astralis continued their attempts to return to the TIR-1 stage. For this purpose, they played at BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024, where they took TOP-8 and at Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2024, where they were TOP-12. As you can see, the attempts were not successful.
Astralis did well in the group stage of BLAST Premier: World Final 2024, leaving behind MOUZ, FaZe and NaVi. After winning Group A, Astralis directly qualified for the semi-finals. However, that was the end of their journey through BLAST Premier: World Final 2024, with Spirit advancing to the grand finals.
Astralis Mapple
Astralis have two 100 per cent maps. They are Nuke with 9 wins in 14 matches, and Anubis with 5 matches and 4 wins.
They also play Ancient (66% wins in 3 matches). Still playing Mirage (9 matches, 4 wins). Vertigo with 2 wins and 3 losses and Overpass (2 wins in 7 matches).
Inferno are not playing.
Form 9 Pandas
We continue our analysis of the match 9 Pandas vs Astralis with a breakdown of 9 Pandas' playing form. In this match they will play in Underpassdog status with odds to win at around 4.
9 Pandas are ranked 37th in the HLTV team rankings. They got there thanks to their performance in a lot of tournaments, but as it often happens, they managed to achieve at least some results only in a few events.
For example, it was ESEA Cash Cup: Europe - Winter 2023 #1 and ESEA Cash Cup: Europe - Winter 2023 #2. There was also TOP-64 at IEM Rio 2023: European Open Qualifier. In the middle of the year we played at CCT South Europe Series #4, where we had a top-16, and also BetBoom Playlist. Freedom, where the Pandas made it to the Top 8.
One of the most important achievements, if I can put it that way, was reaching the Top 4 at CCT North Europe Series #5. Another hit in the "prizes" was Dunav Party LAN, where 9 Pandas made it to TOP-4.
- The lineup of 9 Pandas: d1Ledez, iDISBALANCE, glowiing, shalfey, r3salt.
At Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #2, where 9 Pandas made it to the Top 24. Just before the Long Sogpeg CCT Online Finals #5, 9 Pandas' results went up. They finished in the Top 3 at ESEA Season 46: Advanced Division, Top 8 at CCT East Europe Series #3, Top 4 at CCT Central Europe Series #8 and won at PARI, Please, earning $60,000 for the win, which is more than they earned all year.
9 Pandas Long Sogpeg at CCT Online Finals #5 with a solid win over the Brazilians from Legacy. Coldzera didn't help matters, and 9 Pandas advanced to the next round, where they were already opposed by Into The Breach. The British club put up a fight and even won the second map, but it wasn't enough, and here are 9 Pandas in the next round. However, the path through CCT Online Finals #5 for the Pandas ended at the top 4.
Before the Long Copeg of the new season, 9 Pandas tried their hand at all sorts of qualifiers, but were not successful anywhere. The central tournament of the season for 9 Pandas was PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: European RMR A, where 9 Pandas finished Top 11.
Later, the team attended Thunderpick World Championship 2024: European Series #1, with a disappointing top-32 finish. There were also qualifiers for BB Dacha Belgrade 2024, Esports World Cup 2024 and RES European Series #2. Nowhere above the TOP-12.
RES European Series #3 9 Pandas started with a loss to Passion UA, but then managed to beat Gaimin Gladiators in the elimination match. However, they didn't make it very far, as they finished in the top 12 in the end.
Before playing at Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B, 9 Pandas won two TIRs, Winline Insight Season 6 and European Pro League Season 20
Mappool 9 Pandas
9 Pandas' best match is Mirage. They played 12 matches of which they won 9.
Next was Overpass with 8 matches and 5 wins. Nuke (7 matches, 4 wins), Inferno (9 matches, 5 wins). Worse is Ancient with 3 wins in 6 matches, and worst of all was Anubis. His FaZe was picked 7 times, but played with a winrate of 42%.
They don't play on Vertigo.
History of head-to-head meetings Astralis - 9 Pandas Esports
Previously, the teams have not played each other in official meetings.
Predicted result of the match 9 Pandas vs Astralis at Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B
In this match I expect Astralis to win in a landslide. As it often happens in the early stages of tournaments like Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B, the teams are of different sizes and Astralis is a few goals higher than their counterparts.
Bottom line: Astralis win.
