FACEIT Major: London 2018

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
FACEIT Major 2018
2018
FACEIT Major 2018.png
The FACEIT Major 2018 logo
Tournament information
SportCounter-Strike: Global Offensive
LocationLondon, United Kingdom
DatesSeptember 5, 2018–September 23, 2018
Administrator(s)Valve
FACEIT
Tournament
format(s)
Two 16-team Buchholz group stages
8-team single-elimination playoff
VenueTwickenham Stadium
The SSE Arena, Wembley
Teams24 teams
Purse$1,000,000 USD
Final positions
ChampionsDenmark Astralis
1st runners-upUkraine Natus Vincere
2nd runners-upBrazil MIBR
Team Liquid
MVPDenmark Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz

The FACEIT Major: London 2018, also known as FACEIT Major 2018, or London 2018, was the thirteenth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship, the second Major of 2018, and first organized by FACEIT. It featured twenty-four professional teams from around the world and took place in London, United Kingdom. The group stages were held in Twickenham Stadium, and the playoffs were played in front of a live crowd in the SSE Arena, Wembley. The London Major was the sixth consecutive major with a prize pool of $1,000,000.[1][2] The top sixteen teams from the previous Major, Boston 2018, automatically qualified for the FACEIT Major while another eight teams qualified from their respective regional qualifiers. The eight from regional qualifiers and the bottom eight teams from Boston 2018 (together called the "Challengers") competed in the New Challengers group stage, a Swiss-system tournament. The top eight from this stage then advanced to face the top eight teams from Boston ("Legends") in a second Swiss-system group stage, the New Legends stage. The top eight from this stage advanced to the playoffs.

FaZe Clan, MIBR, and Natus Vincere were the only incoming Legends to retain their Legend status at this Major by advancing to the playoff stage. Team Liquid, compLexity Gaming, BIG, HellRaisers, and Astralis were new Legends. Defending champions Cloud9, along with mousesports, Fnatic, G2 Esports, and Winstrike Team, were knocked out in the New Legends stage, thus losing their Legends status. Fnatic failed to advance to the playoffs for the first time in the team's history; the organization had been a Legend at every Major until London. This also ended Freddy "KRiMZ" Johansson's run as one of the only players to attend every Major and become Legends. This left Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer as the only player to become a Legend at every Major in CS:GO history, and MIBR as the only team to be Legends at every Major it had attended. This Major was also significant in that no majority-Swedish team became Legends after Ninjas in Pyjamas fell to MIBR in the New Legends stage. Cloud9 also became the second team in CS:GO history to lose its Legends status after winning the previous Major, along with Team EnVyUs.

The grand finals pitted Natus Vincere and Astralis against each other. Natus Vincere defeated BIG in the quarterfinals and MIBR in the semifinals while Astralis defeated FaZe Clan and Team Liquid respectively. In a fairly convincing two map sweep, Astralis took down Natus Vincere for its second Major championship to draw level with MIBR and the former Team EnVyUs French core for the second most Major titles.

Background[]

See also: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve. It is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series. In professional CS:GO, the Valve-sponsored Majors are the most prestigious tournaments.[3][4]

The defending champion was Cloud9, which became the first North American team to win a Major and just the third non-European team to win a Major. The Swedish team Fnatic attended as the most decorated CS:GO team in Major history, with three wins.

Format[]

FACEIT largely retained the Major format from Boston 2018 that had been announced by Valve and ELEAGUE, where the offline qualifier that had taken place before early Majors was rebranded as the "New Challengers stage" and became an official part of the full Major. Apart from this, the competitive format had remained nearly constant since implementing the 16-team Swiss system over the GSL format at ELEAGUE Major 2017.

The Major cycle began with four Minors, or regional qualifiers: Americas, Asia, CIS, and Europe. Two teams from each qualifier moved on to the New Challengers stage.[5] The New Challengers stage featured sixteen teams: the bottom eight teams from the previous Major's New Legends stage and the eight teams from the Minors. These teams played in a sixteen team, Swiss-system format. The top eight teams from this stage moved on to the next stage of the Major, the "New Legends stage".

The 16-team New Legends stage, which replaced the old group stage, featured the eight teams advancing from the New Challengers stage and the eight Legends from the Boston Major. Like the New Challengers stage, the New Legends stage used a 16-team, Swiss-system format. The top eight teams from this stage moved on to the playoff bracket and gained Legend status for the following Major.

FACEIT's format for the New Challengers and the New Legends stages made few adjustments to the Boston format. In round five of each Swiss group stage, the remaining six teams played a best-of-three instead of the previous best-of-one.[6] In addition, the group stage used the Buchholz system for seeding the Swiss-system, rather than random draw. In FACEIT's Buchholz system, the teams with the hardest strength of schedule earned the higher seeds after the first round; strength of schedule is determined by how many wins the team's opponent has had.[7]

In the playoffs, now known as the "New Champions stage," eight teams played in a single elimination, best-of-three bracket.[2] FACEIT also made slight changes to the New Champions stage. Rather than randomizing the teams with the same records, these playoffs seeded teams based on how difficult their opponents in the group stage had been. This was determined by adding up opponent wins from the New Legends stage.[6]

Map pool[]

On April 20, 2018, Valve announced that the revamped Dust II would be replacing Cobblestone in the Active Duty map pool, changing the map pool from Boston 2018.[8]

Maps
  • Cache
  • Dust II
  • Inferno
  • Mirage
  • Nuke
  • Overpass
  • Train

Regional qualifiers[]

Each regional qualifier, called "Minors", featured eight teams, whether through direct invitation or through qualifiers. Each minor featured two groups of four teams; these groups were in GSL double elimination formats, which was the format used at every major until the ELEAGUE Major, with the initial matches and winners match being best of ones and the losers and decider series being best of three. Two teams of each group qualify for the bracket phase, which is a four team, double elimination, best of three bracket. Two teams qualify for the major qualifier from each minor.

Each minor also had a US$50,000 prize pool with first place receiving US$30,000, second place taking in US$15,000, and third place raking in the last US$5,000.[9] In addition, all four minors will be held in London at the Twickenham Stadium to combat any last minute visa issues before the actual Major starts.[10]

Asia Minor[]

The Asia Minor ran from July 16 to July 20. Two teams were invited to the Asia Minor, unlike the last Asia Minor, in which all eight teams were invited. Two teams qualified from the Southeast Asia qualifier (which includes India), one team from the East Asia qualifier, one team from the Middle East qualifier, one team from the Oceania qualifier, and one team from the China qualifier. Each open Asian regional qualifier was a single elimination bracket.[11]

Controversy ensued in the China qualifier. Fierce Tiger had won the China qualifier via forfeit from VG.FlashGaming due to the latter's internet issues. VG.Flash suspected that its internet had been "sabotaged" before the match was about to start. FACEIT decided that the match would be replayed. Fierce Tiger was unhappy with the decision, saying that VG.Flash should be held accountable for its own issues and that its players were already on vacation. Fierce Tiger later said that it would not surrender its China qualifier win and hoped that FACEIT would could reach a "verdict with fair play in mind."[12] FACEIT administrators also realized that three of Fierce Tiger's four matches resulted in forfeits, with the other match being a 16–0 against Team MAX, making a possibility of a denial-of-service attack or match fixing likely. After speculations arose about the mysterious new fifth player Fierce Tiger brought on to the team who went by the alias "tbgirl", FACEIT learned and eventually confirmed with Valve that "tbgirl" was actually a player named Kun "LEo" Hou. LEo had recently been banned by Valve with a VAC ban. A VAC ban is an official ban by Valve if a player is caught cheating with Valve's anti-cheat system and any player with a VAC ban would be ineligible to play at a Valve-sponsored tournament and would last a lifetime. Fierce Tiger tried to hide "LEo"'s new identity and knowingly let the banned player play. In the end, FACEIT disqualified Fierce Tiger and Roar eSports would face off against VG.Flash in the final.[13]

Teams
  • Australia Renegades (Invited)
  • China TyLoo (Invited)
  • United Nations 5Power Club[Note 1][14] (Southeast Asia)
  • Singapore B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape[Note 2][15] (Southeast Asia)
  • Japan SCARZ Absolute (East Asia)
  • Israel Uniquestars (Middle East)
  • Australia Tainted Minds (Oceania)
  • China ViCi.Flash Gaming (China)
Notes
  1. ^ 5Power Club had three players with visa issues, so the team was forced to gather three players with visas to the United Kingdom quickly before the event started.
  2. ^ Signature Gaming's visa applications were denied by the British embassy. FACEIT decided to find a replacement instead of running the event with seven teams like the CIS Minor. The semifinalists runner-ups at the Southeast Asia qualifier, B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape and Devious, played to replace Signature. B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape would stroll its way into the Asia Minor.
  First round Semifinals Finals
                             
A1 Japan SCARZ Absolute 0  
B2 Australia Tainted Minds 2  
  B2 Australia Tainted Minds 0  
  B1 China TyLoo 2  
B1 China TyLoo  2
A2 Australia Renegades 1  
  B1 China TyLoo 0
  A2 Australia Renegades 2
A1 Japan SCARZ Absolute 1  
A2 Australia Renegades 2  
  B2 Australia Tainted Minds 0
  A2 Australia Renegades 2  
Asia Minor summary; London, United Kingdom

The Asia Minor kicked off with a stunner. SCARZ Absolute was the dark horse team to qualify from the East Asia qualifier, as MVP PK was the favorite; however, MVP PK was upset early on to give SCARZ Absolute a path to make it to the Minor. The Minor started with SCARZ Absolute defeating arguably Asia's number two team VG.Flash Gaming. Renegades was able to defeat B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape in a comfortable win as the favorites to win the Minor moved on. In Group A's winner's match, SCARZ Absolute pulled off another upset as the Japanese team was just able to hold back the Aussies, led by Takemori "takej" Shogo, who went huge in the game and SCARZ was the first team to move on to the bracket stage. VG.Flash struggled as one of its star players YuanZhang "Attacker" Sheng was injured. B.O.O.T-d[S] was able to the team from the China qualifier in a relatively close three maps as VG.Flash was eliminated after qualifying for the Boston Major back in January. Renegades once again cruised to an easy series win against B.O.O.T-d[s} to move on to the bracket stage. In Group B, TyLoo opened up with a closer than expected win against 5Power Club, as the latter was playing with three stand-ins. In the other opening match, Uniquestars from Israel put up a strong performance, but it was not enough as Tainted Minds led by Joshua "INS" Potter's 25 kills allowed the Australian team to pull off the comeback. In the winner's match, TyLoo absolutely throttled Tainted Minds 16–2 to easily take the first seed. Uniquestars was able to pull off a series win against a notable Asian team in a close best of three. However, the team from Israel could not pull past Tainted Minds as the latter was able to figure out Uniquestars in the end.

The bracket stage started off with a thriller, as the two rivals from the Asia and Oceania region met once again in the Asia Minor. TyLoo barely took the first map as it went the full thirty rounds. Renegades took the next map into overtime. In the third map, Renegades had the early 9–6 lead, but TyLoo won ten of the next eleven rounds to dominate Australia's best and move on to the winner's finals. SCARZ Absolute could not pull off another upset as the first map went easily to Tainted Minds. The next map was much closer, but Tainted Minds was able to secure the series and face off against TyLoo as some of the Tainted Minds players looked to go back to the Major. SCARZ's mini-run came to an end as the Japanese fell to Renegades, but was able to take a map off the Australians as for the second straight year, an East Asian team came in fourth. TyLoo continued to stroll as it defeated Tainted Minds to secure a spot at the Major. Renegades made quick work of Tainted Minds as the compatriots duked it out. For every Asia Minor barring the first one at Columbus, Renegades and TyLoo were in the top two at the Minor. At the Columbus Asia Minor, TyLoo was disqualified due to Quanqing "qz" Wu having an unknown VAC ban, but Renegades still made it in the top two, as The MongolZ topped the other teams. In the finals, Renegades took revenge against TyLoo as the Australians took the first seed in the Asia Minor to face an easier opponent in the first round of the New Challengers stage.

CIS Minor[]

The CIS Minor ran from July 10 to July 13. All eight teams in the CIS Minor came from the closed qualifier. In the closed qualifier, eight teams were invited and another eight teams qualified from four separate open qualifiers. The closed qualifier was a sixteen team, best of three, Swiss system format and the top eight teams moved on to the CIS Minor.[16]

Before the Minor even started, Nemiga Gaming was denied visas to the United Kingdom, so the team was unable to attend the Minor. Instead of finding a replacement, FACEIT decided to run the event with seven teams.[17] Visa denial issues also forced two additional teams (PLINK-TECH and Monolith Gaming) to play with stand-ins.[18] This Minor was notable in that it would be the first Major in which Yegor "markeloff" Markelov would not participate in after his FlipSid3 Tactics team lost to three unknown teams in the CIS closed qualifier.

Teams
  • European Union HellRaisers (Closed #1-2)
  • Russia Team Spirit (Closed #1-2)
  • Kazakhstan AVANGAR (Closed #3-5)
  • Belarus Nemiga Gaming (Closed #3-5)
  • Ukraine pro100 (Closed #3-5)
  • Russia forZe (Closed #6-8)
  • Russia PLINK-TECH (Closed #6-8)
  • Russia Monolith Gaming (Closed #6-8)
  First round Semifinals Finals
                             
A1 European Union HellRaisers 2  
B2 Kazakhstan AVANGAR 0  
  A1 European Union HellRaisers 2  
  A2 Ukraine pro100 0  
B1 Russia Team Spirit 0
A2 Ukraine pro100 2  
  A1 European Union HellRaisers 2
  B1 Russia Team Spirit 1
B1 Russia Team Spirit 2  
B2 Kazakhstan AVANGAR 1  
  A2 Ukraine pro100 0
  B1 Russia Team Spirit 2  
CIS Minor summary; London, United Kingdom

With Nemiga Gaming out, Group A effectively ran as a three team, double elimination bracket with HellRaisers given a bye. PLINK-TECH dominated pro100 in the first match of Group A, as Rassim "Jyo" Valijev lead the way. In the winner's match, HellRaisers took down PLINK after going down 10-11 by taking six rounds in a row to secure a spot in the playoffs. In the decider's series, pro100 and PLINK split games. The third map went to overtime on Mirage, but it was pro100 to get revenge by sweeping the overtime to eliminate PLINK and move on to the playoffs. In Group B, AVANGAR fell to forZe in a game that forZe's terrorist side dominated. In the other initial match, Team Spirit was led by Dmitriy "Dima" Bandurka's 22 kills in a blowout 16–2 win over Monolith Gaming. Team Spirit took down forZe in the winner's match to take the top seed in the group. AVANGAR won a first close map against Monolith and then comfortably strode into the decider's series in the second map to eliminate Monolith. forZe took the first map, but AVANGAR took the second map. Led by Alexey "Qikert" Golubev's 23 kills, AVANGAR was able to take the final map of the group stage to move on to the bracket phase and to eliminate forZe.

In the bracket stage, pro100 took down Team Spirit in two maps to send the Russian team down to the loser's bracket. HellRaisers was able to take care of AVANGAR in the other series as the favorites for the CIS Minor moved on. HellRaisers was able to take down pro100 in two games in a relatively closer series to secure a spot at the Major, thanks to the firepower of Özgür "woxic" Eker, while pro100 still needed one more win to make it to the Major. Last Major's surprise team AVANGAR didn't even make it to the big stage this time as Team Spirit was able to dominate the Kazakh team on the third map. Team Spirit the strolled into the Major by easily taking down pro100 to finalize the two CIS teams. In the first place decider, HellRaisers survived Spirit's comeback bid after being up 10–5 to take the game 16–14. Spirit answered by taking the next map on Mirage easily 16–6. Spirit looked to take the final map after going up 12–3 at the half. However, the Russian squad was only able to pick up just two rounds on its counter-terrorist side as w0xic dominated the second half with 40 kills and HellRaisers completed the comeback at 16–14 to take the first seed at the CIS Minor. When HellRaisers defeated pro100 in the winner's final, Vlаdуslаv "bondik" Nеchуроrchuk became the first player to qualify for the Major via three Minor qualifiers. With HellRaisers, he qualified through both the Europe Minor and CIS Minor; when he was on loan to the Chinese team TyLoo, he qualified through the Asia Minor.

Europe Minor[]

The Europe Minor ran from July 19 to July 22. The Europe Minor will be exactly like the CIS Minor. All eight teams in the Europe Minor will come from the closed qualifier. In the closed qualifier, eight teams will be invited and another eight teams will qualify from four separate open qualifiers. The closed qualifier will be a sixteen team, best of three, Swiss system format and the top eight teams move on to the Europe Minor.[19] Notably, Ninjas in Pyjamas were able to qualify for a Major for the first time in over two years.

Teams
  • Denmark OpTic Gaming (Closed #1-2)
  • Poland Team Kinguin (Closed #1-2)
  • Finland ENCE eSports (Closed #3-5)
  • Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas (Closed #3-5)
  • Sweden Red Reserve (Closed #3-5)
  • France 3DMAX (Closed #6-8)
  • France LeftOut (Closed #6-8)
  • Denmark Sprout Esports (Closed #6-8)
  First round Semifinals Finals
                             
A1 Denmark OpTic Gaming 2  
B2 Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas 1  
  A1 Denmark OpTic Gaming 2  
  A2 Finland ENCE eSports 1  
B1 Denmark Sprout Esports 0
A2 Finland ENCE eSports 2  
  A1 Denmark OpTic Gaming 0
  B2 Sweden Ninjas in Pyj. 2
B2 Sweden Ninjas in Pyj. 2  
B1 Denmark Sprout Esports 1  
  A2 Finland ENCE eSports 0
  B2 Sweden Ninjas in Pyj. 2  
Europe Minor summary; London, United Kingdom

Group A began with OpTic Gaming breezing past 3DMAX. Meanwhile, ENCE eSports barely edged it out over the former players of Team EnVyUs, who were playing under the brand LeftOut. In the winner's match, René "cajunb" Borg and Nicklas "gade" Gade were able to lead OpTic to a close 16–13 win over ENCE to secure a spot in the top four. In the battle between two French teams, LeftOut looked to move on as 3DMAX was barely known even in France. However, 3DMAX's new roster were able to upset ex-EnVyUs in three maps to eliminate some of the best French players in the scene. ENCE took care of 3DMAX in two relatively close games as both French teams in Group A were eliminated from championship contention. Sprout Esports's new lineup started strong with a win against Team Kinguin. Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) won its first ever Europe Minor game, but just barely over Red Reserve. Sprout defeated the Ninjas to move on to the bracket phase as the organization looked to head back to the Major. Red Reserve took down Team Kinguin in two close maps. With Kinguin being eliminated, this would be the first time the legendary Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas would not play at a Major after attending the first one with Universal Soldiers and the next eleven with Virtus.pro. Red Reserve failed to get revenge against NiP in two close games as NiP was one step closer to going back to a Major.

OpTic started with an easy map win over NiP, but the Swedes bit back with an overtime win in the second. In the third map, OpTic cruised to the series in at 16–3 to move on to winner's final. On the other side, ENCE easily took down Sprout in two maps as allu looked to head back to a Major. The Ninjas started the loser's side strong as it dominated Sprout. Sprout barely took the next map at 16–14, but NiP bounced back to take the third map in a close 16–13 win, led by Fredrik "REZ" Sterner's 28 kills. ENCE and OpTic split the first two maps in their series, but with the help of Nicklas "gade" Gade, OpTic was able to secure a spot in the FACEIT Major. In the loser's bracket, NiP finally found its stride as it was the two old school legends in the game to come through and knock out ENCE from the Major. In the grand finals, NiP rolled over OpTic to take the first seed in the Minor and finally go back to a Major after missing three straight.

Americas Minor[]

The Americas Minor ran from July 7 to July 11. Unlike the previous America Minors, no team was directly invited to the Americas Minor. This time, six teams will come from the North American closed qualifier and two teams will come from the South American open qualifier. In the North American closed qualifier, eight teams will be invited and another eight teams will come from four separate open qualifiers. These teams will play in a sixteen teams, best of three Swiss system format and the top six teams will move on to the Americas Minor. The South American open will have two open qualifiers and each will be a single elimination, 1024 team bracket.[20]

Teams
  • compLexity Gaming (North America #1-2)
  • United States NRG Esports (North America #1-2)
  • United States eUnited (North America #3-5)
  • United States Rogue (North America #3-5)
  • United States Team Dignitas (North America #3-5)
  • United States Swole Patrol[Note 1] (North America #6)
  • Brazil Não Tem Como (South America 1)
  • Brazil Furia eSports (South America 2)
Notes
  1. ^ Three teams were tied for sixth place at the North American closed qualifier. The tiebreaker was determined by whichever team had the best map win to loss difference. Swole Patrol (8-5) was able to beat out Luminosity Gaming (6-5) and Team One (6-6) to take the last spot in the Americas Minor.
  First round Semifinals Finals
                             
A1 United States NRG Esports 1  
B2 compLexity G. 2  
  B2 compLexity G. 0  
  B1 United States Rogue 2  
B1 United States Rogue 2
A2 United States eUnited 1  
  B1 United States Rogue 0
  B2 compLexity G. 2
A1 United States NRG eSports 1  
A2 United States eUnited 2  
  B2 compLexity G. 2
  A2 United States eUnited 0  
Americas Minor summary; London, United Kingdom

NRG Esports kicked off the Minor in a closer-than-expected match against Swole Patrol. Despite Ryan "fREAKAZOiD" Abadir's 19 kills, it was Ethan "nahtE" Arnold to outclass Swole. In the next match, it was the experienced but struggling Não Tem Como (NTC) against the inexperienced but rising eUnited. Despite NTC taking the halftime lead, eUnited was able to pull away with the game lead Kaleb "moose" Jayne's 22 kills. The winner's match saw NRG taking a massive 13–2 lead and then denying a comeback attempt by eUnited to book a spot in the bracket. NTC was able to take care of Swole Patrol with relative ease to stay alive. eUnited made quick work of NTC in the first match and then squeaked out a win in the second map to head to the bracket stage and eliminate NTC. Group B started with compLexity Gaming taking down Furia eSports with relative ease. In the other match, Rogue strolled through its second half against Team Dignitas. In the winner's match, Rogue was able to win a close map against compLexity to secure a spot in the bracket phase. Team Dignitas won the first match against Furia easily, but the second was close as Furia sent the game to overtime after being down 14–8. However, Dignitas was able to scrape away with the win, to eliminate the second South American team. Dignitas kept it close with compLexity in the first match, but it was the latter team to win the map. compLexity would change tides as it would completely trample Dignitas 16–1 in the second match to move on to the top four and to eliminate Dignitas.

Rogue completely dominated eUnited in the first map of the bracket phase, which included a 15-0 first half. eUnited responded by taking the next map in a fairly comfortable win. Rogue was able to clinch the series in a close game with the help of Ricky "Rickeh" Mulholland and Rogue sent eUnited to the loser's bracket. NRG easily won the first map against compLexity Gaming as the favorites to take the Minor was on a good start. However, compLexity looked to get its organization back to its Major since EMS One Katowice 2014 and just about took the game in overtime after being down 13–8. compLexity would pull off the upset series win by completely shutting down NRG's offense on Inferno as compLexity would just one series win away to going to the major. Rogue was the first qualifying team to head to the FACEIT Major as Spencer "Hiko" Martin would head back to the big stage after being a finalist at ESL One Cologne 2016 and compLexity was sent down to the loser's bracket. NRG took a close one against eUnited, but eUnited bounced back to take the next map in another close game. On Dust II, eUnited took a massive halftime lead and looked to upset a top ten team. Will "dazzLe" Loafman lead the dominating win to eliminate NRG from Major championship contention. compLexity swept eUnited to secure a spot at the Major. compLexity would be at the Major for the first time since 2014. In the first place decider, compLexity rolled over Rogue in the first map. compLexity took a huge lead on the second map, but Rogue brought it all the way back to 14–15. However, compLexity was able to clutch it out in the thirtieth round to take the top seed in the Americas.

Broadcast talent[]

Desk host

  • United Kingdom Alex "Machine" Richardson

Stage host

  • United Kingdom Freya Spiers

Interviewer

  • United Kingdom Pala Gilroy Sen

Commentators

  • United Kingdom James Bardolph
  • Denmark Anders Blume
  • United Kingdom Henry "HenryG" Greer
  • United Kingdom Vince Hill
  • United Kingdom Daniel "ddk" Kapadia
  • United States Jason "moses" O'Toole
  • Canada Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett

Analysts

Observers

  • United Kingdom Connor "Sliggy" Blomfield

Broadcasts[]

The major was streamed in various languages across Twitch. China streamed its broadcast on Douyu. Streams were also shown on FACEIT's YouTube's channel and on Steam.tv.

  • United Kingdom FACEIT TV
  • France 1PV
  • Vietnam 500bros
  • Germany 99Damage
  • China Douyu
  • Bulgaria GamerTV
  • Romania GamerTV
  • Czech Republic Hitpoint
  • Poland IZAKOO
  • Portugal RTP Arena
  • Russia StarLadder

Teams competing[]

Legends
Boston 2018 9th-16th
Regional Qualifiers
  • Australia Renegades (Asia Minor #1)
  • China TyLoo (Asia Minor #2)
  • European Union HellRaisers (CIS Minor #1)
  • Russia Team Spirit (CIS Minor #2)
  • Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas (Europe Minor #1)
  • Denmark OpTic Gaming (Europe Minor #2)
  • compLexity Gaming (Americas Minor #1)
  • United States Rogue (Americas Minor #2)
Notes
  1. ^ Immortals acquire the MIBR (Made in Brazil) brand. The SK Gaming players' contracts expired and Immortals picked up the roster. Immortals announced that they would be playing under the MIBR tag.
  2. ^ Quantum Bellator Fire sold its team to a newly formed organization called Winstrike Team.

Pre-major ranking[]

HLTV.org rank teams based on results of teams' performances. The rankings shown below reflect the September 3, 2018 rankings.[22]

The HLTV.org World Ranking ranks the best teams in the competitive field of the game. The world ranking is based on teams' achievements over the past year (with severe decay in points throughout each month), recent form over the last 2 months, and performance at the last 10 LAN events. All of that is predicated around a 3-man core each team is required to have in order to retain their past points. Points cap at 1000 points. The rankings started with the ESG Tour Mykonos 2017, in which mousesports defeated Team Liquid and concluded with North upsetting Astralis at DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018.

Teams that were in the top 30 but failed to qualify for the major include NRG eSports (#9, United States), Heroic (#13, Denmark), ENCE eSports (#18, Finland), Ghost Gaming (#22, Canada), Luminosity Gaming (#23, Brazil), Imperial Esports (#24, Lithuania), AGO Esports (#25, Poland), Fragsters (#26, Denmark), AVANGAR (#27, Kazakhstan), and Team Kinguin (#28, Poland).

HLTV.org pre-major ranking
World ranking
Place Team Points Move1 Peak2 Low2 Best Major placing3 Best achievements2
1 Denmark Astralis 982 Steady 1 8 1st at Atlanta 2017 ECS Season 5 winner
ELEAGUE Premier 2018 winner
ESL Pro League Season 7 winner
2 Ukraine Natus Vincere 709 Steady 2 10 2nd at Cluj-Napoca 2015
2nd at Columbus 2016 		SL i-League Season 5 winner
ESL One Cologne 2018 winner
3 Team Liquid 482 Steady 3 14 2nd at Cologne 2016 cs_summit 2 winner
ECS Season 5 runner-up
ELEAGUE Premier 2018 runner-up
4 Denmark North 477 Increase 6 4 17 5th at Atlanta 2017
5th at Kraków 2017 		DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 winner
DreamHack Open Valencia 2018 winner
5 European Union mousesports 472 Steady 2 8 5th at Boston 2018 SL i-League Season 4 winner
V4 Future Sports Festival winner
6 European Union FaZe Clan 457 Decrease 2 1 6 2nd at Boston 2018 ELEAGUE Premier 2018 winner
IEM Sydney 2018 winner
ESL Belo Horizonte 2018 winner
7 Brazil MIBR 358 Steady 1 8 1st at Columbus 2016
1st at Cologne 2016 		Adrenaline Cyber League 2018 winner
Moche XL Esports winner
ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 winner
8 Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas 271 Increase 6 6 14 1st at Cologne 2014 5th at SL i-League S5
3rd at DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018
10 Sweden Fnatic 220 Decrease 2 2 10 1st at Winter 2013
1st at Katowice 2015
1st Cologne 2015 		Intel Extreme Masters XII - World Championship winner
World Electronic Sports Games 2017 winner
11 Germany BIG 277 Decrease 5 6 31 5th at Kraków 2017 ESEA Season 27 winner
ESL One Cologne 2018 runner-up
12 China TyLoo 178 Steady 10 30 2nd at Boston 2018 Asia Minor SL & ImbaTV Chongqing winner
Qi Invitational runner-up
14 France G2 Esports 136 Decrease 3 4 25 5th at Boston 2018 5th at SL i-League Season 4
5th at ECS Season 5
5th at ESL One Cologne 2018
15 European Union HellRaisers 128 Increase 1 13 21 5th at Katowice 2014
5th at Winter 2014 		DreamHack Open Tours 2018 runner-up
Moche XL Esports runner-up
16 Australia Renegades 128 Decrease 1 10 19 9th at Cologne 2015 5th at SL i-League S4
5th at IEM Sydney 2018
17 Denmark OpTic Gaming 115 Increase 3 15 48 2nd at London 2018 Europe Minor DreamHack Summer 2018 runner-up
5th at ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018
19 Kazakhstan Gambit Esports 108 Decrease 1 10 21 1st at Kraków 2017 3rd at DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018
3rd at DreamHack Open Tours 2018
20 Poland Virtus.pro 102 Decrease 1 10 22 1st at Katowice 2014 V4 Future Sports Festival runner-up
CS:GO Asia Championships 2018 runner-up
21 United States Cloud9 99 Decrease 4 2 21 1st at Boston 2018 5th at World Electronic Sports Games 2017
cs_summit 2 runner-up
29 compLexity Gaming 70 Decrease 3 21 55 3rd at Winter 2013 5th at DreamHack Open Summer 2018
30 United States Rogue 70 Decrease 8 22 63 2nd at London 2018 Americas Minor DreamHack Open Austin 2018 runner-up
31 Turkey Space Soldiers – Decrease 3 12 31 9th at Boston 2018 World Electronic Sports Games 2017 runner-up
DreamHack Open Austin 2018 winner
36 Russia Team Spirit – Increase 1 23 37 2nd at London 2018 CIS Minor SL & ImbaTV Chongqing 2018 runner-up
ESEA Season 27 runner-up
47 Russia Winstrike Team – Increase 1 12 51 5th at Boston 2018 M.Game League #2 winner
3rd at World Cyber Arena 2017
211 Russia Vega Squadron – Decrease 133 14 211 9th at Boston 2018 5th at SL & ImbaTV Chongqing 2018

1Change since August 27, 2018 ranking

2Since end of ELEAGUE Boston Major

3Best major placements may not necessarily reflect teams' current rosters

New Challengers stage[]

The New Challengers stage took place from September 5 to September 9, 2018. The Challengers stage, also known as the Preliminary stage and formerly known as the offline qualifier, will be a sixteen team swiss tournament: after the randomly-drawn Day 1 games, teams will play other teams with the same win-loss record. Every round will consist of one game. In addition, teams will not play the same team twice unless necessary and teams will be randomly chosen for the first two rounds; afterwards, rounds three through five will use the Buchholz system, meaning that seeding will take place for next matchups. In addition, round five matchups will be a best of three rather than a best of one. Any team with three wins would qualify for the New Legends stage, and any team with three losses would be eliminated.

In the first round, teams from pool one will be matched up against teams in pool four. Teams in pool two will play teams in pool three. One team from a pool is randomly decided to face off against a randomly decided team in another pool. Teams in pool one are Gambit Esports, Space Soldiers, Vega Squadron, and a randomly decided team among Astralis, BIG, and Team Liquid. Teams in pool two are the two other teams from Astralis, BIG, and Team Liquid; North; and Virtus.pro. Teams in pool three are the Minor winners: Renegades, HellRaisers, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and compLexity Gaming. Teams in pool four are the Minor runner-ups: TyLoo, Team Spirit, OpTic Gaming, and Rogue.

In the second round, the winners in the first round will face each other in the "high" matches, in which teams with a 1–0 record will play against each other; the losers will face each other in the "low" matches, in which teams with a 0–1 record will play each other.

In the third round, the winners of the high matches (teams with 2-0 records) from round two will face each other. The winners of these two matches will qualify for the major. The losers of the high round and the winners of the low round (teams with 1-1 records) will face each other in the "mid" matches. The losers from the previous low matches (teams with 0-2 records) will face each other in round three's low matches. The losers of these low matches are eliminated. Twelve teams remain in the Challengers stage.

In the fourth round, the losers of the high matches and the winners of the mid matches (teams with 2-1 records) will face each other in round four's high matches. The winners of those high matches qualify for the next phase of the Major. The losers of the mid matches and the winners of the low matches (teams with 1-2 records) will face each other in the low matches of round four. The losers of these matches are eliminated from the Major. Six teams remain.

In the last round, the remaining teams will face off (teams with 2-2 records). The winners of these matches will qualify for the New Legends stage and the losing teams will be eliminated from the Major. Instead of a best of one, these games will be a best of three. In the most ideal of situations, the Swiss format should allow teams to have a harder time each time they win and have an easier time each time they lose.

Place Team Record RD Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5
1–2 Team Liquid 3-0 +20 OpTic Gaming
16-4
Mirage 		High match
HellRaisers
16-9
Inferno 		High match
Vega Squadron
19-17
Cache 		New Legends stage New Legends stage
Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas 3-0 +17 Virtus.pro
16-5
Mirage 		High match
TyLoo
16-12
Train 		High match
Astralis
28-26
Mirage 		New Legends stage New Legends stage
3–5 Denmark Astralis 3-1 +26 compLexity Gaming
16-4
Inferno 		High match
Rogue
16-13
Inferno 		High match
Ninjas in Pyjamas
26-28
Mirage 		High match
Team Spirit
16-3
Dust II 		New Legends stage
compLexity Gaming 3-1 +1 Astralis
4-16
Inferno 		Low match
Space Soldiers
16-11
Inferno 		Mid match
BIG
16-12
Inferno 		High match
Vega Squadron
19-15
Inferno 		New Legends stage
European Union HellRaisers 3-1 -1 North
19-17
Overpass 		High match
Team Liquid
9-16
Inferno 		Mid match
Gambit Esports
16-14
Overpass 		High match
OpTic Gaming
25-23
Train 		New Legends stage
6–8 Germany BIG 3-2 +23 Renegades
16-6
Overpass 		High match
Vega Squadron
16-19
Train 		Mid match
compLexity Gaming
12-16
Inferno 		Low match
Gambit Esports
16-8
Nuke 		OpTic Gaming
2-0
Russia Vega Squadron 3-2 +10 Team Spirit
16-14
Mirage 		High match
BIG
19-16
Train 		High match
Team Liquid
17-19
Cache 		High match
compLexity Gaming
15-19
Inferno 		North
2-0
China TyLoo 3-2 +8 Gambit Esports
19-17
Inferno 		High match
Ninjas in Pyjamas
16-12
Train 		Mid match
OpTic Gaming
26-28
Inferno 		Low match
Renegades
16-10
Inferno 		Team Spirit
2-0
9–11 Denmark North 2-3 -4 HellRaisers
17-19
Overpass 		Low match
Team Spirit
13-16
Nuke 		Low match
Virtus.pro
16-6
Mirage 		Low match
Rogue
25-23
Inferno 		Vega Squadron
0-2
Russia Team Spirit 2-3 -6 Vega Squadron
14-16
Mirage 		Low match
North
16-13
Nuke 		Mid match
Rogue
16-4
Overpass 		High match
Astralis
3-16
Dust II 		TyLoo
0-2
Denmark OpTic Gaming 2-3 -21 Team Liquid
4-16
Mirage 		Low match
Virtus.pro
16-13
Mirage 		Mid match
TyLoo
28-26
Inferno 		High match
HellRaisers
23-25
Train 		BIG
0-2
12–14 Kazakhstan Gambit Esports 1-3 -6 Tyloo
17-19
Inferno 		Low match
Renegades
16-10
Train 		Mid match
HellRaisers
14-16
Overpass 		Low match
BIG
8-16
Nuke 		Eliminated
United States Rogue 1-3 -11 Space Soldiers
16-10
Inferno 		High match
Astralis
13-16
Inferno 		Mid match
Team Spirit
4-16
Overpass 		Low match
North
23-25
Inferno 		Eliminated
Australia Renegades 1-3 -18 BIG
6-16
Overpass 		Low match
Gambit Esports
10-16
Train 		Low match
Space Soldiers
19-15
Inferno 		Low match
TyLoo
10-16
Inferno 		Eliminated
15–16 Turkey Space Soldiers 0-3 -15 Rogue
10-16
Inferno 		Low match
compLexity Gaming
11-16
Inferno 		Low match
Renegades
15-19
Inferno 		Eliminated Eliminated
Poland Virtus.pro 0-3 -24 Ninjas in Pyjamas
5-16
Mirage 		Low match
OpTic Gaming
13-16
Mirage 		Low match
North
6-16
Mirage 		Eliminated Eliminated
Round 5 scores
Team Score Map Score Team
Russia Team Spirit 12 Overpass 16 China TyLoo
Russia Team Spirit 23 Inferno 25 China TyLoo
Russia Team Spirit – Mirage – China TyLoo
Denmark OpTic Gaming 6 Dust II 16 Germany BIG
Denmark OpTic Gaming 14 Train 16 Germany BIG
Denmark OpTic Gaming – Nuke – Germany BIG
Russia Vega Squadron 16 Inferno 8 Denmark North
Russia Vega Squadron 16 Mirage 13 Denmark North
Russia Vega Squadron – Train – Denmark North
New Challengers stage summary

Space Soldiers and Rogue kicked off the FACEIT Major: London 2018 on Inferno. Space Soldiers' Engin "ngiN" Kor could not attend the Major due to visa issues, so the coach Canpolat "hardstyle" Yildiran was forced to sub in, setting Space Soldiers back from its usual peak. Hunter "SicK" Mims lead the way with 23 kills and Daniel "vice" Kim found some crucial kills to get to 22. Despite İsmailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş's 17 kills and Buğra "Calyx" Arkın's 16 kills, Space Soldiers fell as hardstyle struggled. Virtus.pro (VP) and Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) was the next map in the battle between two fallen greats. NiP would dominate this game as only Michał "MICHU" Müller came alive for VP. NiP's in-game leader Dennis "dennis" Edman came alive along with Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson in the dominating 16–5 win. The one-time Major champions Gambit Esports faced off against China's best in TyLoo. This game turned to be a tight one as Rustem "mou" Telepov of Gambit went huge with 36 kills. However, TyLoo's two Indonesians Hansel "BnTeT" Ferdinand and Kevin "xccurate" Susanto lead the way in an overtime victory. BIG faced off against Renegades in the next match. The two squads historically had very close games, but this time BIG overwhelmed Renegades with Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz's 27 kills while Fatih "gob b" Dayik followed up with 26. Tizian "tiziaN" Feldbusch set the tone in the pistol round with an incredibly fast shot to set the tone of the game. The Aussies' star player Justin "jks" Savage only had 9 kills in the affair. Two Russian teams met in the first round with Vega Squadron going against Team Spirit. Spirit looked to run away with the match after a 12-3 halftime score, but Vega came all the way back to make to tie it at 14. A Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov 1 vs. 2 clutch in round 29 allowed Vega to complete the comeback North vs. HellRaisers was the next match in what was portrayed to be the most competitive match, as HellRaisers was a solid team and a seemingly slumping North team went on to win DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018, the last big event before the Major. Philip "aizy" Aistrup kept North in the game with some clutch kills to compete with Issa "ISSAA" Murad's 37 and Özgür "woxic" Eker's 34, but it was Bence "DeadFox" Böröcz who had two massive rounds in overtime to secure the victory for HellRaisers. North made a huge comeback to have the game head to overtime Team Liquid vs. OpTic Gaming was up next. The North American side dominated the Danes throughout the map. Day 2 began with a round one match in Astralis versus compLexity Gaming. The match was initially supposed to be played on the first day, but with Twickenham Stadium suffered a site-wide network outage, forcing FACEIT to play the match on day two.[23] Astralis took a massive lead and didn't look back. Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz and Peter "dupreeh" Rothmann both had at least 20 kills each while only Bradley "ANDROID" Fodor had more than 10 kills for compLexity.

Ninjas in Pyjamas and TyLoo started off the second round. The game was close at the half before each team went on a run of its own; in the end, it was NiP to win, with Christopher "GeT RiGhT" Alesund getting crucial kills towards the end of the game and his long time teammate Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg taking 23 kills. Hui "DD" Wu lead the way for TyLoo and Ke "captainMo" Liu had some important kills, but the Chinese team fell short. BIG and Vega was a back and forth affair that headed to overtime. Although Owen "smooya" Butterfield had 28 kills for BIG, Anton "tonyblack" Kolesnikov and Dmitriy "jR" Chervak had 30 kills each to upset BIG as it looked to have another surprise run at a Major. HellRaisers had a strong start against Liquid, but Liquid came back by taking ten of the last eleven rounds in the first half. HellRaisers struggled in the gun rounds as Liquid generally cruised to victory. Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken and Epitácio "TACO" de Melo lead the way over ISSAA's 20 kills. Vlаdуslаv "bondik" Nеchуроrchuk struggled for HellRaisers with just 41.4 average damage per round. Rogue and Astralis was the next match on Inferno. Rogue started off strong and won the second pistol round, but a weak Astralis buy somehow defeated Rogue and world's best took eleven of the last thirteen to avoid the upset. Casper "cadiaN" Møller and Ricky "Rickeh" Mulholland both had at least 20 kills each. Although Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth did not have much impact as usual, dev1ce and dupreeh stepped up again. In Gambit vs. Renegades, mou shut down the hopes of Renegades and Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev helped with 22 kills. Karlo "USTILO" Pivac and Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad topped the scoreboard for their team, but it was not enough as the Australian team dropped to 0–2. Spirit took everyone by surprise by taking a massive lead against North on Nuke and got to match point at 15–6, but North suddenly had seven rounds in a row. Vadim "DavCost" Vasilyev had a crucial opening kill while only on a pistol and Victor "somedieyoung" Orudzhev held it down after the bomb was planted to hold on for the win. Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen lead his team with 22 kills, but Spirit had dominated for most of the match. The two teams that were blown out in round one met in round two. Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski did the most for VP and Michał "snatchie" Rudzki and Paweł "byali" Bieliński had a lot of influence towards the end of the map as VP attempted to come back from a 15–8 deficit, but Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke's confidence gave OpTic a huge advantage early on and was able to hold on in the end. compLexity took a huge lead against Space Soldiers at the half, but the Turks took six rounds in a row to make it close. However, compLexity was able to stifle the comeback and kept Space Soldiers winless. Calyx and XANTARES lead the way again, but Rory "dephh" Jackson's 26 kills was more than enough. Ahmet "paz" Karahoca struggled for Space Soldiers in the losing effort.

The first decider match happened between Team Liquid and Vega Squadron. Vega continued to be the surprise in the early goings as it took a 7–3 lead, but Liquid was able tie the game at 12 after exploiting Vega's poor counter-terrorist side. Liquid got to match point first but would later fall flat as Vega's control of the map proved superior to send the game to overtime. Three crucial kills in the 35th round by Twistzz and a strong hold by Nicholas "nitr0" Cannella in the 36th round allowed Liquid to be the first team to advance to the New Legends stage. Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski and Keith "NAF" Markovic both performed well. Chopper tried to run over Liquid with 27 kills and Igor "crush" Shevchenko followed up with 22, but Pavel "hutji" Lashkov only had 10 kills as Vega was edged out. The next match between NiP and Astralis was a big one as it became one of the longest games in Major history. The game headed to quadruple overtime as NiP edged out Astralis to take a top spot in the Legends stage and took down the world's best. Although dupreeh had 54 kills for Astralis and Fredrik "REZ" Sterner had 38 for NiP, Lekr0 went big for his team with 50 kills while on the other side Emil "Magisk" Reif struggled for Astralis. compLexity was able to take another win over BIG as they went back and forth trading rounds in the second half. Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz lead the way with 24 kills and the young Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker and veteran Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan followed closely with 22 each. Spirit dominated Rogue as the Russians took the last ten rounds as Pavel "COLDYY1" Veklenko's 21 kills highlighted the blowout, even with Victor "somedieyoung" Orudzhev struggling. Gambit versus HellRaisers was another close affair as Nikolay "mir" Bityukov and Kirill "ANGE1" Karasov lead the kill tally for their respective teams. In the end, HellRaisers was able to come back from a 14–12 deficit to win the game at 16–14. Mikhail "Dosia" Stolyarov only had 9 kills in the effort. OpTic took a massive 10–2 lead, but TyLoo would come back all the way to make it 13–11 in the Chinese team's favor and the game was tied at 15 to head to overtime. In triple overtime, OpTic finally edged out TyLoo to go up 2–1. Haowen "somebody" Xu had a huge game with 49 kills, but k0nfing went bigger with 51. Renegades was able to eliminate Engin "MAJ3R" Kupeli's Space Soldiers in the first elimination match. Aaron "AZR" Ward lead the server with 26 kills as the Noah "Nifty" Francis-lead Renegades lived for another day. Mirage would be byali's last map with VP as North dominated the Poles. Filip "NEO" Kubski continued to struggle throughout the year as he ended up with just 9 kills and pashaBiceps only had 4 after the latter said this would most likely be his last Major.

Astralis bounced back immediately from the previous day to thrash Team Spirit 16–3. Xyp9x came in big time with 26 kills and Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander's team looked to take another Major. Players such as Dmitry "S0tF1k" Forostyanko struggled throughout the map for Spirit as it was forced to a best of three final round. The Asia Minor rematch went in favor of TyLoo this time as BnTeT and xccurate lead the way to stay alive at the Major. Renegades had struggled throughout and the team that it normally would beat eased its way to the fifth round. HellRaisers and OpTic set another chaotic overtime. Although Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer and Nicklas "gade" Gade did well for their team, Jakob "JUGi" Hansen could not come up big when his team needed him to as HellRaisers, led by ISSAA's 43 kills, moved on to the next phase of the Major. BIG wanted to show its Cologne 2018 run was not a fluke by at least making the top sixteen at the Major. Although Johannes "nex" Maget struggled for the Germans, mou could not perform as much as he did before and smooya lead BIG with 25 kills. The PGL Major MVP Abay "HObbit" Khassenov performed at a subpar level as Gambit was eliminated. Yet another overtime came through between compLexity Gaming and Vega Squadron. hutji was able to break the 30 kill barrier, but the teamwork of compLexity shut down Vega in overtime to send the team to the New Legends stage. North and Rogue had a tight first half contest, but North could not figure out Rogue's defense in the second until at 14–8, when North came back and sent the game to overtime. Despite players such as Nikolaj "niko" Kristensen struggling early, North was able to win the game in triple overtime to send Rogue home.

TyLoo started very strong with an 11-4 halftime lead, even holding somedieyoung to just one kill by the end of the half. Team Spirit got quite close with 12 rounds, but somebody had a big game with 27 kills. A wrong read by Spirit in the last round allowed TyLoo to have an easier time to enter the B bombsite as TyLoo took map one. Spirit got off to a much better start at 9–4, but TyLoo was able to salvage the half at 9–6. Towards the end of the second map on Inferno, TyLoo was in a very advantageous situations in two rounds, but BnTeT made a crucial mistake by going too aggressive into a weak Spirit buy and then other TyLoo players went for a high risk play that did not pan out in round 29 to let Spirit get to map point. However, Spirit crumbled in round 30 against a weak force buy from TyLoo as neither team capitalized on the other team's mistakes and another Inferno game headed to overtime. A sloppy but entertaining overtime ensued as both teams came back from massive man disadvantages and somehow made the rounds work. Neither team won a terrorist round in overtime until the third overtime when Spirit won two of the three. In the end of the mess, TyLoo was able to dig its way to victory. Players on both side such as Dmitriy "Dima" Bandurka and DD had impactful kills to keep the game close. In the next series, BIG dominated on Dust II as it took an 11–0 lead before OpTic even got a round on the board and never looked back. Players on OpTic such as René "cajunb" Borg never came alive in the loss. The second map was much closer as OpTic was able to climb back from a 9–3 score. Despite tying the score five times throughout the match, the Danish team never had the lead in the series despite k0nfig's 25 kills in the second map as OpTic was eliminated from Major championship contention. North looked to come back from a 0–2 record and Vega Squadron looked to avoid being eliminated after starting 2–0. The first map on Inferno did not end up being a close and messy one, unlike the other Inferno matches at the Major. Led by chopper's 24 kills, Vega comfortably cruised to a map win as it was finally able to break through a back and forth first eleven rounds. Map two was much closer after the first half ended at 8–7 in favor of Vega. North would take a 13–9 lead, but Vega's players calmed their nerves and proceeded to take the last seven rounds to eliminate North from the Major.

New Legends stage[]

The New Legends stage, formerly known as the Group stage, used the same format as the Challengers stage. This stage takes place from September 12 to September 16, 2018.

Cloud9, FaZe Clan, Natus Vincere, and MIBR were teams in pool one based on their top four placement at the Boston Major. Fnatic, G2 Esports, mousesports, and Winstrike Team were teams in pool two based on their quarterfinals finish at the Boston Major. Team Liquid and Ninjas in Pyjamas were placed in a third pool for going undefeated in the New Challengers stage. Astralis, compLexity Gaming, and HellRaisers were in a fourth pool after going 3–1. BIG, TyLoo, and Vega Squadron were in a fifth pool for going 3–2. The two teams in pool three were randomly drawn to play two teams from pool two. Two randomly selected teams from pool four were drawn to play the other two teams from pool two. The remaining team from pool four was matched against a randomly selected team from pool one. The three teams from pool five were randomly selected to play a randomly selected team from the three remaining teams in pool one.[24]

Place Team Record RD Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5
1–2 compLexity Gaming 3-0 +25 Fnatic
16-4
Inferno 		High match
G2 Esports
16-11
Cache 		High match
BIG
16-8
Nuke 		New Champions stage New Champions stage
Team Liquid 3-0 +19 Winstrike Team
16-7
Mirage 		High match
Ninjas in Pyjamas
16-10
Mirage 		High match
Astralis
19-15
Inferno 		New Champions stage New Champions stage
3–5 Denmark Astralis 3-1 +26 Natus Vincere
16-14
Inferno 		High match
Vega Squadron
16-4
Inferno 		High match
Team Liquid
15-19
Inferno 		High match
MIBR
16-0
Dust II 		New Champions stage
Ukraine Natus Vincere 3-1 +19 Astralis
14-16
Inferno 		Low match
FaZe Clan
16-12
Overpass 		Mid match
Ninjas in Pyjamas
16-6
Train 		High match
Fnatic
16-9
Mirage 		New Champions stage
Germany BIG 3-1 +19 FaZe Clan
16-5
Dust II 		High match
TyLoo
16-7
Train 		High match
compLexity Gaming
8-16
Nuke 		High match
HellRaisers
16-9
Train 		New Champions stage
6–8 European Union FaZe Clan 3-2 +22 BIG
5-16
Dust II 		Low match
Natus Vincere
12-16
Overpass 		Low match
mousesports
16-8
Mirage 		Low match
TyLoo
16-4
Mirage 		G2 Esports
2-0
European Union HellRaisers 3-2 +19 G2 Esports
20-22
Dust II 		Low match
Cloud9
19-16
Overpass 		Mid match
TyLoo
16-10
Overpass 		High match
BIG
9-16
Train 		Fnatic
2-1
Brazil MIBR 3-2 +6 TyLoo
13-16
Inferno 		Low match
mousesports
16-6
Dust II 		Mid match
G2 Esports
16-4
Inferno 		High match
Astralis
0-16
Dust II 		Ninjas in Pyjamas
2-1
9–11 Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-3 -10 mousesports
16-12
Mirage 		High match
Team Liquid
10-16
Mirage 		Mid match
Natus Vincere
6-16
Train 		Low match
Vega Squadron
16-11
Train 		MIBR
1-2
Sweden Fnatic 2-3 -27 compLexity Gaming
4-16
Inferno 		Low match
Winstrike Team
16-7
Inferno 		Mid match
Vega Squadron
16-14
Inferno 		High match
Natus Vincere
9-16
Mirage 		HellRaisers
1-2
France G2 Esports 2-3 -29 HellRaisers
22-20
Dust II 		High match
compLexity Gaming
11-16
Cache 		Mid match
MIBR
4-16
Inferno 		Low match
Cloud9
22-19
Inferno 		FaZe Clan
0-2
12–14 Russia Vega Squadron 1-3 -7 Cloud9
16-4
Mirage 		High match
Astralis
4-16
Inferno 		Mid match
Fnatic
14-16
Inferno 		Low match
Ninjas in Pyjamas
11-16
Train 		Eliminated
United States Cloud9 1-3 -15 Vega Squadron
4-16
Mirage 		Low match
HellRaisers
16-19
Overpass 		Low match
Winstrike Team
19-16
Inferno 		Low match
G2 Esports
19-22
Inferno 		Eliminated
China TyLoo 1-3 -24 MIBR
16-13
Inferno 		High match
BIG
7-16
Train 		Mid match
HellRaisers
10-16
Overpass 		Low match
FaZe Clan
4-16
Mirage 		Eliminated
15–16 Russia Winstrike Team 0-3 -21 Team Liquid
7-16
Mirage 		Low match
Fnatic
7-16
Inferno 		Low match
Cloud9
16-19
Inferno 		Eliminated Eliminated
European Union mousesports 0-3 -22 Ninjas in Pyjamas
12-16
Mirage 		Low match
MIBR
6-16
Dust II 		Low match
FaZe Clan
8-16
Mirage 		Eliminated Eliminated
Round 5 Scores
Team Score Map Score Team
Sweden Fnatic 19 Mirage 17 European Union HellRaisers
Sweden Fnatic 9 Dust II 16 European Union HellRaisers
Sweden Fnatic 2 Cache 16 European Union HellRaisers
France G2 Esports 2 Mirage 16 European Union FaZe Clan
France G2 Esports 22 Dust II 25 European Union FaZe Clan
France G2 Esports – Overpass – European Union FaZe Clan
Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas 15 Cache 19 Brazil MIBR
Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas 16 Mirage 10 Brazil MIBR
Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas 11 Train 16 Brazil MIBR
New Legends stage summary

G2 Esports and HellRaisers commenced week two of the Major. The French started very strong with 6–0 lead and then a 9–3 lead, but HellRaisers made it a salvageable half with a 10–5 score. The second half would be all HellRaisers at first, but G2 made some adjustments and the game headed to an overtime once again. ISSAA lead his team with 43 kills, but Richard "shox" Papillon's 42 was able to counter it as G2 was able to take the game in double overtime to get off to a favorable start. Winstrike Team looked to replicate its Cinderella run from the last Major, but after taking the pistol round, Team Liquid took the next six and never looked back to easily take the game. Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov and Savely "jmqa" Bragin had 12 kills each, but NAF and ELiGE's 25 were more than enough to down the Russian team. BIG stunned FaZe Clan as smooya absolutely dominated the map. Finn "karrigan" Andersen lead FaZe with 15 kills, but star players such as Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács and Håvard "rain" Nygaard struggled. compLexity Gaming had a major upset over the most decorated Global Offensive squad with a big blowout. stanislaw had 23 kills and ANDROID was close by with 22. William "draken" Sundin had the most kills for the Swedes with 15, but Robin "flusha" Rönnquist could not get things started as he ended with just 4 kills. MIBR had a huge lead at 11–2, but TyLoo was able to tie the game at 12. Some key individual plays from TyLoo saved the game as another upset took place. Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo had 27 kills to lead the server, but had little impact in the second half, and Marcelo "coldzera" David was second with 25. TyLoo was led by xcurrate's 24 kills. GeT_RiGhT had a vintage performance against mousesports as the Ninjas in Pyjamas won a close. Robin "ropz" Kool had 23 kills in the losing effort, but it was not enough in the end. The biggest match of the day delivered as Astralis, the number one ranked team in the world, defeated Natus Vincere (Na'Vi), the number two ranked team. Although star player Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostylievhad 24 kills, Magisk came alive to match that total as Astralis took the game in the 30th round. Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev had just 6 kills and 21 deaths in the game. The defending champions Cloud9 struggled ever since winning the Major, and this game against Vega Squadron was no exception. jR and 24 kills and tonyblack had 21 to sweep up Cloud9. Timothy "autimatic" Ta did fairly well with 15 kills, but Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham only had 8.

BIG was the first team to go up 2-0 after easily taking down TyLoo on train. xcurrate came up big again with 18 kills, but 24 kills from nex combined with a 13-2 halftime lead allowed BIG to win. Fnatic and Winstrike had a close first half, but Winstrike's defense could not hold up at all in the second half. flusha bounced back with 20 kills and Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson had 23 kills. Aurimas "Kvik" Kvaksis did good damage for his team, but his in-game leader Nikita "waterfaLLZ" Matveyev struggled. Astralis was able to easily take down Vega Squadron, especially with Magisk and dev1ce taking more than 20 kills each, to move up to 2–0. HellRaisers was able to avoid an 0-2 hole against Cloud9 after losing a 10–5 lead. Martin "STYKO" Styk had the best performance with 32 kills, but Skadoodle and Will "RUSH" Wierzba could not perform the same. For HellRaisers, woxic's 28 kills helped HellRaisers get the overtime win. compLexity went up to a surprising 2-0 after not even being favorites to get out of the New Challengers stage. However, after nearly giving up a 13–2 lead, the North American team was able to shut down the French comeback. shox and Kenny "kennyS" Schrub lead G2, but stanislaw and ShahZaM were able to negate them. Liquid was able to get one step closer to a Legends spot for the next Major after taking down NiP. f0rest had 20 kills, but it was not enough as Liquid had three players with at least 20 kills. FaZe had a strong 10–5 lead, but Na'Vi's defense was too strong for FaZe in the second half and last Major's runner-ups were suddenly 0–2 in the group stage. Everyone started to show up for Na'Vi, including Egor "flamie" Vasilyev and Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko with 20 kills. FaZe's two star players Håvard "rain" Nygaard and Nikola "NiKo" Kovač struggled as they finished at the bottom of the scoreboard. A potential playoffs match showed up in the second round of the second group stage in the form of MIBR and mousesports. Tarik "tarik" Celik lead the way for the majority-Brazilian team to overrun mousesports, despite Fernando "fer" Alvarenga and Jake "Stewie2K" Yip struggling at the bottom of the server. Miikka "suNny" Kemppi had some impact with 16 kills to try to help Chris "chrisj" de Jong's team, but mousesports fell well short.

After draken's controversial tweet that Winstrike Team should not be at the Major because of poor performance, Vega sought revenge for its CIS compatriots. Things looked good for Vega after 7–0 start and then a 10-5 halftime lead. However, KRiMZ's 30 kills and a crucial 1 vs. 3 Jesper "JW" Wecksell clutch lead Fnatic to a close 16–14 victory to get just one win away from another Legends spot. TyLoo appeared to fall flat after its comeback win over MIBR as woxic's 27 kills lead HellRaisers to winning the last nine of eleven rounds of the game. Cloud9 avoided elimination as Skadoodle showed up huge along with autimatic's 32 kills. Despite Kvik's 32 kills, Gregory "balblna" Oleinick struggled with just 14 kills in the overtime loss as the Russian team was the first team in the Legends stage to be eliminated. compLexity continued to surprise after cruising to a win over BIG to go undefeated. yay had 26 kills to lead the server and dephh won the UK vs. UK battle against smooya to be the first ever player from the United Kingdom to be a Legend at a Major. Na'Vi had a dominant second half as NiP's defense could not hold up against the Ukrainian squad. REZ and Lekr0 both struggled with just 5 kills for NiP as they dropped to 1–2. What was once supposed to be the Brazilians' kryptonite did not do anything today as MIBR overpowered G2 Esports. After G2 picked up its first round in the fourth round, MIBR won eight unanswered and eventually took the map. Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro was the only player for Kevin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans's team to get double digits in kills, but fer's 19 kills and FalleN dying just three times in the twenty round game disallowed G2 from much success. Astralis could not take a 3–0 victory once again as Team Liquid looked to be the best ever North American team of all time by taking down the world's number one in overtime. Liquid had a 13–2 lead, but Astralis came all the way back to send the game to overtime. dupreeh had 26 kills, but NAF's 28 was able to counter that in the close win. mousesports players such as Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný and Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski struggled as mousesports was eliminated by FaZe Clan and would have to go through the Minor system again. Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer showed some vintage moments with 23 kills and NiKo was right behind him at 22 to stave off elimination.

BIG was the next team to head to the playoffs after a dominant counter-terrorist side over HellRaisers as smooya became the second British player to become a Legend. smooya was able to outfrag ISSAA and gob b continued to put up big numbers when in the past the BIG in-game leader rarely did. woxic struggled with just 8 kills as HellRaisers needed to play in a round five. NiP was able to take revenge against Vega Squadron back when Vega upset NiP 16–2 in the Atlanta 2017, which resulted in NiP missing its first ever Major. Despite hutji finally showing up with 21 kills and chopper with 20 kills, Lekr0 and REZ were able to carry NiP to a dominant terrorist side as the Swedes stayed alive. FaZe looked to replicate Cloud9's Major run after going down 0-2 and then went up to 2-2 after dominating TyLoo. BnTeT was the only TyLoo player with a positive kill to death difference, but NiKo and GuardiaN allowed FaZe to run away with the match. Fnatic and Natus Vincere went back and forth for the first half, but Na'Vi's offense led by Denis "electronic" Sharipov's 27 kills was able to lead the team to the New Champions stage. The battle of the struggling teams between G2 Esports and Cloud9 headed to another Inferno game that went to overtime. Cloud9 had two match points, but it was G2 to actually take its only match point led by shox's 35 kills and kennyS came alive in overtime to eliminate Cloud9. Skadoodle and Maikil "Golden" Selim each had at least 30 kills, but Cloud9 would be the third defending Major champion to not regain its Legends status after Team EnVyUs at MLG Major Championship: Columbus and Gambit Esports at ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018. Astralis faced off against MIBR next, and Astralis won the past six maps between the two teams. Astralis proved its dominance over the two time Major winners in MIBR to have the first 16–0 in Major history. dev1ce swept up MIBR with 24 kills in the very easy win as Astralis moved on.

For the first time in Global Offensive history, Fnatic as an organization and KRiMZ as a player would not be Legends. Fnatic was able to take the first map in overtime thanks to KRiMZ's 32 kills. The second map swung the other way as ISSAA continued to show his dominance on Dust II with 28 kills. JW had 23 kills, but KRiMZ regressed heavily as he only contributed with 8 kills and 5 assists. The last map was a complete wipeout as ISSAA continued his stride and bondik helped out with 20 kills. KRiMZ tried to step up again with 14 kills, but Richard "Xizt" Landström could not lead his team to a top eight finish. In FaZe Clan versus G2 Esports, FaZe was able to climb out of its 0-2 hole to head back to the playoffs. Mirage was a dominant performance by olofmeister with his 24 kills. shox and kennyS tried to do something, but the rest of their team lagged behind in the loss. The next match was much closer. G2 had a 15–7 lead and the third map on Overpass looked inevitable. However, FaZe won the last eight rounds in regulation to send the game to overtime. A massive whiff by shox onto karrigan, who had his back turned, in a 1 vs. 1 boosted FaZe to a win. NiKo had 45 kills in the double overtime victory as FaZe survived the group stage. MIBR bounced back after the humiliating loss to Astralis. NiP was able to save itself after going down 15–8, but even with GeT_RiGhT's 33 kills, MIBR was able to sweep the overtime to take the next map. The Swedes responded in the second map, led by the two longest tenured players for NiP in f0rest, who is often considered to be the best 1.6 player along with NEO, and GeT_RiGhT. coldzera had 24 kills, but the rest of MIBR could not find their rhythm. A tense third map ensued for the final spot in the playoffs. After MIBR took 10 rounds on the less favorable side, NiP did the same for five rounds to tie the game at 10. However, the double AWP setup for MIBR was the needed adjustment to take six of the last seven rounds to become the last team to be Legends at every Major since its debut. f0rest had 23 kills, but FalleN and Stewie2K had 21 kills each to stifle NiP's terrorist side in the end. With NiP's loss, this meant no Swedish team would be in the top eight for the first time in Major history.

New Champions stage[]

The New Champions Stage was a best-of-three single elimination bracket, with teams playing until a winner was decided. This stage took place at the Wembley Arena between September 20, 2018 and September 23, 2018. Brackets were revealed shortly after MIBR defeated NIP in the last map of the group stages. Teams were seeded first based on their record in the New Legends stage and then based on strength of schedule.[25]

Bracket[]

Quarterfinals Semifinals Finals
         
4 Germany BIG 0
5 Ukraine Natus Vincere 2
5 Ukraine Natus Vincere 2
8 Brazil MIBR 0
1 compLexity Gaming 0
8 Brazil MIBR 2
5 Ukraine Natus Vincere 0
3 Denmark Astralis 2
2 Team Liquid 2
7 European Union HellRaisers 1
2 Team Liquid 0
3 Denmark Astralis 2
3 Denmark Astralis 2
6 European Union FaZe Clan 0

Quarterfinals[]

BIG vs. Natus Vincere[]

Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

BIG-Na'Vi Vetoes
Map Vetoes
BIG BAN PICK BAN
Mirage Cache Dust II Nuke Train Inferno Overpass
Natus Vincere BAN PICK BAN
Germany BIG vs. Ukraine Natus Vincere Scores
Team Score Map Score Team
Germany BIG 2 Dust II 16 Ukraine Natus Vincere
Germany BIG 6 Nuke 16 Ukraine Natus Vincere
Germany BIG – Overpass – Ukraine Natus Vincere

compLexity Gaming vs. MIBR[]

Casters: HenryG & Sadokist

coL–MIBR Vetoes
Map Vetoes
MIBR BAN PICK BAN
Nuke Overpass Train Inferno Dust II Mirage Cache
compLexity BAN PICK BAN
compLexity Gaming vs. Brazil MIBR Scores
Team Score Map Score Team
compLexity Gaming 4 Train 16 Brazil MIBR
compLexity Gaming 12 Inferno 16 Brazil MIBR
compLexity Gaming – Cache – Brazil MIBR

Team Liquid vs. HellRaisers[]

Casters: HenryG & Vince Hill

Liquid-HR Vetoes
Map Vetoes
Team Liquid BAN PICK BAN
Train Nuke Mirage Dust II Inferno Overpass Cache
HellRaisers BAN PICK BAN
Team Liquid vs. European Union HellRaisers Scores
Team Score Map Score Team
Team Liquid 16 Mirage 10 European Union HellRaisers
Team Liquid 10 Dust II 16 European Union HellRaisers
Team Liquid 16 Cache 8 European Union HellRaisers

Astralis vs. FaZe Clan[]

Casters: Anders Blume & moses

Astralis-FaZe Vetoes
Map Vetoes
FaZe Clan BAN PICK BAN
Nuke Cache Mirage Inferno Train Dust II Overpass
Astralis BAN PICK BAN
Denmark Astralis vs. European Union FaZe Clan Scores
Team Score Map Score Team
Denmark Astralis 16 Mirage 14 European Union FaZe Clan
Denmark Astralis 16 Inferno 12 European Union FaZe Clan
Denmark Astralis – Overpass – European Union FaZe Clan

Semifinals[]

Natus Vincere vs. MIBR[]

Casters: Anders Blume & moses

Na'Vi-MIBR Vetoes
Map Vetoes
Natus Vincere BAN PICK BAN
Cache Nuke Overpass Dust II Mirage Inferno Train
MIBR BAN PICK BAN
Ukraine Natus Vincere vs. Brazil MIBR Scores
Team Score Map Score Team
Ukraine Natus Vincere 16 Overpass 10 Brazil MIBR
Ukraine Natus Vincere 16 Dust II 5 Brazil MIBR
Ukraine Natus Vincere – Train – Brazil MIBR

Team Liquid vs. Astralis[]

Casters: HenryG & Sadokist

Liquid-Astralis Vetoes
Map Vetoes
Astralis BAN PICK BAN
Cache Train Nuke Mirage Overpass Inferno Dust II
Team Liquid BAN PICK BAN
Team Liquid vs. Denmark Astralis Scores
Team Score Map Score Team
Team Liquid 8 Nuke 16 Denmark Astralis
Team Liquid 7 Mirage 16 Denmark Astralis
Team Liquid – Dust II – Denmark Astralis

Finals[]

Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

Na'Vi-Astralis Vetoes
Map Vetoes
Natus Vincere BAN PICK BAN
Train Cache Nuke Overpass Dust II Mirage Inferno
Natus Vincere BAN PICK BAN

No official MVP was given, but HLTV.org deemed dev1ce as the MVP. Astralis became the fourth squad to win multiple Major titles.

Ukraine Natus Vincere vs. Denmark Astralis Scores
Team Score Map Score Team
Ukraine Natus Vincere 6 Nuke 16 Denmark Astralis
Ukraine Natus Vincere 9 Overpass 16 Denmark Astralis
Ukraine Natus Vincere – Inferno – Denmark Astralis

Final standings[]

The final placings are shown below. In addition, the prize distribution, seed for the next major, roster, and coaches are shown. Each team's in-game leader is shown first.

Place Prize Money Team Seed Roster Coach
1st US$500,000 Denmark Astralis IEM Katowice 2019 New Legends Denmark gla1ve, Denmark dev1ce, Denmark dupreeh, Denmark Magisk, Denmark Xyp9x Denmark zonic
2nd US$150,000 Ukraine Natus Vincere Ukraine Zeus, Ukraine Edward, Ukraine s1mple, Russia electronic, Russia flamie Ukraine kane
3rd – 4th US$70,000 Brazil MIBR Brazil FalleN, Brazil coldzera, Brazil fer, United States Stewie2K, United States tarik Serbia YNk
Team Liquid United States nitr0, United States ELiGE, Canada NAF, Canada Twistzz, Brazil TACO Brazil zews
5th – 8th US$35,000 Germany BIG Germany gob b, Germany nex, Germany tabseN, Germany tiziaN, United Kingdom smooya Germany LEGIJA
compLexity Gaming Canada stanislaw, Canada ANDROID, United States ShahZaM, United States yay, United Kingdom dephh United States Rambo
European Union FaZe Clan Denmark karrigan, Slovakia GuardiaN, Bosnia and Herzegovina NiKo, Sweden olofmeister, Norway rain Sweden RobbaN
European Union HellRaisers Ukraine ANGE1, Ukraine bondik, Hungary DeadFox, Turkey woxic, Jordan ISSAA Ukraine Johnta
9th – 11th US$8,750 Sweden Fnatic IEM Katowice 2019 New Challengers Sweden Xizt, Sweden draken, Sweden flusha, Sweden JW, Sweden KRiMZ Sweden Jumpy
France G2 Esports Belgium Ex6TenZ, France bodyy, France kennyS, France shox, France SmithZz France NiaK
Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas Sweden Lekr0, Sweden dennis, Sweden f0rest, Sweden GeT RiGhT, Sweden REZ Bosnia and Herzegovina pita
12th – 14th US$8,750 United States Cloud9 Sweden Golden, United States autimatic, United States RUSH, United States Skadoodle, Slovakia STYKO United States valens
China TyLoo Indonesia BnTeT, China captainMo, China DD, China somebody, Indonesia xccurate China CruSad3
Russia Vega Squadron Ukraine jR, Russia chopper, Russia hutji, Russia tonyblack, Ukraine crush Russia Fierce
15th – 16th US$8,750 European Union mousesports – Netherlands chrisJ, Estonia ropz, Czech Republic oskar, Poland Snax, Finland suNny Ukraine lmbt
Russia Winstrike Team Russia waterfaLLZ, Russia balbina, Russia Boombl4, Russia jmqa, Lithuania Kvik Russia iksou
17th – 19th – Denmark North Denmark MSL, Denmark aizy, Denmark Kjaerbye, Denmark niko, Denmark v4lde Denmark ave
Denmark OpTic Gaming Denmark Snappi, Denmark cajunb, Denmark gade, Denmark JUGi, Denmark k0nfig Denmark ruggah
Russia Team Spirit Russia S0tF1k, Russia DavCost, Russia Dima, Ukraine COLDYY1, Ukraine somedieyoung Russia Certus
20th – 22nd – Kazakhstan Gambit Esports Russia Dosia, Kazakhstan AdreN, Kazakhstan HObbit, Kazakhstan mou, Russia mir Ukraine B1ad3
Australia Renegades United States Nifty, Australia AZR, Australia jks, Australia USTILO, Denmark jkaem United States Ryu
United States Rogue Australia Rickeh, United States Hiko, United States SicK, United States vice, Denmark cadiaN United States mCe
23rd – 24th – Turkey Space Soldiers Turkey hardstyle, Turkey Calyx, Turkey MAJ3R, Turkey paz, Turkey XANTARES
Poland Virtus.pro Poland NEO, Poland byali, Poland MICHU, Poland pashaBiceps, Poland snatchie Poland kuben

Post-Major rankings[]

The rankings shown below reflect the September 24, 2018 rankings, the first ranking after the Major.[26]

HLTV.org post-major ranking
World ranking
Place Team Points Move1
1 Denmark Astralis 1000 Steady
2 Ukraine Natus Vincere 734 Steady
3 Team Liquid 504 Steady
4 Brazil MIBR 415 Increase 3
5 European Union FaZe Clan 413 Increase 1
6 Denmark North 387 Decrease 2
7 European Union mousesports 326 Decrease 2
8 Germany BIG 318 Increase 3
9 Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas 277 Decrease 1
10 European Union HellRaisers 212 Increase 5
11 compLexity Gaming 182 Increase 18
12 China TyLoo 180 Steady
14 Sweden Fnatic 130 Decrease 4
15 France G2 Esports 129 Decrease 1
18 Russia Vega Squadron 114 Increase 193
20 Kazakhstan Gambit Esports 92 Decrease 1
21 United States Cloud9 87 Steady
23 Australia Renegades 83 Decrease 7
24 Denmark OpTic Gaming 82 Decrease 7
28 Poland Virtus.pro 66 Decrease 8
34 Russia Team Spirit – Increase 2
35 United States Rogue – Decrease 5
39 Turkey Space Soldiers – Decrease 8
– Russia Winstrike Team2 – –

1Change since September 3, 2018 ranking

2Winstrike Team released four players. HLTV.org requires at least three members of a team to be included in the rankings.

Showmatch[]

The showmatch was played before the grand finals between Natus Vincere and Astralis. The showmatch featured Owen "smooya" Butterfield of BIG and Håvard "rain" Nygaard of FaZe Clan as captains. smooya's team consisted of FaZe Clan's olofmeister, analyst THREAT, caster James Bardolph, and the observer Sliggy. rain's team fielded compLexity Gaming's ShahZaM, caster ddk, up-and-coming player ZywOo, and analyst SPUNJ.

Team smooya15-19Team rain
smooya United Kingdom
olofmeister Sweden
THREAT Sweden
James Bardolph United Kingdom
Sliggy United Kingdom		 Mirage Norway rain
United States ShahZaM
United Kingdom ddk
France ZywOo
Australia SPUNJ
Casters: HenryG, moses, & Sadokist

References[]

  1. ^ Steiner, Dustin (February 22, 2018). "FACEIT to Host Next CS:GO Major in London Sept 20-23". Unikrn. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  2. ^ a b Mira, Luis (December 13, 2017). "VALVE REVAMPS MAJOR STAGE NAMES TO INCLUDE QUALIFIER; ALL 24 TEAMS TO HAVE STICKERS". HLTV.org. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
  3. ^ Chiu, Stephen. "Retrospective of the Majors: Lineups with 2 Major Wins and Players with 3". VPEsports. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  4. ^ Kovanen, Tomi. "Why CS:GO needs major events". HLTV.org. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  5. ^ Mira, Luis (October 5, 2017). "ELEAGUE TO HOST NEXT MAJOR, WITH PLAYOFFS IN BOSTON". HLTV.org. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  6. ^ a b Lewis, Jarek (July 30, 2018). "FACEIT London Major Format Slightly Tweaked From Past Majors". DBLTAP. Retrieved July 30, 2018.
  7. ^ Mira, Luis (August 1, 2018). "FACEIT Major to feature Buchholz system, BO3 fifth Swiss round". HLTV.org. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  8. ^ Villanueava, Jamie (April 20, 2018). "Dust II returns to Active Duty map pool, Cobblestone removed". Dot eSports. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
  9. ^ Burazin, Zvonimir (April 2, 2018). "FACEIT reveal Major qualifier details". HLTV.org. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
  10. ^ Stubbs, Mike (May 10, 2018). "FACEIT To Host 'CS:GO' Minors At Iconic Twickenham Stadium In London". Forbes. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
  11. ^ "Asia Minor - FACEIT Major 2018 overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved May 20, 2018.
  12. ^ Mira, Luis (May 24, 2018). "VG.Flash, Fierce Tiger to replay Asia Minor qualifier match". Twitter. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
  13. ^ Mira, Luis (May 26, 2018). "Fierce Tiger disqualified from Asia Minor qualifier". HLTV.org. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
  14. ^ Mira, Luis (July 13, 2018). "SIGNATURE TO MISS ASIA MINOR; 5POWER TO FIELD THREE STAND-INS". HLTV.org. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
  15. ^ Deng, Alex (July 14, 2018). "B.O.OT-d[S] replaces Signature at Asia Minor". HLTV.org. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
  16. ^ "CIS Minor - FACEIT Major 2018 overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved May 20, 2018.
  17. ^ Aznar Miles, Lucas (July 5, 2018). "Nemiga confirmed out of CIS Monor". HLTV.org. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
  18. ^ Mira, Luis (July 9, 2018). "CIS MINOR TO FEATURE JUST SEVEN TEAMS; PLINK, MONOLITH WITH STAND-INS". HLTV.org. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  19. ^ "Europe Minor - FACEIT Major 2018 overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved May 20, 2018.
  20. ^ "America Minor - FACEIT Major 2018 overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved May 20, 2018.
  21. ^ Patterson, Calum (June 23, 2018). "Former SK Gaming CS:GO Roster Officially Move to 'Made in Brazil' (MIBR), Partner with Tinder and Betway". Dexerto. Retrieved June 23, 2018.
  22. ^ "CS:GO Ranking – World Ranking". HLTV.org. Retrieved September 3, 2018.
  23. ^ Mira, Luis (September 5, 2018). "Astralis-compLexirt postponed to Thursday due to tech issues". HLTV.org. Retrieved September 5, 2018.
  24. ^ Švejda, Milan (September 9, 2018). "FACEIT Major New Legends stage first round matchups drawn". HLTV.org. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
  25. ^ Švejda, Milan (September 16, 2018). "FACEIT Major quarter-final pairs determined". HLTV.org. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
  26. ^ "CS:GO Ranking – World Ranking". HLTV.org. Retrieved September 25, 2018.
Retrieved from ""