Second-ever Counter-Strike 2 Major to be held in Shanghai in 2024

19 November 2023

At the moment of writing, it’s about a month and a half after the long-awaited release of Counter-Strike 2, the successor to hugely popular esports title Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. While the first official Major for CS2 was already announced before the actual launch of the game, we now also know where the second Major will be taking place. After the first edition in the Royal Arena in Copenhagen (Denmark) from March 17th to March 31st 2024, the second edition is set for the beginning of December 2024 in Shanghai, China. It will be the first time Valve-backed Major championship in Asia and unlike the Copenhagen Major, which was hosted by the international esports event organizers of PGL, the Shanghai Major will be hosted by Chinese tournament organizer Perfect World.

First Major in Asia ever

It might sound unbelievable, Counter-Strike is very popular in Asia as well after all, but the Counter-Strike 2 Shanghai Major represents the first Major to ever take place on the continent. Valve, the developer behind the Counter-Strike franchise, did have plans to bring a Major to Asia this year, with locations in China and Singapore top of the list, but those plans were postponed when it became clear that Counter-Strike 2 would be released in September of 2023. The Shanghai Major is set to become the 21st Major in the history of Counter-Strike, though exact dates are yet to be announced by Valve.

Asian Counter-Strike fans have lived through good time recently any way, as the Shanghai Major 2024 was announced at the very end of the Counter-Strike Asian Championships. These were concluded in Sunday, November 12th, with Los Angeles-based FaZe Clan taking home the title plus a major part of the $ 500.000 prize pool. This tournament was organized by the same company, Perfect World, that will also be hosting the Shanghai Major next year, as mentioned before.

Qualifying rounds

Preceding the actual Shanghai Major that will take place towards the end of next year, there will be a period of qualifiers. This means another two to three weeks of Counter-Strike 2 action before the main event. The rumor goes at the moment that the RMR (Regional Major Ranking) qualifiers are planned from October 26th, 2024, to November 13th, 2024. As historically there has always been a two-week period between the end of the RMR qualifying phase and the start of the next Major, this would mean that the Shanghai Major will kick around the 1st of December and conclude around the 15th of December, which aligns with Valve’s earlier announcement regarding the event taking place at the beginning of December.
The total amount of prize money for the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 has been set at $ 1.250.000. Of that total, half a million is reserved for the champions, while $ 170.000 goes to the runners-up. The numbers three and four each receive $ 80.000 and the numbers five to eight take home $ 45.000 each.