Whenever you attend an event as press, Day 1 goes by in a blink. From finding the right entry gate, to setting up your station just right for interviews, there’s always an adjustment period. But after the excellent Day 1 where both Perfect World and the Shanghai crowd gave me a memorable experience, I was quite excited for Day 2.
After all, this was going to be the first appearance at the Oriental Sports Arena for the most popular teams in Counter-Strike. If newer players like TheMongolZ and donk can get massive cheers from the fans, then legends like FaZe Clan, G2, Vitality would see the crowd absolutely light up.
Counter-Strike in VR?
When I first started playing Counter-Strike, the Oculus craze was still building. So I quickly searched for CS:GO VR, to find games like Pavlov that try to emulate the Counter-Strike experience in the virtual space. But in 2024, Perfect World finally has made that original dream, a reality.
As part of the fan experience booths, Perfect World is showing off a CS2 VR demo. Running on a VR headset similar to the Quest 2, the experience pits two players against each other in a 1v1 on Dust2. And in the time that I watched, it actually looked quite good. Dust2 was perfectly modeled as expected, but the gunplay actually felt impactful, with the full CS2 buy menu on offer.
NiKo delivers in nail-biting series
Right from the player introductions, it was clear that every single fan in the arena was cheering for NiKo. When the legendary rifler stepped onto the stage, the crowd blew the roof off the arena. But the first map was a sobering reality check. G2 looked out of sorts and despite NiKo’s performance, Heroic was simply outplaying them.
But then on Nuke, NiKo gave everyone a massive treat. A 3.34 rating on the CT side, and countless multi kill rounds had the crowd to their feet. Even the press room was watching in disbelief. For me, this was a flashback to the Stockholm major 2021. There too Heroic were 1-0 up, before NiKo decided he wasn’t losing.
While NiKo himself didn’t continue his supreme form into map 3, it gave malbsMd just enough time to get warmed up and carry his team through to the Semi-Finals. The clutches malbs and degster pulled off were incredible, and even though the sniper lost the match, he was generous in his interview praising both G2 and the crowd.
Vitality capitulate under FaZe’s pressure
There’s just something about Vitality in Major playoffs that never quite works out. And despite being massively favored in the series, with nearly all press agreeing in the Vitality pick too, they completely collapsed. ZywOo’s team clinched Nuke, but FaZe stars on Mirage and Anubis completely took over. With so many incredible plays from ropz and broky, you could regularly hear cries of “How have they done that?” as FaZe’s classic miracle rounds took down Vitality.
After the match I talked to Broky who reminded me that FaZe’s only big wins this year came in China, maybe they can repeat that success in Shanghai.
Here's Vitality's every Major playoff win. And I mean EVER. This is so crazy and bad. - Into the Breach, rank 28 (Paris) - Apeks #19 (Paris) - GamerLegion #22 (Paris) - Cloud9 #7 (Copenhagen)RobuJohnson
Two days complete, two more to go. And Perfect World have been a great host so far. Managing both international and local media is never easy, but the team has been incredibly supportive. The facilities at the Oriental Sports Arena are easily the best I’ve ever seen. Plus, getting to enjoy some tasty chinese food in between matches has been wonderful.
Semi-Finals are up next, and I for one can’t wait to see what this major delivers.
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