Cloud9 head to Shanghai Major over SINNERS

The Russian squad overcame a 5-10 deficit on the decider of Dust2 to claim their place in the Major.

Cloud9 are the 13th side to qualify for the Perfect World Shanghai Major, the third from Europe RMR A, securing their place after winning out a hard-fought series against Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný's SINNERS.

Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov's men recovered quite nicely from a tough start to their RMR campaign, an opening-round loss to FaZe, bagging dominant victories over Nemiga and Sangal before beating out SINNERS for their Major spot.

Date	Matches
Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 Europe RMR A
17/11/2024	FaZe Finished 13:8 Cloud9	Match
17/11/2024	Nemiga Finished 5:13 Cloud9	Match
18/11/2024	Cloud9 Finished 13:2 Sangal	Match
19/11/2024	SINNERS Finished 1:2 Cloud9	Match

Cloud9's work is not done yet, as the team will likely play in the Europe RMR's fourth-place decider. This extra match will decide which of the two 3-1 teams with the lowest Bucholz score will head to the Elimination Stage of the Major instead of the Opening Stage.

As almost all outcomes of the remaining matches leave Cloud9 with a lower Bucholz score than the other squads in the 2-1 pool, the Russian side will almost certainly be required to play out the extra series.

The qualifying series kicked off on Cloud9's choice of Mirage, where a back-and-forth first half culminated in a 6-6 scoreline after Kaisar "⁠ICY⁠" Faiznurov bagged a 1v4 to close things out. Once on the offense, SINNERS struggled to contend with a now fired up ICY, who fuelled Cloud9 to a 13-7 win with a 2.00 rating.

SINNERS hit their stride on the defense on their pick of Vertigo, emerging from the first half with a respectable 8-4 scoreline after a close start to the map. Despite bagging the second pistol, the Czech side's offense stalled temporarily before Sebastian "⁠beastik⁠" Daňo gave them the push they needed to lock down their pick 13-9.

SINNERS looked to be in a prime position to secure the Major spot on Dust2, supplementing a 7-5 halftime lead with a three-round streak to put themselves within touching distance of the Major.

Unfortunately for SINNERS this was simply not meant to be, as Cloud9 pieced together a dominant defense thanks once again to ICY, allowing the Russian squad to steal away the map 13-11, securing their place at the Shanghai Major.