Wildcard secure final Shanghai Major Elimination Stage spot over Passion UA

A marathon three-map affair went the way of stanislaw and company.

Wildcard defeated Passion UA in a hard-fought three-map series (Inferno 13-6, Mirage 6-13, Ancient 16-13) to secure the last available Elimination Stage spot and become the fifth Americas team in the second phase of the Major.

The series was a high-octane affair with both callers opting for a fast-paced T side, but Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz's troops eventually came out on top after making the most out of their experience.

"The pressure is for sure off now," said an ecstatic Tim "⁠susp⁠" Ångström in a broadcast post-match interview. "Our first goal was to make the Major. We're just going to go in there, play some games, and have some fun."

For Passion UA, this is a heartbreaking end to an otherwise stellar performance in Shanghai. The young Ukrainian team already upset the apple cart by making it to the Opening Stage over the likes of Astralis and can look back at their wins against Complexity and BIG on the Major stage.

"It's a very good result for us, we need to understand," Mikhaylo "⁠Kane⁠" Blagin said to HLTV in a post-match comment. "Before this tournament, we played just online games in EPL or CCT, it's tier-three, tier-two tournaments.

"People were thinking we're just onliners or that we're using radar [chuckles], but we really work hard and all we want is just to attend big tournaments. To have a chance to play with the best teams is all we want."

The series began on Inferno, where Wildcard put together a masterful 11-1 T side. They were visibly the better side and had Aran "⁠Sonic⁠" Groesbeek and susp to thank for bailing them out with three 1v2 situations to keep an insurmountable lead into the second half.

While Passion UA won the pistol and reduced the deficit to 6-11, Love "⁠phzy⁠" Smidebrant made his AWP sing with four kills in two rounds, got his team over the line, and moved the series to Mirage.

Mirage, Wildcard's usual permaban, didn't go the way of stanislaw's troops. They kept it close on the CT side and went into the second half just two rounds behind, but Passion UA turned on the style to take a dominant 13-6 win.

The decider was Ancient, which began and ended as a chaotic affair. Passion UA took another two-round lead into the second half before a highlight reel of individual moments followed as Nikita "⁠jackasmo⁠" Skyba clutched a 1v2 and helped turn a 2v4, which meant the game would be decided in overtime.

It was in added time that the lack of experience came back to bite Passion UA, who faltered in the dying stages of the game. stanislaw put up 27 kills and had some great calls toward the end to help his team bring the game over the line and secure an unlikely spot in the Elimination Stage.