Wildcard's Major run ended by GamerLegion

stanislaw's troops exit the Elimination stage with a 0-3 record.

Wildcard's impressive run to the top 16 of the Shanghai Major has been brought to an end by fellow underdogs GamerLegion.

The two teams have provided the main fairytale runs in China, with both teams upsetting the odds to qualify despite sitting outside the top 30 as recently as August.

Wildcard's four rookies had good performances on stage to make it this far, but skipper Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz admitted pressure played a part in their demise in this stage of the tournament.

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"I didn't recognize us in the server in the last two days. We got outplayed by better teams," stanislaw said on stream.

"I have to admit, I felt pressure in situations. On Ancient, we got two entries in mid, 5v3, you cannot lose that round, and we lost it [...] We're losing these huge advantage situations and that, to me, says that there is pressure. We need to learn from this and not let the pressure affect us."

Date	Matches
Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024
05/12/2024	FaZe Finished 13:10 Wildcard	Match
05/12/2024	Spirit Finished 13:6 Wildcard	Match
06/12/2024	GamerLegion Finished 2:1 Wildcard	Match

GamerLegion, like Wildcard, feature four Major rookies but fared better under the lights with Timur "⁠FL4MUS⁠" Marev continuing to shine both on the server and as a pseudo stage host.

The win will have been particularly satisfying for Erik "⁠ztr⁠" Gustafsson against against two of his former teammates: Love "⁠phzy⁠" Smidebrant from Young Ninjas, and Tim "⁠susp⁠" Ångström from Metizport.

Dust2 was the first map after GamerLegion chose to ban Inferno, using their seven-map pool to push Wildcard away from the map where the stanislaw-led squad found upsets on Liquid, 9z, and Virtus.pro.

The gamble did not pay off, however, after a fantastic susp showing where he ended 28-13 and 6-0 in opening duels as Wildcard took the 1-0 lead.

Ancient was a closer affair, with GamerLegion requiring four huge moments from Henrich "⁠sl3nd⁠" Hevesi to take their map pick over the line: Two 1v2s on A, the first from Donut and the second from a neat walk to CT.

He then picked up four kills in a map-defining 3v5 to punish a strange phzy decision to push through a Donut smoke.

That all but cemented the map, only for Josh "⁠JBa⁠" Barutt to find four kills in a valiant 1v5 attempt to significantly damage GamerLegion's finances.

But a few rounds later, it was that man sl3nd again to buy a hero AWP and secure the map win with a 3k and 1v1 despite his teammates being on unarmored pistols.

Anubis was the decider, and it was FL4MUS' time to take over as he stormed to 135 ADR and matching susp's 6-0 Dust2 record in opening duels to push GamerLegion to the 1-2 pool.

Having been 0-2 down in the RMR too, Ashley "⁠ash⁠" Battye's troops know they can make the comeback to 3-2 but are likely to face even tougher opposition as we find out just how long their miracle run can continue.