Esports tournament organiser Perfect World will host Counter-Strike 2’s second-ever Major in Shanghai, China in 2024.
The Major was announced live at the CS Asia Championships, an international event that was run by Perfect World. Details such as the event’s venue and specific dates have yet to be announced.
CS:GO was released on August 21st 2012 and in its 11-year history it has gone down as one of the most popular FPS games of all time. In March 2023 its much-anticipated successor, Counter-Strike 2, was announced and after six months of a Closed Beta, the game was released on September 27th.
However, despite Counter-Strike’s long esports history, the franchise has never held a Valve-backed Major championship in China, until now. This announcement not only marks the first Counter-Strike Major for China, but also the entirety of Asia.
The first CS2 Major was announced before the game’s release and will be hosted by PGL in the Royal Arena from March 17th-31st in Copenhagen. The second Major was announced on the final day of the CS Asia Championships, which concluded yesterday and was won by FaZe Clan. The North American esports organisation took home a large chunk of the event’s $500,000 (~£408,000) prize pool.
This is the first Counter-Strike Major that Perfect World will host, although the company does have experience running CS events in China such as The Perfect World Arena Premier League.
The Chinese tournament organiser has hosted Counter-Strike esports events since 2017, with its latest international tournament, the CS Asia Championships, boasting some of the best teams in CS2. Alongside FaZe Clan, the event included MOUZ, Astralis and Ninjas In Pyjamas.
In July of this year, HLTV.org reported that Valve was targeting Shanghai for the second CS2 Major. The report claimed that Perfect World would be organising the event in partnership with PGL and that the event would run from December 1st-15th. It is important to note that neither PGL nor any specific dates have been mentioned in the official announcement for this Major. However, little information is known at this moment.
