Welcome to EGamersWorld.
We continue to follow the action at PW Shanghai Major 2024, the final tournament of the 2024 season. The battle for 8 slots on the Elimination Stage is heating up.
Among the contenders for the TOP-16 are Passion UA and GamerLegion. Both teams have unexpectedly reached the grid 2-1 and after Bo3 series one of them will join the top teams of the world in the TOP-16 Major.
Let's try to figure out who from the pair Passion UA - GamerLegion will be stronger and pass to the next stage of this Major, and who will have to go to the basket of the last chance and play a match for the exit to the Major and at the same time for life in the tournament there.
Let's go.
Passion UA uniforms
We open the Passion UA vs GamerLegion match with the analysis of Passion UA's game form. In this match the Ukrainian club will play as favourites with odds to win at 1.7.
Passion UA are ranked 28th in the HLTV world rankings. For a young club top-30 HLTV, especially obtained very quickly - a cool result.
On the competitive scene Counter-Strike 2 Passion UA are since October last year. The debut tournament for Passion UA was the local A1 Gaming League Season 7, where the wards of Kane took the top-13.
Later Passion UA played at PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 Europe RMR Open Qualifier 4. And there the Ukrainian club played very well, making it to the top 8 and being one step away from reaching the closed qualifiers for the first ever LAN-tournament on Counter-Strike 2.
Next was the performance at the same local championships like United21 League Season 10, United21 League Season 12, European Pro League Season 14, United21 League Season 13. Everywhere Passion UA played "average" and the results were corresponding.
- Passion UA roster: jambo, jackasmo, zeRRoFIX, s-chilla, fear.
Before playing at RES European Series #3 Passion UA played at YaLLa Compass Spring 2024. This is already a more serious tournament and Passion UA took TOP-15.
At RES European Series #3 Passion UA look good. The team won the opening match with the score 2-0, and then fought with ALTERNATE ATTAX for place in play-offs, but Ledgeil with the score 1-2. Passion UA finished in the top 4.
In the middle of the year Passion UA won European Pro League Season 17, and later "consolidated" the success by winning European Pro League S20.
Passion UA started their journey through PW Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B with a win over Vp. Next, the Ukrainian club defeated Spirit, but lost to BIG in the match to qualify for Major Passion UA. Heroic also lost, but managed to reach the Major at the last attempt by beating Astralis.
PW Shanghai Major 2024: Opening Stage, Passion UA Long They started with a defeat from their kryptonite and main rival of European RMR - BIG. However, they managed to pull themselves together and beat CoL and MIBR in turn.
Passion UA mappool
The most popular map of Passion UA is Ancient, where the Ukrainian club has played 20 meetings and has 50% wins. Not far behind is Mirage with 16 games and 8-8 statistics. Closes the top three "plus winrate" Overpass, where Passion UA won 6 games and lost 6.
Next - maps with minus winrate. Anubis (8 wins and 9 losses), Vertigo (6 wins and 7 losses), and Inferno (3 wins and 7 losses).
GamerLegion uniforms
We continue the analysis of the match GamerLegion - Passion UA with the analysis of GL's form. Here the European club plays the first number one with odds to win around 2.1.
After the triumphant Paris Major a GamerLegion gave up in terms of performance. However, they are not weak, otherwise they would look much worse at major tournaments than they do now.
In 2023, GamerLegion didn't show much promise. They played well at local events like Thunderpick Bitcoin Series #2 where they won, CCT West Europe Series #1 where they finished top 2, RES Western European Masters: Spring 2023 where they finished top 2 again.
There was also TOP-1 at Elisa Invitational Winter 2023, but the main achievement happened in May this year. It was then that GamerLegion defied logic and made it to the grand final of BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, where they defeated the hosts of the tournament - Vitality.
- GamerLegion lineup: acoR, Snax, Keoz, isak, volt.
After a great injury in Paris, GamerLegion lost two of their headliners - siuhy and iM. Newcomers neaLaN and volt are not yet reaching the level of Top 2 Major a, and their KDs are eloquent: 0.64 for the former and 0.78 for the latter.
The first match at IEM Cologne 2023 was against Monte. The Ukrainian club was head to head and shut down their vis-a-vis with a score of 2-0 (16-8 Mirage, 16-11 Overpass).
GamerLegion managed to switch on at the last moment. In the match against TheMongolZ, on the first map GL Ledge were 8-16 up on Mirage, but cameback Inferno (16-8), and closed the series on the dopes with Overpass (19-15).
The International was even more interesting against fnatic. On the first map Vertigo GL lost with the score 5-16, but on Inferno GamerLegion played 16-12, and on Ancient they closed the dopes with the score 19-17.
As a result, IEM Cologne 2023 ended with GL in 8th place. They were knocked out by Cloud9, but the result is a good one considering the lineup change.
At Gamers8 Long Sogpeg were matched against Apeks, the other opener of the Paris Major. Both maps gave GL a serious headache, but after dopes on Mirage and a close fight on Overpass GL made it to the next round. However, that's where GL's G8 journey ended at the Top 8, when they lost to Heroic 1-2.
GamerLegion later attended ESL Pro League Season 18 and IEM Sydney 2023. Both tournaments didn't go well: top-20 at EPL, top-8 at IEM Sydney.
ESL Challenger Jonkoping 2023 GL is going pretty well. First Ledge beat MIBR 9-13, and then beat 3DMAX 2-1 in the match for life. With a race left, GL made it to the top 6, but there Ledgeili Vp.
Towards the end of the year Gamer Legion played at Elisa Masters Espoo 2023, where they reached the top 6, BB Dacha (top 8) and ESL Challenger at DreamHack Atlanta. Top 8 there again.
There were two big tournaments in the 2024 season before RMR's Long Sogpeg - BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024 and IEM Katowice 2024. Both GL championships finished in the top 12, which I would call a pretty good result.
At PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: European RMR B GL Long Sogpeg started with a no-hitter against VItality (3-13) before beating Pera (13-6) and losing to ENCE (14-16) on dps. Later Ledgealy and Heroic, as well as 9Pandas in the Decider match, after which they were unable to go to the Major.
However, they ended up in Copenhagen, because 9Pandas couldn't get visas for travelling to Denmark. GamerLegion looked good in Copenhagen, but it was not enough to pass to the Elimination Stage, and GL's way at the first ever Major tournament on Counter-Strike ended on 17-19th line.
GamerLegion also played at ESL Pro League Season 19, where they finished in the top 16. They also played at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024, where they could not jump above the top-16.
After ESL Pro League Season 19 GL could not return to playing in TIR-S tournaments. Their maximum in terms of performance was TOP-1 at CCT Season 2 European Series #13.
At Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR A, GamerLegion Long Cogped 0-2, losing to Vitality and Dynamo Eclot. But then cameback with wins over Unity Esports and Falcons and eventually made it to the PW Shanghai Major 2024: Opening Stage after beating BB.
Shanghai Major 2024: Opening Stage GL Long They started off with a win over FURIA. Then a win over paiN, but in the Elimination Stage Ledge or The MongolZ.
GamerLegion Mappool
The best map GL is Overpass. The team had 6 wins and 2 losses there.
There was also Ancient with 2 wins and 1 loss. Still have Mirage in the pool (57% wins in 7 matches).
On Inferno they are 2-2. Nuke has 1 try and a loss.
Not playing on Anubis and Vertigo.
History of personal meetings GamerLegion - Passion UA
In the season 2024 they played each other twice and both times GamerLegion won.
Predicted result of the match Passion UA - GamerLegion at PW Shanghai Major 2024
On paper it looks like GL, who have already beaten Passion UA twice this season, should take the win. However, at this Major tournament Passion UA have repeatedly "showed their teeth" and gave a head start to CoL level teams, and at RMR they beat not just anyone, but Spirit and Astralis. In general, here I will bet on Passion UA.
The result: victory Passion UA.
