Olivia Richman 
The 2024 Shanghai Major is the next big CS2 event of the season, and American fans are looking forward to seeing their favorite teams prove themselves at the RMR.
The American RMR is the only place for North American teams to qualify for the Shanghai Major. It starts on November 12 and will include four days of intense action as the 16 teams at the official Valve event duke it out to get to the Counter-Strike 2 Major in Shanghai.
Here are all the teams competing and who is predicted to make it to the next level.
All 16 Shanghai Major American RMR teams
There are 16 teams looking to make it out of the American RMR, but only seven teams can make it to the Shanghai Major. Here are all of the teams in alphabetical order.
- 9z Team
- BESTIA
- BOSS
- CASE Esports
- Complexity Gaming
- FURIA Esports
- Imperial Esports
- KRÜ Esports
- Legacy
- M80
- MiBR
- nouns Esports
- paiN Gaming
- RED Canids
- Team Liquid
- Wildcard
Here are the top seven teams that are predicted to come out on top and qualify at the Shanghai Major American RMR, using HLTV’s rankings.
- Complexity Gaming
- paiN Gaming
- 9z Team
- FURIA
- MiBR
- M80
- nouns Esports
Complexity stands out as a solid favorite to 3-0 the event. Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski has hit top form, averaging 88 damage per round with a 1.19 KD ratio over the last three months. The squad also has a recent tournament win at DreamHack Summer ESL Challenger, defeating Team Falcons 2-0 in the grand final.
Brazilian staple paiN and international roster 9z are neck-and-neck in the rankings, and both teams are likely to win plane tickets. Despite a poor showing at IEM Cologne this year, FURIA should land a spot at the main event if superstar rifler Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato shows up. The biggest question mark among the frontrunners is for nouns, which has performed well in the NA Revival Series but stumbled hard at the offline Copenhagen RMR.
The pack also includes a few dark horses that could score upsets in the later rounds. BESTIA is on a short streak, winning gold at United21 SA Season 2 and obliterating the RMR closed qualifier 3-0. CASE can claim the same, and last month’s addition of AWPer Lucas “bsd” Luan has boosted the team’s chances.
CS2 Shanghai Major American RMR format
The 16 teams that qualified for the American RMR will compete in a Swiss format. All matches will be a best-of-one aside from elimination and advancement matches, which will be best-of-three.
As in previous RMR events, teams that won their previous round will be pitted against other teams that won. Losers will play against losers. It’s a far cry from how ranked play works in CS2, but it’s the fairest way for the RMR to run. Teams that reach three wins will automatically qualify for the main event. Squads that hit three losses will be disqualified.
After this, the top seven teams from the Americas will head to the Shanghai Major. The bottom nine teams will be eliminated.
