An Early Look At FACEIT Major: London 2018 Going in to Qualifiers

September 5, 2018 4:07 pm By: Antonio Kaurinovic

FACEIT Major: London 2018 is the 13th CS:GO Major tournament so far and also
the last Major in 2018. The tournament features a $1,000,000USDprize pool. The
tournament is held in London, Wembley arena with 8000 seats that were sold out
in record time.

FACEIT Major: London 2018 – Tournament Info:

• Start Date: 9/5/2018
• End Date: 9/23/2018
• Location: London, UK
• Venue: Twickenham Stadium and SSE Arena, Wembley
• Organizer: FACEIT
• Type: Offline, LAN
• Number of Teams: 24
• Total prize pool: $1,000,000 USD

Day	Wristband collection open	Doors open – premium ticket holders	Doors open – all ticket holders	Broadcast starts	Estimated end time
Thursday 09/20	9:00 AM	1:00 PM	1:30 PM	3:00 PM	10:00 PM
Friday 09/21	9:00 AM	2:00 PM	2:30 PM	4:00 PM	11:00 PM
Saturday 09/22	9:00 AM	2:00 PM	2:30 PM	4:00 PM	11:00 PM
Sunday 09/23	9:00 AM	12:30 PM	1:00 PM	2:30 PM	10:00 PM

CHAMPIONS STAGE: SEPTEMBER 20TH-23RD 2018

Challengers stage and Legends stage are not open to the public.

FACEIT Major: London 2018 Tournament Format:

Following the success of the new overall tournament format that was first
used at previous Major ELEAGUE Boston 2018, Valve decided to use that format
again. Instead of 16 teams, this format allows up to 24 teams divided into 3
groups:

In an attempt to make Major tournaments “different” from rest, Valve did not
only add new group names but also, there did add new stage names as well. Don’t
get confused, everything is the same as before with just a few new names.

The New Challengers Stage (Major Offline Qualifier)

• September 5th 9th, 2018
• 16 Team Swiss System
  Format
• Round 1 to 4 matches
  are Bo1
• Round 5 matches are
  Bo3
• The Buchholz system
  (ranking based on opponent’s performance) is used to seed matches from Rounds 3
  to 5.

This is the first stage of the tournament and we know it as the Major Offline
Qualifier. There is a total of 16 teams in The New Challenger Stage. That teams
are from The Minor Champions and The New Challengers group. Top 8 placed teams
proceed to The New Legends Stage while the bottom 8 are eliminated.

The New Legends Stage (Group Stage)

• September 12th 16th, 2018
• 16 Team Swiss System
  Format
• Round 1 to 4 matches
  are Bo1
• Round 5 matches are
  Bo3
• The Buchholz system
  is used to seed matches from Rounds 3 to 5.

This stage is formerly known as the Group Stage. There is also 16 Teams in
this stage of the tournament. Top 8 placed teams from the previous stage and The
Current Legends fight for the 8 spots in the New Champions Stage.

The New Champions Stage (Playoffs)

• September 20th 23rd, 2018
• Single-Elimination
  Bracket
• The Buchholz system
  is used to seed the Quarterfinals’ matches.
• All matches
  (including the Grand Final) are Bo3.

Formerly known as the Playoffs, this stage is the last stage of the
tournament. A total of 8 Teams called The New Legends fights to become the Major
Champion.

FACEIT Offline Qualifier, The New Challengers Stage

The first-round matches will be on September 5th, and the first phase of the
competition will last until September 9th. Here is the exact schedule of the
first round:

The contest is being opened by Rogue and Space Soldiers, while the former
Major Champion Gambit will begin their match towards to the main stage of the
tournament against the ever-unpleasant Chinese team TyLoo.

The derby of the first round, at least in terms of the soundness of the names
is Virtus.pro against Ninjas in Pyjamas. NiP should have a great advantage in
this match as a team that is in a much better form than the once famous Polish
team.

CompLexity got the most difficult opponent and they will fight for their
first win against the best-ranked team, Astralis. Team Liquid and OpTic will
also play a very exciting and uncertain duel if we take into account the good
OpTic’s game on the DreamHack Masters in Sweden.

Top Picks:

Space Soldiers vs Rogue

Rogue and Space Soldiers would play the opening match of the competition with
Space Soldiers as a favourite team according to betting sites. This is a great
opportunity to try a low bet on Rogue with odds starting @ 2,8. Space Soldiers
are currently in a bad form losing one match after another, while Rogue won 4
out of 5 last matches. Further, Space Soldiers are a dangerous team in online
competitions but when it comes to LAN, their performance is poor lately. On top
of that, their best map is Cobblestone and that is also the worst map of Rogue.
The thing is, Cobblestone is no longer in active maps and that map can’t be
played on this tournament which is a great plus for the American team.
Considering that Rogue is even better in head to head duels, the smart thing to
do here is to place a low bet on Rogue.

Astralis vs CompLexity

From the betting aspect, Astralis is an absolute favourite here, currently a
No.1 team in the world hungry for their first triumph at the Major tournament
this year. The Major in Boston was not meant to be for Astralis, but this is
their chance to prove they are the best team in the world and to finally triumph
at a Major tournament. Astralis would most likely advance to the second stage of
the tournament with 0 loses. It would be smart to bet on them in every single
match during the qualifier. This match particullary should be something like a
warmup for Astralis to recover from lose against North in the Grand Finals of
DreamHack Masters Stockholm last week. They were in the Grand Finals of the two
last big tournaments and they would probably play the Grand Finals here too,
does anyone even remember how Grand Finals without Astralis looks like? Me
neither.

North vs Hellraisers

Triumph against Astralis was a great confidence booster for North. They are
currently in a great shape with 5 wins in a row and DreamHack Masters trophy in
their pocket. On the other side, HR is struggling lately. HR is a more
experienced team, with more maps behind them with this roster but they have no
chance against North in the current stage. North won last 3 head to head matches
with 2-0 victory in each one. HR managed to take only 4 rounds on their map pick
Overpass, which is also their best map. In terms of map control, North is
covering every angle and HR can’t do much with their playstyle against that.
With great CT hold and solid T side, North should win this match with a
handicap. Our suggestion is to make a medium bet on North to win with a
handicap.

Place Your Bets Now

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