FACEIT Major New Challengers Stage preview: Minor Challengers

A total of 16 teams, consisting of Minor winners, Minor runner-ups and the bottom eight teams from the ELEAGUE Major Boston's New Legends Stage, will square off in the FACEIT Major New Challengers Stage, featuring a Swiss best-of-three group stage which uses the Buchholz system as a seeding tool from rounds 3 to 5.

GeT_RiGhT and his Ninjas qualified for their first Major in two years

The best eight teams from the initial stage will move on to the New Legends part of the Major, where they will go up against the best eight teams from Boston. The first stage of the Major will run from September 5-9 at London's Twickenham Stadium. You can read much more about the practical information regarding the event in our viewer's guide here.

Below is the full list of teams participating in the FACEIT Major 2018 New Challengers Stage:

Astralis	Complexity
BIG	Rogue
Gambit	Renegades
Liquid	TYLOO
North	HellRaisers
Space Soldiers	Spirit
Vega Squadron	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Virtus.pro	OpTic

Americas Minor

Complexity (#29)	Age	Rating
Rory "⁠dephh⁠" Jackson	26	1.07
Bradley "⁠ANDROID⁠" Fodor	24	1.07
Shahzeb "⁠ShahZaM⁠" Khan	24	1.07
Jaccob "⁠yay⁠" Whiteaker	19	1.06
Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz	24	1.04

Offline placings in the last three months
1st	Americas Minor - FACEIT Major 2018
5-6th	ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 Regional Finals
5-6th	DreamHack Open Summer 2018

Even though they reached a top spot at the Americas Minor, Complexity haven't had their best year in 2018, as the squad failed to qualify for a string of events including ZOTAC Cup Masters, ESL One New York, DreamHack Masters Stockholm and StarSeries i-League Season 6.

ShahZaM and coL will have to show up big in London

The North American team only really stepped up at the Minor, albeit with an impressive performance, only losing a single map out of 13 they played in London in July. Their best player was the young rifler yay, who managed a 1.16 at the event.

stanislaw's men will certainly be underdogs to break out of the New Challengers Stage, and they will have to rely on yay's individual skill combined with the experience of the Canadian in-game leader as well as that of dephh, ANDROID, and ShahZaM to do well at the Major.

Rogue (#30)	Age	Rating
Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller	23	1.21
Ricardo "⁠Rickeh⁠" Mulholland	26	1.18
Hunter "⁠SicK⁠" Mims	20	1.07
Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin	28	1.07
Daniel "⁠vice⁠" Kim	22	1.01

Offline placings in the last three months
2nd	Americas Minor - FACEIT Major 2018
2nd	DreamHack Open Austin 2018

Marred by roster instability for quite a while, Rogue finally seemed to find some solid ground after adding Danish AWPer cadiaN at the end of last year. While the team did change more players after that, they reached the final in DreamHack Open Austin before doing the same at the Minor, where they were bested by Complexity.

cadiaN and Hiko haven't been at a Major in years

For an emotional insight into cadiaN's struggles during the last four years, which he spent away from the Major since attending DreamHack Winter 2014, you can read our recently released portrait of the 23-year-old: Leaving home to stage a comeback: cadiaN's return to the Major. Alongside him is CS:GO veteran Hiko, who will play at his first Major since attending the ELEAGUE Major 2017 with Liquid.

Although Rogue did well in Austin and at the Minor, but those two were the only LAN events the team attended since avoiding ESL Pro League relegation in January. The question is how they will fare in the New Legends Stage, where they will face off against teams with much more LAN experience than those they've played against in recent months.

Asia Minor

Renegades (#16)	Age	Rating
Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage	22	1.24
Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad	24	1.23
Karlo "⁠USTILO⁠" Pivac	25	1.08
Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward	25	1.02
Noah "⁠Nifty⁠" Francis	20	1.01

Offline placings in the last three months
1st	Asia Minor - FACEIT Major 2018
9-12th	ESL One Cologne 2018
7-8th	DreamHack Open Summer 2018

After reaching the quarter-finals at IEM Sydney 2018, Renegades didn't have much luck on LAN going into the Asia Minor. Nifty and co. went out in groups at both Starseries i-Leauge Season 5, DreamHack Summer, and ESL One Cologne, where they were eliminated by later finalists BIG. Opposition was easier to overcome at the Minor, even though they lost their opening match against SCARZ Absolute. "The Boys" ended up going all the way, qualifying for the Major alongside TYLOO for the fifth time in a row.

AZR at the Asia Minor

The fact that Renegades has a spot in the, somewhat weaker, Asia Minor, has been lamented by some, pointing out that the team has been based in America for over three years. The issue was touched upon in HLTV.org's thorough investigation into the history of the Australian scene, conducted by HLTV's Senior Writer Zvonimir "Professeur" Burazin.

If Renegades are to go far in London, they will have to enable their AWPer and in-game leader Nifty, who certainly has it in him to perform against the big teams. Fans of the team will remember his incredible performance in map two of their quarter-final at IEM Sydney against MOUZ, where he managed a whopping 51 kills, later dubbed as the "Nifty Fifty".

Another important part of the Australians arsenal is the 22-year-old rifler jks, the highest-rated player on the team. He was also the highest rated player in the Asia Minor at 1.37. Competition at the Major is, naturally, a lot stronger, so the two hard hitters, alongside the team's 24-year-old Norwegian, jkaem will have to give it their all in London.

TYLOO (#12)	Age	Rating
Hansel "⁠BnTeT⁠" Ferdinand	23	1.09
Kevin "⁠xccurate⁠" Susanto	20	1.08
HaoWen "⁠somebody⁠" Xu	23	1.06
Hui "⁠DD⁠" Wu	24	1.01
Ke "⁠captainMo⁠" Liu	29	0.90

Offline placings in the last three months
9-12th	DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018
5-8th	ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 Grand Finals
2nd	IEM Shanghai 2018
2nd	Asia Minor - FACEIT Major 2018
3-4th	CS:GO Asia Championships 2018

You wouldn't think that having your in-game communication be a mix of Chinese, English and Indonesian would be conducive of success in top-tier CS. But TYLOO don't care about that, as in-game leader BnTeT calls in all three simultaneously while also often spending time on top of the scoreboard himself.

TYLOO's unpredictable style is key to their success

TYLOO broke into the HLTV.org Top 10 in July, the first time ever for an Asian team, by scraping together points from impressive placements at IEM Shanghai and qualifying for StarSeries i-League S6 and DreamHack Masters Stockholm. They were sent packing before the playoffs at the latter, but only because they faced both of finalists — North and Astralis — in their group.

The Chinese-Indonesian side boasts plenty of firepower in BnTeT, somebody and their aggressive AWPer xccurate, and, combined with a style their fellow Asia Minor qualifiers Renegades have dubbed 'unpredictable', they can definitely do damage in the New Challengers Stage of the Major. It is worth noting though, that many of the teams they will meet have played plenty of games against them recently, raising the question whether they will be easier to read, thus losing some of their edges.

EU Minor

Ninjas in Pyjamas (#8)	Age	Rating
Jonas "⁠Lekr0⁠" Olofsson	25	1.13
Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner	20	1.13
Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg	30	1.12
Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund	28	1.02
Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman	27	1.01

Offline placings in the last three months
3-4th	DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018
1st	Europe Minor - FACEIT Major 2018
13-16th	ESL One Cologne 2018
5-6th	CS:GO Asia Championships 2018

"...There was a big weight on my shoulders that just disappeared."

Ninjas in Pyjamas's veteran GeT_RiGhT perfectly framed the feeling many fans of the Swedish side had, as they qualified for their first Major in two years after winning the European Minor.

f0rest had plenty of highlights at DreamHack Masters Stockholm

f0rest and co. reached the semi-final on home soil at DreamHack Masters Stockholm over the weekend, where they were eliminated by the No.1-ranked Danes in Astralis. The 30-year-old had one of his best events this year, as he garnered a 1.26 rating and was the man behind some of the best highlights of the event, including an incredible ace clutch against Astralis, reminiscent of the veteran's 1.6 days:

Ninjas in Pyjamas's runs at the Minor and DreamHack Stockholm came after a period of disappointing results, where the team went out in groups at ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals, StarSeries i-League Season 5 and ESL One Cologne, and also lost to TYLOO in the quarter-finals of the CS:GO Asia Championships. The team was involved in the Swedish shuffle in May when they signed Lekr0, who had been benched by fnatic as they brought in Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström to lead them.

The 25-year old became the team's in-game leader and took the team the aforementioned results at the Minor and in Stockholm. Apart from his early success with calling, Lekr0 has shown that he can also frag well, netting a 1.14 rating and +39 K/D difference at the Minor. Combined with f0rest and REZ, Ninjas in Pyjamas certainly have the firepower to reach the New Legends stage in London.

OpTic (#17)	Age	Rating
Jakob "⁠JUGi⁠" Hansen	21	1.12
René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg	28	1.07
Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke	21	1.06
Nicklas "⁠gade⁠" Gade	23	1.03
Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer	28	0.92

Offline placings in the last three months
9-12th	DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018
5-8th	ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 Grand Finals
2nd	Europe Minor - FACEIT Major 2018
2nd	DreamHack Open Summer 2018
5-6th	DreamHack Open Austin 2018

On paper, OpTic have one of the most promising lineups in the Top 30. With flashy players capable of carrying games by themselves in k0nfig and JUGi coupled with veteran players cajunb and Snappi, the Danish side should be able to go head-to-head with top 10 teams. But the team has been inconsistent since the inception of it's all-Danish roster in April.

gade was one of OpTic's best players during the Minor

OpTic went out in groups at ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals and DreamHack Open Austin but subsequently reached the final at DreamHack Open Summer. They then failed to qualify for ESL One New York and StarSeries i-League Season 6 (although they were confirmed at the latter event due to other teams pulling out). At the Europe Minor, Snappi's men looked strong, as they only lost 2 maps before reaching the final, with AWPer JUGi and up-and-coming rifler gade reaching 1.21 and 1.17 ratings, respectively.

Then came another low for the Danes, as they were unexpectedly eliminated by the underdogs in Ghost at ZOTAC Cup Masters, their first event after a three-week break. The last map of that series was the worst ever on LAN for k0nfig, as the 21-year-old only reached a 0.30 rating against the North Americans, who would later go on to upset Natus Vincere at DreamHack Masters Stockholm.

The Swedish event was looking like a difficult one for OpTic, as they were grouped up with heavy hitters such as fnatic and FaZe, but it would be their Danish brethren in Heroic who ultimately eliminated them before the playoffs. Coming into the Major, k0nfig and co. will have to have corrected a wide range of problems if they want to harness the full potential of their superstars and veterans for a chance to get out of the New Challengers Stage.

CIS Minor

Spirit (#36)	Age	Rating
Pavel "⁠COLDYY1⁠" Veklenko	26	1.22
Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev	21	1.21
Vadim "⁠DavCost⁠" Vasilyev	22	1.17
Dmitriy "⁠Dimaoneshot⁠" Bandurka	23	0.98
Dmitry "⁠S0tF1k⁠" Forostyanko	23	0.86

Offline placings in the last three months
2nd	CIS Minor - FACEIT Major 2018
2nd	GG.BET Majestic - ESL One Cologne Qualifier

As the lowest ranked team coming into the New Challengers Stage, Spirit will have to go above and beyond to move on to the main part of the Major. The Russian-Ukranian squad recently attended the GG.BET Majestic ESL One Cologne qualifier and the CIS Minor as the only LANs in recent months, coming in second at all both events.

Spirit are underdogs in London

Competition at those events was far below the level of the teams Spirit will be facing in London, so it's more than likely that S0tF1k and his men will have a hard time taking maps from their adversaries.

To surpass expectations, the two Ukrainians in the team, COLDYY1 and this year's addition sdy, will have to play at their very best. The latter can certainly be a force to be reckoned with, as the 21-year-old FPL star reached an impressive 1.22 rating at the CIS Minor, especially dominating in their lower bracket final against AVANGAR.

HellRaisers (#15)	Age	Rating
Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker	20	1.30
Issa "⁠ISSAA⁠" Murad	21	1.16
Vladyslav "⁠bondik⁠" Nechyporchuk	25	1.00
Kirill "⁠ANGE1⁠" Karasiow	28	0.96
Bence "⁠DeadFox⁠" Böröcz	23	0.88

Offline placings in the last three months
9-12th	DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018
5-6th	IEM Shanghai 2018
1st	CIS Minor - FACEIT Major 2018
2nd	Moche XL Esports

Even though ANGE1 and his men chose the easy route to the Major by picking the CIS Minor as their path to London (HellRaisers were allowed to choose between the EU and CIS Minors since they have two Europeans and two CIS players), their participation on the biggest stage of CS is definitely justified.

w0xic will attend his first Major in London

The team features some of the biggest talents among young up-and-coming pros in woxic and ISSAA, two players who have been friends and teammates for over a year, and whom were brought to develop themselves under leadership of the veteran in-game leader ANGE1 and coach Ivan "⁠Johnta⁠" Shevtsov. For an interesting look into how ISSAA has developed as a person and player coming into the Major, you can read HLTV.org's feature about the 21-year-old Jordanian right here.

woxic's attendance in London was, at one point, uncertain, as he had problems getting his passport back after submitting it to acquire a visa for DreamHack Masters Stockholm, but he was able to announce last week that he had gotten it back, so as to ensure his participating in the Major. Many fans, as well as the rest of the team, will be happy that the 20-year-old Turkish FPL star will show up and help HellRaisers make a mark at the event with his flashy AWP plays. woxic was the highest rated player at the CIS Minor, reaching a whopping 1.41 rating, with ISSAA coming in second with an equally impressive 1.37 rating.

Reaching ratings like that at the Major itself will, naturally, be more difficult for the mixture of young stars and veterans. While HellRaisers won the Bets.net Masters by beating North, the only time they have gone far in a bigger event in the last six months was when they lost the DreamHack Tours final, also against North, who they will face once again in the opening game of the FACEIT Major New Challengers Stage.