Perfect World has officially announced the list of teams invited to participate in the upcoming Regional Major Rankings (RMR) events and closed qualifiers ahead of the Perfect World Shanghai Major. Over a hundred teams from Europe, the Americas and Asia have been invited based on the Valve Regional Standings released on August 6. However, according to Perfect World, the teams must still confirm these invites.
The RMR events, slated for Nov. 11-24 in Shanghai, China, will serve as a crucial step towards qualifying for the Shanghai Major. Depending on region and stage, the online portion of the qualifying stage will begin on August 21 and run through August 30. In Europe and the Americas, all teams were invited based on their rankings, marking a shift from previous years when open qualifiers were available. However, Asia will still have open qualifiers in each of its five sub-regions.
Perfect World announce RMR and qualifier invites https://t.co/kwhWdsJCRL
— HLTV.org (@HLTVorg) August 9, 2024
Top teams in Europe and the Americas secure direct RMR spots
Top European teams such as G2, Natus Vincere, Vitality and Astralis are among the 16 direct invitees to the RMR events. Meanwhile, in the Americas, eight teams including Liquid, FURIA and Complexity will compete directly at RMR. The removal of open qualifiers means that these RMR events or the closed qualifiers are now the only way to make it to the Shanghai Major from these regions.
For example, Team Liquid who could opt to play in either the European or American region had to make strategic decisions about what region they would be competing in. This impacted their placing hence their path of competition. In addition, there was criticism over an outdated Cloud9 roster being included within Closed Qualifier invites for Europe. The valve listing features players who have left the team since then necessitating adjustments that may need to be done so that qualification requirements are met.
Asia moves forward with open qualifiers despite rule changes
While Europe and the Americas have moved away from open qualifiers, Asia is still utilizing them in five sub-regions. However, these open qualifiers may end up filling more spots than initially intended due to a lack of ranked teams in regions such as the Middle East, China and the Rest of Asia. The Middle East and Rest of Asia qualifiers did not have enough teams on the ranking list to receive the full four invites thus leading to potential changes in the final list of participants.
Three teams — The MongolZ from Mongolia, FlyQuest from Australia and Lynn Vision from China — have secured direct invites to the RMR events in Asia. The rest of the slots will be filled by teams emerging from open/closed qualifiers within this region. The continued use of open qualifiers in Asia showcases a regional difference when it comes to the Major qualification process reflecting varied competitive landscapes worldwide.