Cloud9 become the first North American CS:GO team to win a Major
Friday 2 February 2018 13:52, UK
This weekend saw the conclusion of the ELEAGUE Major: Boston in which eight of the world's best teams battled it out in front of a packed crowd at the Agganis Arena.
Over 1,130,000 viewers watched on streaming platform Twitch as American roster Cloud9 completed a fairytale run to be crowned Major champions and become the first North American organisation to do so in the process.
Tyler 'Skadoodle' Latham, Jacky 'Stewie2K' Yip, Timothy 'autimatic' Ta, Will 'RUSH' Wierzba and Tarik 'tarik' Celik defied the odds as they dispatched the three best teams in the world to take home a truly unexpected title.
The run started in the quarter-finals against French squad G2 Esports. The maps chosen were Mirage, Overpass and Cobblestone - although in the end, the match would not go the full best-of-three distance.
The closest G2 got to Cloud9 was in the first half of Mirage where they ended 8-7 behind. After that, C9 took eight rounds to G2's one in a resounding 16-8 victory. Overpass favoured G2, but a crushing 12-3 half from Cloud9 on their Counter-Terrorist side saw them wrap up the game and match with just four rounds on the Terrorist side, taking the map and series emphatically.
The next foe for C9 to conquer was none other than SK Gaming. The Brazilian squad are considered by many as the world's best, but with a weakened roster they could not live up to the pacing of Cloud9's play. Led by Skadoodle's deadly AWP play, C9 breezed to a 16-3 victory on Mirage before dropping Cobblestone to their Brazilian foes. On the deciding map, Cloud9 made short work of SK and raced to a 12-3 lead before eventually seeing out the map 16-9 and booking a spot in a Major final.
It is safe to say the best was saved until last. The final saw Cloud9 face esports juggernauts FaZe Clan. FaZe are the only roster in the world where every individual player can be labelled a superstar in their own right. For AWPer Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovacs it was a third bite at a Major final, but it was not to be.
The writing looked to be on the wall for Cloud9 after losing their own map pick, Mirage, in a close fought encounter. Despite coming agonisingly close, FaZe closed it out 16-14. Pundits and analysts predicted a quick second game in which FaZe would close out their pick, Overpass. Quite the opposite happened, however, with Cloud9 racing to a 12-3 lead in the first half and, despite labouring slightly, closing the map 16-10.
The final map of the entire championship was over on Inferno. At 15-11, FaZe had four match points to seal victory and etch their names in Counter-Strike history. Cloud9, however, fought back valiantly to tie the game at 15-15 and force the match to overtime.
The American five then found themselves with three round wins in a row and three championship points. In continued epic drama, FaZe pulled off clutch after clutch and remarkable play to level the match once more. Eventually though, the US crowds chanting edged Cloud9 over the line. The final score ended 22-19 and Cloud9, with over 1,000,000 people watching, claimed USD 500,000 and a major title to boot.
