NA CS at the Majors: ELEAGUE Major Boston 2018

As we near closer and closer to the BLAST.tv Paris Major, the final CS:GO Major Championship, Dust2.us is walking down memory lane to relive North America’s Counter-Strike history at the Majors. With the last major in Krakow, North America was entering an era in flux where nobody knew what to expect of the region at another home Major in the lead up to Boston.

The Boston Major was an evolution of the Major system. It began when Valve and ELEAGUE, run by Turner Sports, announced that the structure of the event would be different. First, no longer would there be a LAN Qualifier to the Top 16; instead the Major would be one entire event featuring all 24 teams. Formerly known as the Major Qualifier, this was now "The New Challengers" stage which featured the eight teams that qualified from the minors and the bottom eight teams from the PGL Krakow Major.

The event would start off on the wrong foot immediately as visa issues impacted Chinese organization TYLOO. Indonesian star Hansel "⁠BnTeT⁠" Ferdinand had his visa to the United States denied and as negotiations broke down between Luis "⁠peacemaker⁠" Tadeu and TYLOO for the Brazilian coach to become an emergency replacement, the organization withdrew. In place of TYLOO, fellow Chinese organization Flash was able to quickly secure visas to America and came as a replacement.

TYLOO would not be the only organization to suffer from visa issues, as the newly formed 100 Thieves had signed the majority of the former Immortals roster, only to see them unable to travel for the event, thus making this the only Major with 23 teams. 100 Thieves had qualified for the event as Immortals finished as a finalist at the PGL Major Krakow 2017.

Now, with those major adjustments to the Major out of the way, this is also the only Major where the event was technically split into two separate geographical locations, with the Challengers and Legend stages taking place at Turner Studios in Atlanta, GA, while the playoffs were hosted at Boston University's Agganis Arena. While it's common for the stages to take place at different locations in the same city, it is unique and remains the only Major where operations had to physically move to an entirely new city.

One of the biggest roster moves after the PGL Major Krakow 2017 was the removal of Cloud9 fan favorites Michael "shroud" Grzesiek and Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert from the active lineup in favor of Will "RUSH" Wierzba and Tarik "tarik" Celik, from OpTic. The move at the time divided the community, with many still believing in shroud's technical ability, but also acknowledging the upgrade in firepower that came with two of America's best riflers.

At the same time, Liquid also struggled as they made a change of their own, bringing in Lucas "⁠steel⁠" Lopes after Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz was on the outs after only nine months with the squad. Because of the late change, and because steel had participated in a Major Qualifier with Immortals, he was ineligible to play for Liquid at the Major, meaning head coach Wilton "zews" Prado would step in for the team.

The North American qualifiers was already complicated before we even arrived to the Minor. French Canadians shocked most of the North American community after surprising wins over Rogue and Immortals to qualify for the minor, but had to withdraw as Mert "⁠REOVA⁠" Bayrak was a Turkish national living in the United States and was concerned regarding visa issues for the Americas Minor which was being held in Toronto, Canada. In his place, Misfts would win in a Last-Chance Qualifier, earning a coveted spot to the next stage.

At the Minor, it was Counter Logic Gaming and Liquid being favored to go through after being invited directly to the event. Misfits, however, would prove to be a spoiler as a first round upset over Liquid would send the arguably second-best American team to the lower-bracket. Liquid regrouped and found a winning formula en-route to the Grand Final, achieving qualification over Counter Logic Gaming and even getting a revenge win against Misfits.

With Cloud9, Liquid, and Misfits headed to the Major, there were not high expectations on North America to sweep through the event. Cloud9 was a recently formed team with only a few months of practice, Liquid had a coach standing in, and Misfits was still of unknown quality.

Misfits would struggle in their opening play, as despite a first-round win against Flipsid3 they would fall against G2, Space Soldiers, and AVANGAR. Liquid would not fare significantly better as they suffered an early loss to FaZe, followed by wins against Flipsid3 and Renegades, before losing the next two qualification matches against Vega Squadron and Natus Vincere.

Despite Liquid's shaky performance, the squad lucked out in the Replacement Team Qualifier, as 100 Thieves' absence from the event left an open spot in the main stage, up for grabs among the teams with a 2-3 record in the Challengers Stage. In it, they escaped having to play against Renegades after AVANGAR dispatched them 16-10 and were able to win the qualification best-of-one 19-15 in an overtime thriller.

Meanwhile, Cloud9 looked impervious as they decimated their opponents G2, Sprout, and mousesports as they easily qualified 3-0, a statement of qualification for the all-American squad as they looked to qualify for a place at Boston.

With the final sixteen teams set for the Major, North America would have Liquid and Cloud9 giving the region hope that they would be able to bring home a trophy in their home nation, a feat that has only been achieved once before, with fnatic taking home the trophy at DreamHack Winter 2013 in Jönköping, Sweden.

The New Legends stage would immediately prove to be detrimental for Cloud9 who were thrust into the 0-2 pool after a 16-8 loss to G2 and 16-13 loss to Space Soldiers. Liquid, at the other end, would not fare much better as despite a 16-5 win over BIG, they would lose 16-8 to G2 and 16-9 against NAVI, putting them on the brink of elimination.

It was now that the miracle run of Cloud9 began, with the entire team rallying to defeat the legendary Polish lineup on Virtus.pro, taking down Astralis, and then finishing their reverse sweep run with a victory over Vega Squadron to book their place at the Agganis Arena. As for Liquid, they would not have the same fortune as their run ended with a loss against Vega Squadron, but for a team utilizing their coach as a player, it was an admirable effort for the squad.

Cloud9's entrance into the playoffs was a mixture of luck, persistence, and grit as the squad had defied the odds in the New Legends Stage, only to be placed against the one playoff team that they had just lost to down in Atlanta; G2. The opening BO3 would not only see the Americans dominate on their pick of Mirage in a 16-8 victory, but also an incredibly staunch defense on Overpass, where Tarik "tarik" Celik's 22 kills lead the way for Cloud9 to secure a 2-0 sweep over the French.

Due to ELEAGUE's scheduling of matches, only three best-of-threes were played in the arena on the Friday, forcing fellow regional rivals SK to play their quarter-final match that Saturday, which they dramatically won 2-1 after a double-overtime Inferno first map loss to fnatic. The Brazilians would then, having played three maps to near regulation limit, have to prepare for Cloud9 that evening.

Cloud9 appeared to be fully prepared for the Brazilians, coming hot out of gate with a 16-3 victory on their pick of Mirage. Despite the Brazilians responding with their own forceful 16-8 win on Cobblestone, they could do nothing on Inferno as tarik once again powered his team to a victory, going 26-16 with a 1.67 rating to set up a meeting with FaZe.

With that victory, Cloud9 had done what only one North American team had done before and reach the Grand Final of a Major. Now, it was America's genuine chance to secure the trophy and bring home a Major for a region that had struggled significantly at the international stage.

The match began on Cloud9's trusted pick of Mirage, where the Americans quickly dominated on their T-side, as they jumped out to an 8-1 lead to begin the contest. FaZe ended up slightly closing the gap, but Cloud9 were still well in the driver's seat, even expanding the lead to 12-7. However, FaZe could not be held back as they started stringing round after round together before they suddenly lead the match 15-12. Despite Cloud9 clawing two final rounds back to make it 15-14, the European would slam the door shut and secure Cloud9's map pick 16-14.

The Americans were now firmly on the backfoot, as FaZe would move the match towards their pick of Overpass. Cloud9, surprisingly, once again started the match incredibly strong as they held back all of FaZe's attacks to secure a 12-3 CT-side. Despite the Europeans proving that their CT-side was also strong, it was simply too little too late as Cloud9 got their four T-side rounds to bring us all to the famous Inferno game.

I don't even know how to appropriately describe what exactly happened on Inferno and frankly, I'm not exactly sure that I need to. That map is a constant living memory for fans of the region and one that is also unforgettable for those across the globe. I'm sure for North American Counter-Strike fans across the region they can just describe the euphoria of the comeback on the CT side when being down 15-11. The feeling that Cloud9 had their backs against the wall, that any single misplay would send the hopes and dreams of an American audience down the drain. How can you accurately describe the chant of "Send them home" and "USA" that rang out throughout the arena? In essence, words cannot do it justice. The feeling isn't some sort of bombastic nationalistic pride, but one that sits with you in the pit of your stomach, making you remember something fond and something of a time when it was just a little bit easier to be a fan of North America.

You know the story, Jake "Stewie2k" Yip was all alone on the bombsite, but it didn't really matter. Time was already running out when Finn "karrigan" Andersen made the late call to push towards the B site. FaZe had run out of ideas at this point and it was a last-grasp play, just hoping that Cloud9 had maybe made a mistake and left someone there all alone. There was no time to plant, but the feeling of the three kills the emphatic smoke pushing criminal got with the AWP made you burst with excitement.

At that time, nothing else mattered. FaZe were comfortably the best team in the world, a superteam of superstars from all over. Cloud9 was the plucky American underdogs that didn't impress and should have been beaten by Virtus.pro to go out 0-3 in the New Legends Stage. The team was here and they won, despite it all.

The overtimes went back and forth. Cloud9 had jumped out early to bring it to 18-15, but FaZe brought it right back into the second overtime and lead 19-18. Despite losing out on the first overtime, it didn't matter. It felt magical inside of the arena, like Cloud9 had it this entire time. And so they did when the team would win the first T-side round win by either side and then slowly, but methodically close down and secure the Major for America, for the region, and for themselves.