ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018

ELEAGUE Major 2018

2018
The ELEAGUE Major 2018 logo
Tournament information
Sport	Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Location	Atlanta, Georgia, United States Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Dates	January 12, 2018–January 28, 2018
Administrator	Valve ELEAGUE
Tournament format(s)	Two 16 team swiss-system group stages 8 team single-elimination playoff
Venue	Agganis Arena
Teams	23 teams
Purse	$1,000,000 USD
Final positions
Champions	Cloud9
1st runners-up	FaZe Clan
2nd runners-up	Natus Vincere SK Gaming
MVP	Tarik "tarik" Celik

The ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, also known as ELEAGUE Major 2018 or Boston 2018, was the twelfth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship and second organized by ELEAGUE. The group stage was held in Atlanta, Georgia, United States from January 12 to January 22, 2018, and the playoffs took place at the Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts, United States from January 26 to January 28, 2018. It featured twenty-four professional teams from around the world. All sixteen teams from last major, PGL 2017 Kraków Major Championship, directly qualified for the major while another eight teams qualified through their respective regional qualifiers as ELEAGUE and Valve agreed to expand the major to 24 teams. ELEAGUE Major is the fifth consecutive major with a prize pool of $1,000,000. This was also the first time a CS:GO major took place in two cities.

SK Gaming and Fnatic were the only returning Legends, as it was the fewest returning Legends in major history; the two teams ended up being the only remaining teams to make the playoffs out off all the majors both teams attended, with Fnatic's run starting at 2013 DreamHack Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Championship and SK Gaming's run starting at ESL One Katowice 2015, in which the Brazilians were with the organization Keyd Stars. FaZe Clan, G2 Esports, Natus Vincere, Quantum Bellator Fire, Cloud9, and mousesports were new Legends. Defending champions Gambit Esports, 100 Thieves (formerly Immortals), Astralis, BIG, North, and Virtus.pro were out as Legends after five teams were knocked out in the New Legends stage and 100 Thieves not making the major due to visa issues. This marked the first time Astralis's core three – Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz, Peter "dupreeh" Rothmann, and Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth – did not make the playoffs for the first time in Global Offensive major history, leaving just Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer of FaZe Clan and Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson of Fnatic as the only two remaining players to become Legends at all twelve majors.

The grand finals featured FaZe Clan, which was the favorite to win the tournament, and Cloud9, which was the second North American team to reach a major final. FaZe defeated mousesports and Natus Vincere to reach the finals, while Cloud9 pulled off two upsets with wins against G2 Esports and SK Gaming. In what is being called one of the greatest finals of all time, Cloud9 etched out the win over FaZe Clan to become the first ever North American team to win a major. It would also mark just the fourth time in CS:GO history in which a North American team won a premier international event, behind iBUYPOWER winning the ESEA Global Finals Season 15, Cloud9 winning ESL Pro League Season 4, and OpTic Gaming winning ELEAGUE Season 2.

Background

See also: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve. It is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series. In competitive play, the game pits two teams against each other: the Terrorists and the Counter-Terrorists. Both sides are tasked with eliminating the other while also completing separate objectives. The Terrorists must either plant a bomb or kill the entire Counter-Terrorist team, while the Counter-Terrorists must either prevent the bomb from being planted by killing the entire Terrorist team or defusing the bomb. At the end of each round, players are rewarded based on their individual performance with in-game currency to spend on more powerful weapons in subsequent rounds. Winning rounds results in more money than losing, and completing objectives such as killing enemy players gives cash bonuses. However, the more consecutive rounds a team loses, the more money the losing team earns, with the loss bonus capping after five rounds; once that team wins a round, the loss round bonus resets to the minimum amount each player could earn after a round.

There are six categories of purchasable categories, five being weapons – rifles, submachine guns (SMGs), heavy, pistols, and grenades – and the sixth being utilities, which includes armor and a taser. All guns have different stats and all grenade types have different in-game effects. The highly explosive grenade deals damage in a small radius, the smoke grenade places a smoke screen for fifteen seconds so that nobody can see through the placed smoke, the decoy grenade emulates the player's primary gun, the flashbang temporarily blinds players who look at it explode, and the Molotov cocktail and Incendiary Grenade set a small radius of the map on fire for seven seconds. Alongside all of these weapons, the Zeus x27, a taser, can also be purchased. For most professional players, the main choice of weapons are two rifles – the AK-47 for Terrorists and the M4A4 or the M4A1-S for the Counter-Terrorists – and the AWP. However, if limited on money, players tend to choose pistols – such as the Desert Eagle, CZ-75 Auto, and the P250 – the UMP-45 – which is considered to be simply a weaker M4A4 or AK47 despite being an SMG – and the SSG 08 – which is a much inferior AWP. If players know the opposing team has a weaker inventory, then players may choose to use lesser weaponry such as the MAC-10 or the MP-9 as the SMGs give twice as much money as rifles with each kill and give players more money going into further rounds. Heavy weapons are rarely used, with the MAG-7 being the most used, as players need to be very close range in order to get an accurate shot. The Kevlar is an important part of CS:GO as having armor allows a player to have a more accurate aim when while getting hit by bullets and decreases the amount of damage taken. A helmet can also be bought; the helmet does not allow certain weapons to give a one-shot, one kill potential, like the M4A4. Counter-Terrorists can also buy a defuse kit, which decreases the amount of time to defuse the bomb from ten seconds to five, which saves a lot of time as the bomb explodes forty seconds after the Terrorists planted the bomb.

In the game, there are two bombsites where Terrorists can plant the bomb. Counter-Terrorist must defend the bomb sites from the Terrorists. Each half starts with a pistol round, in which players can only buy utility, grenades, or pistols. Most teams tend to have three or four players buy Kevlar armor and one or two players who buy grenades and/or a defuse kit; on the Terrorist side, a player sometimes buys an upgraded pistol and gives that pistol to a teammate who as Kevlar in order to give the Terrorists a better chance to win the round, as the default Terrorist pistol, the Glock is inferior the default Counter-Terrorist pistol, the USP-S. Most teams tend to go for a force buy in the second round if they lose the pistol round; a force buy is in which a team uses up its money despite having lesser weaponry than the other team in an attempt to win the round. Other teams go for a save or economy round, in which the teams intentionally do not buy many weapons or utility to have more money to buy more ideal weapons in the following round. Teams then go into a gun round, in which both teams have decent guns, but not necessarily the ideal round, as one team may have a player who has a less than an ideal gun or the team does not have many grenades. Each half consists of fifteen rounds and a regular game has a maximum of thirty rounds. The first team to reach sixteen rounds wins the game. If teams are tied at fifteen, the games go to overtime, in which each overtime is the best of six rounds, making each half three rounds. If teams are still tied at the end of overtime, the game will go on to another overtime until a winner is decided.

The defending champion was Gambit Esports, which became the first Asian team and CIS team to win a major and just the second non-European team to win a major. The Swedish team Fnatic won three majors to be the most decorated CS:GO team in history, and SK Gaming from Brazil coming in second with two majors.

Format

On December 13, 2017, the general manager of ELEAGUE Christina Alejandre announced a partially new format designed by Valve and ELEAGUE. The offline qualifier would now be part of the main stage and would be rebranded as the "New Challengers stage." In addition, the teams in this qualifier would also receive in-game stickers. Stickers are items in the game that have the logo of the team and the autographs of the players that those playing the game can put on their weapons. In the grand scheme of things, the format was virtually the same.

There are four regional qualifiers – Americas, Asia, CIS, and Europe. Two teams from each qualifier move on to the New Challengers stage that will take place in Atlanta from January 19, 2018 to January 22, 2018. Each minor will feature eight teams. Eight teams qualify from the closed qualifier to the minor. Each minor has two groups of four and the top two teams from each group move on to the bracket stage. There, the four teams play in a four team, double elimination, best of three and the top two teams move on to the major.

The "New Challengers stage," formerly known as the offline qualifier, features sixteen teams: the bottom eight teams from the last major, PGL 2017 Kraków Major Championship, and the eight teams from the minors. These teams play in a sixteen team, Swiss-system format. The top eight teams from this stage move on to the next phase of the major.

The group stage, now known as the "New Legends stage" will feature the sixteen teams that are normally a part of the main stage. These teams include the top eight teams from the PGL Major and the top eight teams from the New Challengers stage. Like the Challengers stage, the Legends stage is a sixteen team, Swiss-system format. The top eight teams from this phase move on to the top eight.

In the playoffs, now known as the "Champions stage," eight teams will play in a single elimination, best of three bracket. Teams will play until a winner is decided in the finals.

Map pool

The map pool will be kept the same as the previous major, even though Valve released the new version of Dust II.

Maps Cache Cobblestone Inferno Mirage Nuke Overpass Train

Regional qualifiers

Each regional qualifier, called "Minors", featured eight teams, whether through direct invitation or through qualifiers. Each minor featured two groups of four teams; these groups were in GSL double elimination formats, which was the format used at every major until the ELEAGUE Major, with the initial matches and winners match being best of ones and the losers and decider series being best of three. Two teams of each group qualify for the bracket phase, which is a four team, double elimination, best of three bracket. Two teams qualify for the major qualifier from each minor.

Each minor also had a US$50,000 prize pool with first place receiving US$30,000, second place taking in US$15,000, and third place raking in the last US$5,000.

Asia Minor

The Asia Minor took place shortly after the major announcement. Eight teams were invited to the qualifier in Seoul, South Korea and no online, open, or closed qualifier took place. This caused some controversy as minors were intended for all teams to be able to qualify and had no chance to prove themselves; top Asian teams such as Recca eSports, Grayhound Gaming, and Risky Gaming had more success than the likes of The MongolZ and other teams in the minor but were not invited. The Asia Minor took place on October 26, 2017 to October 29, 2017. The dates also caused some controversy as TyLoo and AVANGAR and Team Spirit from the CIS qualifier of EPICENTER 2017, a premier tournament, were forced to drop out of the tournament due to the dates of the minor and EPICENTER running into each other. TyLoo opted in anyway and lost to FaZe Clan in the Wild Card phase, so the Chinese team did not have much conflict. Similar events happened in the past, including Renegades forced to drop out of the ESL Pro League Season 4 Finals to play in the ELEAGUE Major 2017 Asia Minor. In addition, many players could not obtain visas in time between the time Valve announced the major and the qualifier dates, causing some teams to drop out of the qualifiers. ViCi Gaming was invited to the minor, but visa issues forced the team to pull out. B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape from Singapore was named the replacement.

Teams B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape Flash Gaming Kings Gaming Club MVP PK Renegades Tainted Minds The MongolZ TyLoo

First round

Semifinals

Finals

A1

Renegades

2

B2

Flash Gaming

0

A1

Renegades

2

B1

TyLoo

1

B1

TyLoo

2

A2

MVP PK

0

A1

Renegades

2

B1

TyLoo

0

B2

Flash Gaming

2

A2

MVP PK

0

B1

TyLoo

2

B2

Flash Gaming

1

Asia Minor summary; Seoul, South Korea

The eight teams were split into two groups. Group A played on October 26, 2017 and Group B played on October 27, 2017.

The Boston Asia Minor started with Renegades dominating The MongolZ 16-6. Kings Gaming Club faced off against MVP PK in the next match. The second Australian defeated the Koreans; although MVP PK had a better scoreline than The MongolZ at 16-9, but Kings came up on top. In the winner's match, Renegades completely dominated Kings 16-2 to move on to the bracket stage. In the loser's series, MVP PK easily closed out the first map 16-3 against The MongolZ on Cobblestone. On the second map, MVP PK had a massive lead and looked to eliminate The MongolZ with ease, but The MongolZ swept the second half and went on to win 16-12. On the third map, The MongolZ appeared to make another comeback, but MVP PK was able to clutch it out after Kim "HSK" Hae-sung stuck a defuse on the bomb without Enkhtaivan "Machinegun" Lkhagva knowing to send The MongolZ home. In the decider series, Kings took the first map as expected 16-12, but two close maps at 16-13 and 16-14 in favor of MVP PK, including a massive comeback on the third map after being down 11-5, put the Koreans through to the bracket phase. Kings was sent home. In group B, TyLoo easily took down Tainted Minds 16-4 and Flash Gaming did the same to B.O.O.T.-dream[S]cape 16-7. In the winners match, TyLoo took a close 16-13 game over Flash to take the first seed and to face MVP PK. In the losers series, Tainted Minds took the first map 16-9 then took a close second map 16-13 to eliminate B.O.O.T. from the minor. In the losers series, Flash easily took the first game from Tainted Minds 16-6; the second map was closer, but Flash came out on top again 16-10 to take the last spot in the top four.

Renegades just about took a 2-0 victory over Flash in two 16-14 wins. After TyLoo came back on the first map against MVP PK 16-12, China's best team rode that wave of momentum to the next map to dominate the Koreans 16-4 and TyLoo went on to face off its historic Asian rival. In winners finals, the first game was an extremely tense one, but TyLoo prevailed in double overtime to take the game 22-19.; Renegades came back quickly on the second map and cruised to a 16-6 victory and then a 16-4 win on the third map to guarantee the Australians a spot in the offline qualifier. In two relatively close games, Flash Gaming took full advantage of MVP PK's mistakes in the losers semifinals and took the games 16-9 and 16-13 as a Korean team was eliminated in fourth place at the minor for the second straight Asia Minor. TyLoo cruised its way past Flash in the first map 16-6, but Flash came back with a 16-12 victory on the second map; on the third map, TyLoo was able to mount a huge comeback from 11-4 to take the game 16-14 to avoid the upset and guarantee a spot once again in Atlanta. In the Asia Minor finals, Renegades had to come back twice against TyLoo to take the first map 16-14 and then 16-12 on the second map to officially take the first seed.

With TyLoo dropping out of the Major and Flash Gaming taking the spot, this meant Andrew "kaze" Khong was the first Malaysian to play at a Major.

CIS Minor

The Commonwealth of Independent States Minor took place on the same dates as the Asia Minor in Bucharest, Romania and used the same format as the Asia Minor. It had a 283 team open qualifier, in which six teams make it to the minor. Two teams were invited, Team Spirit and Tengri. Originally, Klan FONTAN and Fantazeri qualified for the minor as both teams placed fifth in the open qualifier, but visa issues for a player for each team did not allow the team to travel to Romania. Nemiga Gaming replaced Klan FONTAN. The other team that placed seventh in the open qualifier, WEPLAY, could not obtain visas in such a short amount of time, so the last spot was settled in a last chance qualifier, which was won by forZe.

Teams Team Spirit (Invited) Tengri (Invited) AVANGAR (Open 1st-4th) NOTBAD (Open 1st-4th) pro100 (Open 1st-4th) Quantum Bellator Fire (Open 1st-4th) Nemiga Gaming (Open 7th-8th) forZe (Last Chance)

First round

Semifinals

Finals

A1

pro100

0

B2

Q.B. Fire

2

B2

Q.B. Fire

1

B1

AVANGAR

2

B1

AVANGAR

2

A2

Team Spirit

0

B1

AVANGAR

2

B2

Q.B. Fire

1

A1

pro100

0

A2

Team Spirit

2

B2

Q.B. Fire

2

A2

Team Spirit

1

CIS Minor summary; Bucharest, Romania

This minor started with Team Spirit defeating NOTBAD 16-6. pro100 vs. Nemiga Gaming proved to closer, but it was pro100 to pull off a 16-11 win. pro100 then pulled off the upset win against Team Spirit in the winners match 16-13 to take first seed in the group. In the losers series, NOTBAD took a surprising first match against Nemiga, but Nemiga bounced back to take the second map 16-5 and then survived a scare at 16-14 to stay alive. NOTBAD was eliminated. Team Spirit then swept the best of three in the decider series, 16-12 and 16-10, to move on as the second seed of group A. forZe easily pulled off an upset win over Tengri 16-5 while AVANGAR pulled off a tough match against Quantum Bellator Fire 16-12. AVANGAR defeated forZe 16-9 to take first seed in the group. Quantum scraped past Tengri in the closest three game set out of any of the Boston minors; after Tengri took the first map 16-14, Quantum took the second game in overtime 19-15 and then the third game 16-14. Quantum proceeded to take out forZe, 16-8 and then 19-16, to take the last spot in the CIS minor playoffs.

In two close games, Quantum Bellator Fire swept the pro100 squad 16-14 and 16-10 to move on to winners finals. AVANGAR dominated Team Spirit the first map 16-4 and then shut down a comeback bid by Spirit and AVANGAR moved on to the winners final. AVANGAR proceeded to take a relatively close best of three against Quantum Bellator Fire – 13-16, 16-6, 16-13 – and guarantee the team a spot in the major qualifier. Team Spirit crushed pro100 16-5 and 16-3, which included a 14-0 start to the series for Spirit. Quantum Bellator took down Team Spirit in losers finals – 9-16, 16-9, 16-12 – to take guarantee the team a spot in the major qualifier as Spirit, which was the favorite to go to Atlanta, was knocked out. In another tense minor final, AVANGAR just about took the first seed of the minor after barely scraping past Quantum Bellator, 16-14, 14-16, and 19-16.

Europe Minor

The Europe Minor took place on November 2, 2017 and ended on November 5, 2017. No team was invited to the minor, but eight teams – GODSENT, HellRaisers, Heroic, Ninjas in Pyjamas, OpTic Gaming, Space Soldiers, Team EnVyUs, and Team LDLC.com – were invited to the closed qualifier. Another eight teams qualified through an open qualifier, which was a 512 team bracket. There, the sixteen teams played in a Swiss group stage, with all matches played online. The final eight teams went on to go to Bucharest to determine which two teams would move on to the New Challenger stage.

The open qualifiers were played on the platform CEVO, as opposed to the more popular ESEA, which is run by ESL, and FACEIT as both had been used for the qualifiers in the past. However, ELEAGUE's decision to use CEVO spurred controversy in the community as CEVO's anti-cheat system was not as well developed as ESL or FACEIT, leading to many players, particularly in the Europe open qualifier, to play with cheats on. Many of these cheaters were banned mid-match, causing many forced forfeits in the 512 team bracket.

Teams OpTic Gaming (Closed #1-2) Space Soldiers (Closed #1-2) AGO Gaming (Closed #3-5) Windigo Gaming (Closed #3-5) Team EnVyUs (Closed #3-5) eXtatus (Closed #6-8) GODSENT (Closed #6-8) Pride Gaming (Closed #6-8)

First round

Semifinals

Finals

A1

Team EnVyUs

1

B2

Space Soldiers

2

B2

Space Soldiers

2

B1

OpTic Gaming

1

B1

OpTic Gaming

2

A2

AGO Gaming

0

B2

Space Soldiers

2

A1

Team EnVyUs

0

A1

Team EnVyUs

2

A2

AGO Gaming

1

B1

OpTic Gaming

0

A1

Team EnVyUs

2

Europe Minor summary; Bucharest, Romania

Group A started with Team EnVyUs as a clear favorite to make it out of the minor, but the experienced French team barely scraped past Windigo Gaming 19-15 in overtime. AGO Gaming pulled off the upset win over GODSENT in a 16-8 win. EnVyUs later easily took 16-7 victory over AGO to guarantee a top four spot at the minor. In the losers series, GODSENT thrashed Windigo, 16-2 and 16-3, to eliminate the Bulgarians. In the deciders series, AGO just about took the first match 16-13, but then dominated the second map 16-5 to eliminated GODSENT. This would be the first time Dennis "dennis" Edman would not qualify for the major as an active player. Group B had Space Soldiers easily taking a 16-8 game over eXatus and OpTic Gaming had an even easier time against Pride Gaming with a 16-3 win. In the winners series, OpTic took a close 16-13 victory over the Turks of Space Soldiers to move on to the top four. Pride defeated eXatus on the first map 16-10 and then took a close 16-12 win in game two to eliminate eXatus. In the deciders series, Pride took a surprise first map off of Space Soldiers at 16-11, but Space Soldiers easily took the next two maps at 16-7 and 16-6 to move on to the playoffs and eliminating Pride.

EnVyUs started the third day of the minor well with a 16-10 victory over Space Soldiers. However, the Turks readjusted and went on to win the next to maps by scores of 16-9 and 16-6. OpTic easily took out AGO with two 16-2 victories. In the winners series, OpTic had no trouble on Overpass 16-7 and Space Soldiers had an easy time on Cache 16-3. On the third map on Mirage, Space Soldiers blew an 11-4 lead and the game went into double overtime. There, Space Soldiers were able to win 22-20 and was surprisingly the first team to move on to the major qualifier in Europe. In losers semifinals, AGO took the first game 16-8, but EnVyUs bounced back to win the second map 16-10. In the third map, EnVyUs came back from a huge 11-4 disadvantage to come out on top 16-13 to move on. In losers finals, EnVyUs defeated OpTic in two close maps, 16-10 and 16-14, as the French eliminated the favorite to win the minor and guarantee themselves a spot at the offline qualifier. In the grand finals, Space Soldiers had an easy time against EnVyUs – 16-5 and 16-10 – to take the top spot.

Americas Minor

The Americas Minor will take place on the same dates as the Europe Minor and took place in Toronto, Canada. Two teams were automatically invited to the minor: Team Liquid and Counter Logic Gaming. One team from the South American open also qualified for the tournament. The remaining five spots went to the top five teams in the North American open qualifier. There, eight teams were invited – compLexity Gaming, Ghost Gaming, Immortals, Luminosity Gaming, Misfits, NRG Esports, Rogue, and Splyce – and another eight teams qualified through an open qualifier. FRENCH CANADIANS initially qualified for the minor, but one of its players had visa issues, so the spot went to one of the teams that placed 6th at the qualifier. In the end, Misfits defeated Immortals and SoaR Gaming to claim the last spot.

Teams Counter Logic Gaming (Invited) Team Liquid (Invited) compLexity Gaming (North America #1-2) NRG Esports (North America #1-2) Luminosity Gaming (North America #3-5) Rise Nation (North America #3-5) Team One (South America Open) Misfits (North America Last Chance)

First round

Semifinals

Finals

A1

Team Liquid

1

B2

Misfits

2

B2

Misfits

2

B1

Counter Logic G.

1

B1

Counter Logic

2

A2

compLexity G.

0

B2

Misfits

1

A1

Team Liquid

2

A1

Team Liquid

2

A2

compLexity G.

0

B1

Counter Logic G.

0

A1

Team Liquid

2

Americas Minor summary; Toronto, Canada

Team Liquid kicked off the Americas Minor with a strong 16-5 win over Team One. In the other initial match, NRG Esports and compLexity Gaming took the game to overtime, where NRG took a 19-17 victory. Liquid continued to cruise as it took down NRG 16-5. In the losers series, Team One came close to defeating its first international opponent, but compLexity came through to win 16-10 and 16-12. In the deciders series, NRG took a close first game at 16-11, but compLexity came back to win the next two maps at 16-10 and 16-14 to move on to the playoffs. In Group B, Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) nearly blew a massive 12-3 lead against Misifts, but held on at 16-13. Luminosity Gaming (LG) easily took the inexperienced Rise Nation 16-3. In the winners match, CLG barely held on 16-14 to defeat LG and to move on to the playoffs. Misfits took the first game against Rise in the loser series 16-8 and stifled a comeback attempt at 16-12 to stay alive. In the deciders series, Misfits took a close 16-12 win in game one and LG dominated the second map at 16-6. After LG started to come back in game three, Misfits pulled through for a 16-9 win to put the team through.

Misfits had an easy time defeating Team Liquid on the first map 16-8. Liquid was able stop a Misfits comeback on the second map to go on to a 16-14 win. On the third map, Misfits was able to pull off the upset win at 16-13 to go on to the winners finals. CLG was able to take the first map with relative ease 16-7 and then had a close game in the next map 16-13. The winners match proved to be a thriller. On the first map, Misfits barely took it over the edge with a 16-13 win. In game two, a Ricky "Rickeh" Mulholland 1 vs. 3 clutch in round 29 proved to be the deciding round as CLG took the map 16-14. In the final map, Misfits came back from a 12-4 deficit and ended up winning 16-14 to guarantee a spot in the qualifier after not even qualifying for the minor. Liquid had an easy time against compLexity – 16-9 and 16-8 – to eliminate the organization that reached the semifinals at the very first CS:GO major. The losers finals had the two favorites to make it out of the minor alive fight to stave off elimination. Liquid dominated CLG 16-1 on the first map and then closed it out 16-12 on the second map to have the Cologne 2016 runners-up through to the major qualifiers. In the grand finals, Misfits was able to pull off another upset by winning 16-13 on the first map, but Liquid bounced back to dominate the next two maps at 16-4 and 16-7 to take home the first seed at the minor.

Broadcast talent

The broadcast talent of the Boston major was announced on the same day as the preliminary group stage.

Desk host

• Richard Lewis

Stage host

• Sue "Smix" Lee

Master of Ceremonies

• Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez

Commentators

• Anders Blume
• James Bardolph
• Daniel "ddk" Kapadia
• Henry "HenryG" Greer
• Jason "moses" O'Toole
• Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett

Analysts

• Sean "seang@res" Gares
• Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert
• Janko "YNk" Paunović

The casters also served as analysts when not casting
Observers

• Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo
• DJ "Prius" Kuntz

Broadcasts

The major was streamed in various languages across Twitch. ELEAGUE also streamed the major on its website and YouTube.

ELEAGUE TV 1PV 99Damage Brekan Gamers Club GamerHUTV GamerTV Hitpoint Huomao Moreira Pitu Herranz Starladder wiizz

Teams competing

Legends Gambit Esports 100 Thieves1 Astralis Virtus.pro BIG Fnatic North SK Gaming
Kraków 2017 Bottom 8 Cloud9 FlipSid3 Tactics G2 Esports mousesports Natus Vincere Sprout Esports FaZe Clan Vega Squadron	Regional Qualifiers Renegades (Asia Minor #1) Flash Gaming (Asia Minor #3) AVANGAR (CIS Minor #1) Quantum Bellator Fire (CIS Minor #2) Space Soldiers (Europe Minor #1) Team EnVyUs (Europe Minor #2) Team Liquid (Americas Minor #1) Misfits Gaming (Americas Minor #2)

¹100 Thieves announced that it would not be able to attend the major due to visa issues.

Between the end of the PGL Major 2017 and the beginning of the Boston Major 2018, changes took place.

Roster changes

Player	Old team	New team	Notes
Zeus	Gambit Esports	Natus Vincere	Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko left Gambit Esports shortly after winning the last major. Gambit had said that its coach Mykhailo "kane" Blagin would be removed, but Zeus said that if kane were to be removed, Zeus would also leave; when the organization did, Zeus kept his promise and both went to Natus Vincere (Na'Vi).
seized	Natus Vincere	FlipSid3 Tactics	Denis "seized" Kostin and Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács were removed from the Na'Vi lineup. GuardiaN then joins the FaZe Clan lineup, replacing Aleksi "allu" Jalli as its AWPer. allu later joins OpTic Gaming. seized then returns to the active lineup for Na'Vi to complete its five-man roster. seized steps down from Na'Vi's active roster and is temporarily replaced by Aleksey "1uke" Zimin; seized cited the pressure to perform well had taken a toll on him, but his performance was lackluster, even after Zeus had come in to take the big responsibility of in-game leader from seized's shoulders. Later, Na'Vi acquired FlipSid3 Tactics star Denis "electronic" Sharipov and loaned seized to FlipSid3. This would also effectively end seized's run as being the only player in CS:GO history to play at all majors with the same team.
GuardiaN		FaZe Clan
electronic	FlipSid3 Tactics	Natus Vincere
fitch	Tengri	Gambit Esports	Bektiyar "fitch" Bahytov joined Gambit in Zeus's spot to complete its roster on a trial basis.
kNgV-	Immortals	100 Thieves	Vito "kNgV-" Giuseppe's contract was terminated by Immortals following controversy at DreamHack Montreal 2017. In a semifinals game against Counter Logic Gaming (CLG), kNgV-, Henrique "HEN1" Teles, and Lucas "LUCAS1" Teles showed up late to their match; after CLG in-game leader Pujan "FNS" Mehta posted on Twitter on how the trio was late, kNgV- publicly threatened FNS. The three were late again in a grand finals match against North, in which Immortals was forced to forfeit the first map. After Immortals CEO gave another chance for kNgV- but did not allow kNgV- to play with the team until further notice, HEN1 and LUCAS1 said they would not play an online match during ESL Pro League Season 6 without kNgV-; kNgV- played and then was cut from the team. The twins then requested to be benched and Immortals complied. It was later confirmed by the players that a new roster had been set up, which included the three former Immortals members, kNgV-, HEN1, and LUCAS1; Lincoln "fnx" Lau, former member of SK Gaming before being traded to Immortals and was then benched by Immortals; and Bruno "BIT" Lima, a Counter-Strike 1.6 world champion. On December 12, 2017, the organization 100 Thieves, founded by famed esports and Call of Duty personality Matthew "Nadeshot" Haag and backed by the National Basketball Association's Cleveland Cavaliers, acquired the roster. After the end of the first day of the major, 100 Thieves announced that due to immigration issues, the team would not be able to attend the major.
HEN1
LUCAS1
fnx
BIT	Team One
boltz	Immortals	SK Gaming	Immortals would loan Ricardo "boltz" Prass to SK Gaming as João "felps" Vasconcellos asked to leave the team as the young star cited missing family back home in Brazil, a lack of confidence in playing, and not being very accustomed to the new role he was assigned when he joined SK, as he was an entry fragger when he was on Immortals but played the more passive lurker role upon joining SK. However, ELEAGUE stated that both boltz was not allowed to play with his their new teams as he had already played in the Americas online qualifier with Immortals. Due to this, SK said it would play with felps.
steel	Immortals	Team Liquid	Team Liquid and Immortals agreed to transfer steel from the Brazilian team to the American team as Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz was benched as stanislaw claimed that he and Team Liquid's coach Wilton "zews" Prado disagreed on strategies in the game. However, ELEAGUE stated that both steel was not allowed to play with his their new teams as he had already played in the Americas online qualifier with Immortals. Due to these implemented rules, Liquid said it would use zews.
olofmeister	Fnatic	FaZe Clan	Fnatic and LGB eSports legend Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer stepped down from Fnatic's roster. The HLTV.org's best player of 2015 went on to join FaZe to replace Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey. Fnatic trades Dennis "dennis" Edman to GODSENT for Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson. Maikil "Golden" Selim is the promoted from Fnatic Academy to the main roster as in-game leader and Fnatic fills out its roster.
kioShiMa	FaZe Clan	Inactive
dennis	Fnatic	GODSENT
Lekr0	GODSENT	Fnatic
Golden	Fnatic Academy
tarik	OpTic Gaming	Cloud9	Tarik "tarik" Celik and Will "RUSH" Wierzba transferred to Cloud9 from OpTic Gaming to replace Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert and Michael "shroud" Grzesiek on its active roster.
RUSH
n0thing	Cloud9	Inactive
shroud
allu	FaZe Clan	OpTic Gaming	North put Emil "Magisk" Reif on the inactive roster of the team and sign Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså. Magisk would later be bought out by OpTic Gaming. OpTic then bought out Magisk, signed former FaZe Clan AWPer Aleksi "allu" Jalli and transferred Kevin "HS" Tarn from PENTA Sports, despite PENTA saying it would not let HS go. HS replaced Keith "NAF" Markovic, who was the last member of the original OpTic lineup. NAF would later go on to join Renegades.
Magisk	North
HS	PENTA Sports
NAF	OpTic Gaming	Renegades
suNny	PENTA Sports	mousesports	mousesports then bought out Miikka "suNny" Kemppi's contract from PENTA and then bought out Martin "STYKO" Styk from HellRaisers to replace Denis "denis" Howell.
STYKO	HellRaisers
kRYSTAL	PENTA Sports	Sprout Esports	After suNny was bought out by mousesports and HS was transferred to OpTic Gaming, PENTA Sports released the remaining three players of kRYSTAL, innocent, and zehN. kRYSTAL later announced that the team would go under the name Seed until picked up by an organization. Seed was later acquired by Sprout Esports and Sprout signed denis and bought out Timo "Spiidi" Richter from mousesports.
zehN
innocent
denis	Free agent
Spiidi	mousesports
BnTeT	TyLoo	–	TyLoo's star player Hansel "BnTet" Ferdinand was not able to make the major because he was unable to acquire a US visa. TyLoo's former coach Luis "peacemaker" Tadeu was set to take BnTeT's place, but disagreements between peacemaker and the TyLoo organization forced TyLoo to drop out from the major. Flash Gaming, the second runner-up at the Asia Minor, took TyLoo's spot.
Mo
DD
somebody
bondik

Controversy

Several problems arose from the Major. The most common complaint was that the announcement of the Major was announced so late that several players were not able to obtain visas to their Minors or the Major itself. In addition, Valve did not allow coaches Luis "peacemaker" Tadeu of TyLoo and Wilton "zews" Prado of Team Liquid to have their own stickers despite peacemaker standing in for Hansel "BnTeT" Ferdinand, who had visa issues, and zews standing in for Lucas "steel" Lopes, who had to sit out due to rules regarding roster locks. peacemaker said on Twitter that he was unhappy with the way ELEAGUE and Valve were handling player roster locks and the sticker situation – as player situations, handled by ELEAGUE, amounted to teams having to play with their original rosters and fifty percent of sticker sales went directly to the players and organization – and the team was considering to forfeit its spot in the major since peacemaker's role was a coach and not a player. In addition, peacemaker left TyLoo beforehand to become the coach of the Danish organization Heroic. TyLoo later confirmed its absence at the major as Flash Gaming, the third-place finisher from the Asia Minor, set to take its place as peacemaker and TyLoo could not work out a deal together.

Another big complication in the Major were the aforementioned the rules on roster locks. Valve said that the tournament organizers, not Valve, were responsible for the rules on roster locks, and ELEAGUE rules stated that players that competed in any Minor or the Americas Minor closed qualifier cannot compete on a team that would participate in the Major. The roster locks themselves were not the issue; the main issue was why the roster locks were placed months in advance of the major. SK Gaming had placed João "felps" Vasconcellos on the inactive roster by his own request and brought in Ricardo "boltz" Prass in October; Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz of Astralis had medical issues in late November; and Team Liquid brought in Lucas "steel" Lopes in place of Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz in mid November, but these teams had to be forced to play with stand-ins. Most of the community and players were dissatisfied with the situation. This raised the question as to why Joakim "disco doplan" Gidetun was allowed to play with Epsilon eSports during the European qualifier and then played with Fnatic at the last ELEAGUE Major, but that situation doesn't apply with a few teams at the Boston 2018 Major. Shortly after losing to SK Gaming at ESL Pro League Season 6, FaZe Clan's Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács said that the Major would be devalued if teams such as SK Gaming would have to play with a stand-in rather than their complete rosters. SK Gaming's Epitácio "TACO" de Melo said the rule was "ridiculous" and went on to say that "I don't think majors are a big deal in CS:GO anymore." Journalist Jarek "DeKay" Lewis said that he tried to reach out to ELEAGUE in an effort for an explanation "to try and find out when and why the roster lock rule changed" but the organization never responded. A couple of weeks later, SK Gaming's captain Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo also wanted an explanation as to why ELEAGUE won't say anything about the roster locks, but ELEAGUE continued to stay quiet. Journalist Richard Lewis, who worked as the host for ELEAGUE at the time, said in one of his podcasts with Duncan "Thorin" Shields that roster locks are necessary in order for teams to not make changes before the Major to benefit them for the tournament. According to SK Gaming's analyst Jan "Swani" Müller, FalleN, and TACO, SK Gaming said that the Major has had a massive drop in prestige, as the team had not been practicing with felps, the player the team would be using for the Major, and had rather been practicing with boltz, felps's permanent replacement after the Major. After defeating SK Gaming in the semifinals, Cloud9 lurker Timothy "autimatic" Ta also claimed that the system wasn't fair.

In the New Champions stage, the continuing argument of why the fourth quarterfinal series was played on the same day as the two semifinals was asked, as the first team in the second semifinals was much more rested than the second team in the semifinals, who only had a few hours of rest. After Cloud9 defeated SK Gaming in that second semifinals, SK's captain FalleN, SK's entry fragger Fernando "fer" Alvarenga, Fnatic's coach Jimmy "Jumpy" Berndtsson, and Cloud9's support player Will "RUSH" Wierzba all said that the system was unfair to the team who had to play two series in a day compared to the team who only needed to play one. Out of the seven Majors in which the fourth quarterfinal match was played in the same day as the semifinals, the winner of that quarterfinal lost five times in the semifinals.

Pre-major ranking

HLTV.org rank teams based on results of teams' performances. The rankings shown below reflect the January 8, 2018 rankings.

The HLTV world ranking ranks the best teams in the competitive field of the game. The world ranking is based on teams' achievements over the past year (with severe decay in points throughout each month), recent form over the last 2 months, and performance at the last 10 LAN events. All of that is predicated around a 3-man core each team is required to have in order to retain their past points. Points cap at 1000 points. The rankings started with the ELEAGUE Major 2017, in which Astralis defeated Virtus.pro for its first major title, and DreamHack Masters Las Vegas, in which Virtus.pro defeated SK Gaming. The rankings concluded with the ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals, in which SK Gaming defeated FaZe Clan, and the ECS Season 4 Finals, in which FaZe Clan defeated mousesports.

Teams that are in the top 30 but failed to qualify for the major include Ninjas in Pyjamas (#4, Sweden), OpTic Gaming (#12, Europe), Heroic (#16, Denmark), AGO Gaming (#18, Poland), HellRasiers (#19, Europe), NRG Esports (#21, United States), GODSENT (#25, Sweden), Luminosity Gaming (#26, Brazil), Grayhound Gaming (#28, Australia), and Valiance (#30, Serbia).

HLTV.org pre-major ranking

World ranking
Place	Team	Points	Move1	Peak2	Low2	Best Major placing3	Best achievements2
1	SK Gaming	998		1	3	1st at Columbus 2016 (as Luminosity) 1st at Cologne 2016	EPICENTER 2017 winner ESL Pro League Season 6 winner BLAST Pro Series winner
2	FaZe Clan	946		1	8	5th at Atlanta 2017	ESL One New York 2017 winner ELEAGUE Premier winner ECS Season 4 winner
3	Astralis	570		2	5	1st at Atlanta 2017	ELEAGUE Premier runner-up BLAST Pro Series runner-up
5	Cloud9	400		5	11	5th at Cologne 2014	DreamHack Open Denver 2017 winner iBUYPOWER Masters 2017 winner
6	Fnatic	346		6	15	1st at Winter 2013 1st at Katowice 2015 1st Cologne 2015	3rd at ESL Pro League Season 6 3rd at ECS Season 4
7	G2 Esports	346		2	7	1st at Cluj-Napoca 2015 (as EnVyUs)	DreamHack Masters Malmö 2017 winner 3rd at EPICENTER 2017
8	mousesports	326		8	17	9th at Cluj-Napoca 2015 9th at Columbus 2016 9th at Cologne 2016	ESG Tour Mykonos 2017 winner DreamHack Open Winter 2017 runner-up ECS Season 4 runner-up
9	North	286		3	9	5th at Atlanta 2017 5th at Kraków 2017	DreamHack Masters Malmö 2017 runner-up DreamHack Open Montreal 2017 winner,
10	Virtus.pro	239		6	13	1st at Katowice 2014	EPICENTER 2017 runner-up StarLadder i-League Invitational #2 runner-up
11	Gambit Esports	222	1	4	12	1st at Kraków 2017	PGL Major 2017 winner 3rd at DreamHack Masters Malmö ROG Masters 2017 winner
13	Misfits Gaming	193		13	29	2nd at Boston 2018 Americas Minor	5th at DreamHack Open Atlanta 2017 3rd at ESL Pro League Season 6
14	Natus Vincere	186		7	17	2nd at Cluj-Napoca 2015 2nd at Columbus 2016	5th at DreamHack Masters Malmö 2017 DreamHack Open Winter 2017 winner
15	Team EnVyUs	157	1	13	18	2nd at Boston 2018 Europe Minor	DreamHack Open Atlanta 2017 winner 5th at ELEAGUE Premier 3rd at DreamHack Open Winter 2017
17	Team Liquid	146	1	6	17	2nd at Cologne 2016	ESG Tour Mykonos 2017 runner-up ESL One New York 2017 runner-up
20	Renegades	123	2	12	26	9th at Cologne 2015	3rd at DreamHack Open Denver 2017 StarLadder i-League Invitational #2 winner iBUYPOWER Masters 2017 runner-up
22	BIG	85		10	24	5th at Kraków 2017	5th at PGL Major 2017 DreamHack Open Denver 2017 runner-up
23	Space Soldiers	79	1	18	25	1st at Boston 2018 Europe Minor	ESEA Season 25 winner 3rd at World Electronic Sports Games 2017 Europe Finals
24	Vega Squadron	66	1	23	30	15th at Kraków 2017	3rd at ROG Masters 2017
27	100 Thieves	45	1	4	29	2nd at Kraków 2017 (as Immortals)	PGL Major runner-up
29	Sprout Esports	43	2	21	32	5th at Winter 2014 (as PENTA) 5th at Katowice 2015 (as PENTA)	MID.TV Challenge Cup winner 3rd at Legend Series: Europe #4
37	AVANGAR	–	7	30	62	1st at Boston 2018 CIS Minor	3rd at FCDB Cup 2017
60	Quantum Bellator Fire	–	14	48	86	2nd at Boston 2018 CIS Minor	5th at MakeMy.bet Championship 1 3rd at MakeMy.bet Cup #2
61	Flash Gaming	–	14	31	75	3rd at Boston 2018 Asia Minor	eXTREMESLAND Asia Finals 2017 winner
NR	FlipSid3 Tactics	–	?	18	103	5th at Cologne 2016	9th at PGL Major 2017 ESEA Season 25 runner-up

¹Change since December 25, 2017 ranking

²Since end of PGL Major

³Best major placements may not necessarily reflect teams' current rosters

Relevant tournaments

Key

	Valve-sponsored Major
	Premier tournament
	Relevant major tournament

The following list shows the relevant tournaments to the rankings. From top to bottom, the tournament becomes more relevant to the rankings. Those in gold indicates the tournament was a Major, meaning Valve, the developers of the game, sponsored the tournament to host a CS:GO major. A premier tournament means it offers an outstanding prize pool, is frequently played offline, and features the best players from all over the world. A major tournament simply means the tournament features a large prize pool and a good number of top teams; the major tournaments that are shown below are only shown because a team from the major participated in the event. This list also shows where the tournament took place, the number of teams at the tournament, the winner and runner-up, prize pool, and – if applicable – HLTV's most valuable player of the tournament.

Relevant tournaments

Tournament	Location	Teams	Winner	Runner-Up	Prize Pool	MVP
ELEAGUE Major 2017	Atlanta	16	Astralis	Virtus.pro	US$1,000,000	Kjaerbye
DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 2017	Las Vegas	16	Virtus.pro	SK Gaming	US$450,000	Snax
Intel Extreme Masters XI - World Championship	Katowice	12	Astralis	FaZe Clan	US$250,000	Xyp9x
StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 3	Kiev	16	FaZe Clan	Astralis	US$300,000	NiKo
cs_summit	Los Angeles	8	SK Gaming	Gambit Esports	US$150,000	coldzera
Intel Extreme Masters XII - Sydney	Sydney	8	SK Gaming	FaZe Clan	US$200,000	coldzera
DreamHack Open Tours 2017	Tours	8	G2 Esports	HellRaisers	US$100,000	kennyS
ESL Pro League Season 5	Dallas	28	G2 Esports	North	US$1,000,000	kennyS
DreamHack Open Summer 2017	Jönköping	8	SK Gaming	Fnatic	US$100,000	coldzera
Esports Championship Series Season 3	London	20	SK Gaming	FaZe Clan	US$750,000	fer
ESL One: Cologne 2017	Cologne	16	SK Gaming	Cloud9	US$250,000	FalleN
PGL 2017 Kraków Major Championship	Kraków	16	Gambit Esports	Immortals	US$1,000,000	AdreN
DreamHack Masters Malmö 2017	Malmö	16	G2 Esports	North	US$250,000	kennyS
ESG Tour Mykonos 2017	Mykonos	8	mousesports	Team Liquid	€200,000	oskar
DreamHack Open Montreal 2017	Montreal	8	North	Immortals	US$100,000
ESL One New York 2017	New York City	8	FaZe Clan	Team Liquid	US$250,000	NiKo
ESEA Season 25: Global Challenge	Burbank	8	Space Soldiers	FlipSid3 Tactics	US$50,000
The World Championships 2016	Belgrade	8	Turkey	Argentina	US$100,000
ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier	Atlanta	16	FaZe Clan	Astralis	US$1,000,000	rain
DreamHack Open Denver 2017	Denver	8	Cloud9	BIG	US$250,000
EPICENTER 2017	St. Petersburg	10	SK Gaming	Virtus.pro	US$500,000	coldzera
StarLadder i-League Invitational #2	Shanghai	8	Renegades	Virtus.pro	US$150,000
iBUYPOWER Masters 2017	Santa Ana	8	Cloud9	Renegades	US$100,000
Intel Extreme Masters XII - Oakland	Oakland	12	Ninjas in Pyjamas	FaZe Clan	US$300,000	REZ
BLAST Pro Series	Copenhagen	6	SK Gaming	Astralis	US$250,000	FalleN
DreamHack Open Winter 2017	Jönköping	8	Natus Vincere	mousesports	US$100,000	s1mple
ESL Pro League Season 6	Odense	28	SK Gaming	FaZe Clan	US$1,000,000	TACO1
ROG Masters 2017	Kuala Lumpur	6	Gambit Esports	TyLoo	US$250,000
Esports Championship Series Season 4	Cancún	20	FaZe Clan	mousesports	US$750,000	rain
ESEA Season 26: Global Challenge	New York City	8	AGO Gaming	Space Soldiers	US$50,000

¹Although HLTV.org awarded the MVP award to coldzera, the tournament organizer deemed TACO to be the MVP.

Premier tournament wins SK Gaming: 6 FaZe Clan: 4 Astralis: 2 G2 Esports: 2 Gambit Esports: 1 mousesports: 1 Virtus.pro: 1 100 Thieves: 0 AVANGAR: 0 Cloud9: 0 BIG: 0 Fnatic: 0 FlipSid3 Tactics: 0 Misfits Gaming: 0 Natus Vincere: 0 North: 0 Quantum Bellator Fire: 0 Renegades: 0 Space Soldiers: 0 Sprout Esports: 0 Team EnVyUs: 0 Team Liquid: 0 TyLoo: 0 Vega Squadron: 0

Top twenty players in the tournament

The top 20 players of 2017 were ranked by HLTV.org. Below is the list of players in the top 20. One player made the top twenty list, but did not play at the major; Ricardo "boltz" Prass (#18, Brazil, Immortals/SK Gaming) was ineligible to play at the major due to roster lock rules. Players who dropped out of the top 20 from 2016 include shox (#6, France, G2 Esports), f0rest (#7, Sweden, Ninjas in Pyjamas), ScreaM (#9, Belgium, Team EnVyUs), flusha (#10, Sweden, Fnatic), flamie (#12, Russia, Natus Vincere), Magisk (#14, Denmark, North/OpTic Gaming), GeT RiGhT (#18, Sweden, Ninjas in Pyjamas), fnx (#19, Brazil, Immortals/100 Thieves), and dennis (#20, Sweden, Fnatic/GODSENT).

Most achievements have whether the player was the most valuable player of the tournament (MVP) or an extremely valuable player in the tournament (EVP).

HLTV.org Top 20 Players of 2017

World Ranking
Rank	Name	Age	Team	Move†	Highest rank	Achievements
1	coldzera	23	SK Gaming		1 (2016, 2017)	IEM Sydney 2017 MVP, EPICENTER 2017 MVP, DH Summer 2017 MVP
2	NiKo	20	FaZe Clan	9	2 (2017)	StarLadder i-League Season 3 MVP, ESL One New York 2017 MVP
3	fer	26	SK Gaming	12	3 (2017)	ECS Season 3 MVP, 10 time EVP
4	rain	23	FaZe Clan	NEW	4 (2017)	ELEAGUE Premier MVP, ECS Season 4 MVP
5	dev1ce	22	Astralis	2	3 (2015, 2016)	ELEAGUE Major 2017 winner, five time EVP
6	FalleN	26	SK Gaming	4	2 (2016)	ESL One Cologne 2017 MVP, BLAST Pro Series MVP
7	kennyS	20	G2 Esports	6	6 (2014, 2015)	ESL Pro League Season 5 MVP, DreamHack Masters Malmö 2017 MVP
8	s1mple	20	Natus Vincere	4	4 (2016)	DreamHack Open Winter 2017 MVP, two time EVP
9	GuardiaN	26	Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan	10	2 (2015)	Three time winner, five time EVP
10	dupreeh	24	Astralis	NEW	10 (2017)	ELEAGUE Major 2017 winner, five time EVP
11	HObbit	23	Gambit Esports	NEW	11 (2017)	PGL Major winner, four time EVP
12	ELiGE	20	Team Liquid	NEW	12 (2017)	Three time EVP, only North American player to be ranked in 2017
13	Xyp9x	22	Astralis	NEW	13 (2017)	IEM Worlds 2017 MVP, three time EVP
14	k0nfig	20	North	NEW	14 (2017)	DreamHack Open Montreal 2017 winner, two time EVP
15	Kjaerbye	19	Astralis	1	15 (2017)	ELEAGUE Major 2017 MVP, two time EVP
16	oskar	26	mousesports	NEW	16 (2017)	ESG Tour Mykonos 2017 MVP, first Czech to play in major and be ranked
17	AdreN	27	Gambit Esports	NEW	17 (2017)	PGL Major 2017 MVP, three time EVP
19	olofmeister	25	Fnatic, FaZe Clan	11	1 (2015)	Three time winner, five time EVP
20	Snax	24	Virtus.pro	15	4 (2014, 2015)	DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 2017 MVP, three time EVP

^†From 2016

New Challengers stage

The Challengers stage, also known as the Preliminary stage and formerly known as the offline qualifier, will be a sixteen team swiss tournament: after the randomly-drawn Day 1 games, teams will play other teams with the same win-loss record. Every round will consist of one game. In addition, teams will not play the same team twice unless necessary and teams will be randomly chosen. Any team with three wins would qualify for the major, and any team with three losses would be eliminated. The Challenger stage will be played in Atlanta, Georgia, United States at the Turner Studios.

In the first round, teams from pool one will be matched up against teams in pool four. Teams in pool two will play teams in pool three. One team from a pool is randomly decided to face off against a randomly decided team in another pool. Cloud9, FlipSid3 Tactics, G2 Esports, and Natus Vincere (Na'Vi) were in pool one based on Cloud9, FlipSid3, and G2's ninth-place finish and Na'Vi's eleventh-place finish at the PGL Major; Na'Vi had the higher seed over Sprout Esports and mousesports as Na'Vi was already a Legend going into the PGL Major. Sprout, mousesports, FaZe Clan, and Vega Squadron were in pool two based on the eleventh-place finish or the last place finish at the PGL Major. Renegades, AVANGAR, Space Soldiers, and Team Liquid were in pool three based on winning their respective minor qualifiers. Flash Gaming, Quantum Bellator Fire, Team EnVyUs, and Misfits Gaming were in pool four based on being the runners-up in their respective minor qualifiers.

In the second round, the winners in the first round will face each other in the "high" matches, in which teams with a 1-0 record will play against each other; the losers will face each other in the "low" matches, in which teams with a 0-1 record will play each other.

In the third round, the winners of the high matches (teams with 2-0 records) from round two will face each other. The winners of these two matches will qualify for the major. The losers of the high round and the winners of the low round (teams with 1-1 records) will face each other in the "mid" matches. The losers from the previous low matches (teams with 0-2 records) will face each other in round three's low matches. The losers of these low matches are eliminated. Twelve teams remain in the Challengers stage.

In the fourth round, the losers of the high matches and the winners of the mid matches (teams with 2-1 records) will face each other in round four's high matches. The winners of those high matches qualify for the major. The losers of the mid matches and the winners of the low matches (teams with 1-2 records) will face each other in the low matches of round four. The losers of these matches are eliminated from the major. Six teams remain.

In the last round, the remaining teams will face off (teams with 2-2 records). The winners of these matches will qualify for the Legends stage and the losing teams will be eliminated from the major. In the most ideal of situations, the Swiss format should allow teams to have a harder time each time they win and have an easier time each time they lose.

The first round matchups were announced on January 9, 2018. The New Challengers stage took place from January 12 to January 15.

Place	Team	Record	RD	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5
1–2	Cloud9	3-0	+27	Team EnVyUs 16-11 Cache	High match Sprout Esports 16-5 Inferno	High match mousesports 16-5 Train	New Legends Stage	New Legends Stage
	G2 Esports	3-0	+20	Flash Gaming 16-11 Inferno	High match Misfits Gaming 16-5 Cobblestone	High match Vega Squadron 19-16 Overpass	New Legends Stage	New Legends Stage
3–5	FaZe Clan	3-1	+14	Team Liquid 16-14 Overpass	High match Vega Squadron 6-16 Inferno	Mid match Quantum Bellator Fire 16-6 Mirage	High match Natus Vincere 16-4 Train	New Legends stage
	Vega Squadron	3-1	+11	Renegades 16-14 Mirage	High match FaZe Clan 16-6 Inferno	High match G2 Esports 16-19 Overpass	High match Team Liquid 16-14 Mirage	New Legends Stage
	Space Soldiers	3-1	+7	Sprout Esports 12-16 Cobblestone	Low match AVANGAR 16-9 Mirage	Mid match Misfits Gaming 16-13 Train	High match mousesports 19-17 Mirage	New Legends stage
6–8	mousesports	3-2	+19	AVANGAR 16-12 Mirage	High match Natus Vincere 16-2 Mirage	High match Cloud9 5-16 Train	High match Space Soldiers 17-19 Mirage	Renegades 16-4 Mirage
	Natus Vincere	3-2	+5	Quantum Bellator Fire 16-8 Inferno	High match mousesports 2-16 Mirage	Mid match Sprout Esports 3-16 Mirage	High match FaZe Clan 4-16 Train	Team Liquid 16-5 Inferno
	Quantum Bellator Fire	3-2	+1	Natus Vincere 8-16 Inferno	Low match Flash Gaming 16-13 Inferno	Mid match FaZe Clan 6-16 Mirage	Low match Team EnVyUs 16-12 Inferno	AVANGAR 16-6 Train
9–11	Renegades	2-3	0	Vega Squadron 14-16 Mirage	Low match Team EnVyUs 16-6 Cache	Mid match Team Liquid 14-16 Cobblestone	Low match Sprout Esports 16-10 Cobblestone	mousesports 4-16 Mirage
	Team Liquid	2-3	-7	FaZe Clan 14-16 Overpass	Low match FlipSid3 Tactics 16-10 Cobblestone	Mid match Renegades 16-14 Cobblestone	High match Vega Squadron 14-16 Mirage	Natus Vincere 5-16 Inferno
	AVANGAR	2-3	-9	mousesports 12-16 Mirage	Low match Space Soldiers 9-16 Mirage	Low match FlipSid3 Tactics 16-7 Train	Low match Misfits Gaming 16-13 Cache	Quantum Bellator Fire 6-16 Train
12–14	Misfits Gaming	1-3	-5	FlipSid3 Tactics 16-4 Overpass	High match G2 Esports 5-16 Cobblestone	Mid match Space Soldiers 13-16 Train	Low match AVANGAR 13-16 Cache	Eliminated
	Team EnVyUs	1-3	-16	Cloud9 11-16 Cache	Low match Renegades 6-16 Cache	Low match Flash Gaming 16-13 Inferno	Low match Quantum Bellator Fire 12-16 Inferno	Eliminated
	Sprout Esports	1-3	-25	Space Soldiers 16-12 Cobblestone	High match Cloud9 5-16 Inferno	Mid match Natus Vincere 3-16 Mirage	Low match Renegades 10-16 Cobblestone	Eliminated
15–16	Flash Gaming	0-3	-11	G2 Esports 11-16 Inferno	Low match Quantum Bellator Fire 13-16 Inferno	Low match Team EnVyUs 13-16 Inferno	Eliminated	Eliminated
	FlipSid3 Tactics	0-3	-27	Misfits Gaming 4-16 Overpass	Low match Team Liquid 10-16 Cobblestone	Low match AVANGAR 7-16 Train	Eliminated	Eliminated

New Challengers stage summary

Day one of the major kicked off with an upset win, with Vega Squadron defeating Renegades in a close match after Renegades nearly came back from a 15-9 deficit; Nikolay "mir" Bityukov and Dmitriy "jR" Chervak carried their team to victory despite Aaron "AZR" Ward's 25 kills. AVANGAR surprised everyone by putting up a strong first half, but mousesports took control in the second half to close out the game despite AVANGAR pulling it close towards the end as Chris "chrisJ" de Jong took home a 30 bomb and Robin "ropz" Kool helped out; on AVANGAR's side, Timur "buster" Tulepov and Alexey "qikert" Golubev put up impressive numbers by obtaining impactful kills. FaZe Clan came into the tournament as the favorite to win the major while Team Liquid was crippled as it did not have its complete roster. However, despite FaZe's fast start, Liquid might have taken the map had it not been for Finn "karrigan" Andersen desperate call in the second to last round. Håvard "rain" Nygaard continued to be consistent as two of FaZe's stars lagged behind; Nicholas "nitr0" Cannella showed what he could do despite underperforming at certain events with 31 kills while Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken clutches nearly gave Liquid the win. In a match in which the winner was a toss-up, Misfits Gaming dominated its map against FlipSid3 Tactics. Jan "wayLander" Rahkonen was the only player for FlipSid3 to do well as everyone else had 10 kills or fewer. The French duo of David "devoduvek" Dobrosavljevic and François "AmaNEk" Delaunay did very well to lead Misfits. After a strong first half, the Turks of Space Soldiers failed to deliver in the second half. The Space Soldier phenom Ismailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş had 23 kills, but Denis "denis" Howell of Sprout Esports bettered him with 24, with Paweł "innocent" Mocek close by with 21. The second CIS team also had a surprisingly strong performance against Natus Vincere, as Quantum Bellator Fire (QBF) got within one round by the end of the first half. However, QBF could not get much done against Na'Vi's defense later as Na'Vi took the game. Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev turned up in the second half to end the game with 29 kills and Egor "flamie" Vasilyev had 21. Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov lead his team with 16 kills and Savelii "jmqa" Bragin lead his team in player rating, but not a single player on QBF's side got over the 1.00 rating mark. Flash Gaming surprised G2 Esports early with a 9-2 lead, but G2 only allowed two rounds afterwards as the French avoided the upset thanks to Richard "shox" Papillon performing well for the first time in a while and Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt supporting with 21 with Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro getting some impact kills late into the game. YuanZhang "AttackeR" Sheng and Andrew "kaze" Khong did well in separate halves, but the two could not get the team going late in the game. Cloud9 vs. Team EnVyUs ended the first day of the major. While Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom and Cédric "RpK" Guipouy performed well, the rest of the French team did not as Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham continued to shut EnVyUs down, with three other players getting at least 20 kills on the Cloud9 side.

Day 2 began with FlipSid3 continuing to struggle, despite taking a slim halftime lead. Yegor "markeloff" Markelov and Georgi "WorldEdit" Yaskin both broke the 20 kill mark, but Denis "seized" Kostin continued to underperform, coming over from Na'Vi as Andrey "B1ad3" Gorodenskiy's crew fell to Twistzz, Josh "jdm64" Marzano, and Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski's firepower. Na'Vi and mousesports played the first high match on Mirage, a map that mousesports had proven it could easily beat the Ukrainian team on time and time again and it showed again. s1mple, as usual, did his best to carry the team, but with Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko on just 3 kills, compared to Chris "chrisJ" de Jong's 23 kills in the statistical department between the two in-game leaders, mousesports was able to easily take the win. buster kept surprising the world with another strong performance against a well-known European team, but Ahmet "paz" Karahoca's 23 kills and XANTARES's 20 were too much. Aidyn "KrizzeN'" Turlybekov continued to struggle with just 11 kills and Ali "Jame" Djami had only 13. Renegades came into the major as the hottest team in the challengers stage while Rpk was in the best form of his Global Offensive career with ScreaM also returning to good form. However, a massive misplay from the French side game Renegades the momentum to close the game out. Renegades showed that teamwork played off better than individual performance as Keith "NAF" Markovic's 21 kills and Noah "Nifty" Francis's 20 aided in the process. In the match of arguably the two weakest teams at the major, Flash threw away two rounds in which the Chinese team was against only very weak pistols and no armor protection, but Flash could not pull away against QBF; AttackeR had a massive performance at 33 kills and YuLun "Summer" Cai had 23, but Gregory "balblna" Oleinick and Aurimas "Kvik" Kvakšys lead the way for QBF to earn a win. Cloud9 had a very strong first half against Sprout and they went on to a win after a Timothy "autimatic" Ta and Will "RUSH" Wierzba 2 vs. 4 clutch. Jesse "zehN" Linjala and Paweł "innocent" Mocek did as much as they could, but Tarik "tarik" Celik and Jake "Stewie2K" Yip did much better to go on to 2-0. Vega Squadron pulled off a massive upset after a 12-3 halftime lead against FaZe Clan as Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov and Dmitriy "jR" Chervak lead the way; star players such as Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer or Nikola "NiKo" Kovač of FaZe did not deliver their full potential as Vega simply ran over the Europeans. shox and Kenny "kennyS" Schrub were ruthless against Misfits, who had AmaNEk sitting at single digit kills and Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan not hitting his peak form, as G2 easily took the game.

FaZe bounced back from yesterday to easily defeat QBF as NiKo and Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács went huge for FaZe; players such as Nikita "waterfaLLZ" Matveyev of QBF did not pick themselves up as they got crushed. The first elimination match of the major proved to be a close one, as EnVyUs nearly blew a 12-3 lead as QiFang "Karsa" Su's team nearly brought it back. Players such as KunHua "LOVEYY" Bai and Andrew "kaze" Khong had better performances than they did against QBF, but EnVyUs was able to pull it together and eliminate Flash thanks to Vincent "Happy" Schopenhauer's 26 kills. In a game that was close from start to finish, Space Soldiers was able to stop the AWP firepower of ShahZaM as the Turks were one step close to making the New Legends stage, thanks to XANTARES and Buğra "Calyx" Arkın going big. Sprout could not find the same form it did during the first day as Na'Vi demolished the German team. Timo "Spiidi" Richter was the only player for Sprout to get his kill stat to double digits while flamie and Denis "electronic" Sharipov let s1mple rest for a bit. Vega Squadron struggled against G2's defense, but G2 struggled just as much; however, G2 was able to take it into overtime and take the game and avoid the upset to the relief of Dan "apEX" Madesclaire and his teammates; this game was the most viewed game of New Challengers Stage, with peak viewers reaching 526,833 viewers. Team Liquid had a 15-6 lead, but ever since the semifinals match against Luminosity Gaming at MLG Columbus 2016, Liquid were known to choke massive leads; however, nitr0's 36 kills, Liquid was able to just barely take the game. AVANGAR had a strong game against FlipSid3 as buster and KrizzeN lead the way; B1ad3 only had 3 kills in the loss; B1ad3 had the worst rating in major history for teams that played at least three maps in a major. All of Cloud9 performed well. Although Miikka "suNny" Kemppi and ropz performed well, Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný was absent from the map while autimatic pulled away from the pack by fishing out mousesports. and Cloud9 joined G2 to be the second team to move on.

AVANGAR pulled off an upset win over Misfits as seang@res's team went out in a disappointing 19th place after being up 10-5 in the first half. Although buster had a lackluster game, the other four players, including Dmitry "dimasick" Matvienko and Ali "Jame" Djami, stepped up in the second half; Hunter "SicK" Mims fell behind as he ended the game with just 12 kills. Vega Squadron was part of another close match and came out on top over a handicapped Liquid. nitr0 did all that he could, but Twistzz did not as the Canadian did not perform; chopper went massive with 35 kills and Nikolay "mir" Bityukov helped out while Sergey "keshander" Nikishin did not in the win. FaZe dominated Na'Vi thanks to rain being aggressive with 27 kills, compared to flamie's 5 kills. paz versus suNny was a close one as both had 33 kills, but Space Soldiers was able to edge out mousesports. Engin "ngiN" Kor, Engin "MAJ3R" Küpeli, and Martin "STYKO" Styk all performed fairly poorly for their respective teams, but it was the Turks pulling off the upset in the end. Sprout took a strong five round lead into the second half, but Renegades' defense was too formidable as Sprout got zero rounds on its Terrorist side. Everyone on the Renegades side contributed with NAF leading the way; denis had 20 kills, but Kevin "kRYSTAL" Amend's squad was eliminated. EnvyUs's star player Rpk played in the third day of the major, but he was fighting a suspected bout of pneumonia and had to sit out of the rest of the tournament. EnVyUs's coach Damien "maLeK" Marcel had to stand in despite never having played an international Global Offensive match in his career. The French proved it didn't need Rpk as ScreaM went huge, nearly tying the record of most kills in one half; however, in the second half, as ScreaM cooled off, the other EnVyUs players stayed cool and could not stop QBF's Terrorist side. Alexandre "xms" Forté struggled throughout the tournament as EnVyUs was sent home in the upset loss.

mousesports easily defeated Renegades with a strong performance from suNny as Justin "jks" Savage, one of the big players for Renegades, was held to just 7 kills. The rematch of the CIS Minor finals. This time, QBF dominated the field as AVANGAR could not get anything going in the second half. Na'Vi rolled over Liquid as nitr0, TwistZz, and ELiGE could not show up as s1mple went off on his former team and Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev had a much better game compared to his other matches.

Decider

After the conclusion of the first day, ELEAGUE and 100 Thieves, the runners-up of the last major, announced that the Brazilian roster would not attend due to immigration issues. To complete the sixteen team group stage for the New Legends stage, ELEAGUE decided to have one of the three ninth place teams take the open spot. The two teams with the easiest schedule from the three would face off in a best of one and then the winner of that match would go on to face off against the team that had the hardest schedule. The strength of schedule was determined by which how many wins the teams' opponents got. In the event in which the strength of schedule is the same, the tie breaker would be the head-to-head game. If the teams never played, then a random draw would take place.

Seeding
Renegades	AVANGAR	Team Liquid
Vega Squadron (3)	mousesports (3)	FaZe Clan (3)
Team EnVyUs (1)	Space Soldiers (3)	FlipSid3 Tactics (0)
Team Liquid (2)	FlipSid3 Tactics (0)	Renegades (2)
Sprout Esports (1)	Misfits Gaming (1)	Vega Squadron (3)
mousesports (3)	Quantum Bellator Fire (3)	Natus Vincere (3)
10	10	11

Renegades and AVANGAR faced off in the first match after round 5. Karlo "USTILO" Pivac had a back and forth major performance, but as he stepped up, Jame bettered the Renegades with a 30 bomb as AVANGAR pulled off yet another upset despite a last minute heroic play from NAF. AVANGAR went back to Mirage. Jame went stale against the Americans, but buster and qikert were able to step up to shoot down Liquid. However, Liquid made it close late into the game as the Americans were able to punish the aggression of the Kazakhs on their Terrorist side and Liquid defeated the underdogs in overtime.

Winner moves on to New Legends stage
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Renegades	10	Mirage	16	AVANGAR
Team Liquid	19	Mirage	15	AVANGAR

New Legends stage

The Legends stage, formerly known as the Group stage, used the same format as the Challengers stage. This took place from January 19 to January 22.

Gambit Esports, Virtus.pro, Astralis, BIG were teams in pool one based on their top four placement at the PGL Major; BIG was in pool one because of its first-place finish in the Swiss stage last major. Fnatic, North, SK Gaming, and Cloud9 were teams in pool two based on their quarterfinals finish at the PGL Major; Cloud9 was randomly chosen between it and G2 Esports based on its first-place finish in the Challengers stage. G2 Esports, Vega Squadron, Space Soldiers, and FaZe Clan were in pool three. mousesports, Natus Vincere, Quantum Bellator Fire, and Team Liquid were in pool four.

Place	Team	Record	RD	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5
1–2	G2 Esports	3-0	+28	Cloud9 16-8 Cache	High match Team Liquid 16-8 Inferno	High match Quantum Bellator Fire 16-4 Cache	New Champions stage	New Champions stage
	FaZe Clan	3-0	+25	Fnatic 16-8 Cache	High match Vega Squadron 16-3 Train	High match SK Gaming 16-12 Cache	New Champions stage	New Champions stage
3–5	Natus Vincere	3-1	+20	Gambit Esports 5-16 Nuke	Low match BIG 16-1 Inferno	Low match Team Liquid 16-9 Overpass	High match Fnatic 16-7 Inferno	New Champions stage
	SK Gaming	3-1	+9	Space Soldiers 16-13 Mirage	High match mousesports 16-12 Mirage	High match FaZe Clan 12-16 Cache	High match Gambit Esports 16-10 Overpass	New Champions stage
	Quantum Bellator Fire	3-1	+6	Virtus.pro 16-3 Cache	High match Gambit Esports 19-16 Inferno	High match G2 Esports 4-16 Cache	High match mousesports 16-14 Train	New Champions stage
6–8	mousesports	3-2	+24	Astralis 16-2 Cache	High match SK Gaming 12-16 Mirage	Mid match Vega Squadron 16-3 Mirage	High match Quantum Bellator Fire 14-16 Train	Space Soldiers 16-13 Mirage
	Cloud9	3-2	+20	G2 Esports 8-16 Cache	Low match Space Soldiers 13-16 Cobblestone	Low match Virtus.pro 16-7 Mirage	Low match Astralis 16-6 Train	Vega Squadron 16-4 Mirage
	Fnatic	3-2	+15	FaZe Clan 8-16 Cache	Low match Virtus.pro 16-6 Inferno	Mid match Astralis 16-8 Mirage	High match Natus Vincere 7-16 Inferno	Gambit Esports 16-2 Mirage
9–11	Space Soldiers	2-3	+2	SK Gaming 13-16 Mirage	Low match Cloud9 16-13 Cobblestone	Mid match Gambit Esports 13-16 Train	Low match BIG 16-8 Cobblestone	mousesports 13-16 Mirage
	Gambit Esports	2-3	-9	Natus Vincere 16-5 Nuke	High match Quantum Bellator Fire 16-19 Inferno	Mid match Space Soldiers 16-13 Train	High match SK Gaming 10-16 Overpass	Fnatic 2-16 Mirage
	Vega Squadron	2-3	-28	North 16-10 Overpass	High match FaZe Clan 3-16 Train	High match mousesports 3-16 Mirage	Low match Team Liquid 16-12 Inferno	Cloud9 4-16 Mirage
12–14	Team Liquid	1-3	-8	BIG 16-5 Inferno	High match G2 Esports 8-16 Inferno	High match Natus Vincere 9-16 Overpass	Low match Vega Squadron 12-16 Inferno	Eliminated
	BIG	1-3	-28	Team Liquid 5-16 Inferno	Low match Natus Vincere 1-16 Inferno	Low match North 16-12 Cobblestone	Low match Space Soldiers 8-16 Cobblestone	Eliminated
	Astralis	1-3	-30	mousesports 2-16 Cache	Low match North 16-14 Train	Mid match Fnatic 8-16 Mirage	Low match Cloud9 6-16 Train	Eliminated
15–16	North	0-3	-12	Vega Squadron 10-16 Overpass	Low match Astralis 14-16 Train	Low match BIG 12-16 Cobblestone	Eliminated	Eliminated
	Virtus.pro	0-3	-32	Quantum Bellator Fire 3-16 Cache	Low match Fnatic 6-16 Inferno	Low match Cloud9 7-16 Mirage	Eliminated	Eliminated

New Legends stage summary

The struggling North went up against the red hot Vega Squadron to start the New Legends stage; however, North was still expected to take the map on paper. Although, Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså and Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke tried to lead the way for North, hutji took over the second half after a quiet first and ended the game with 29 kills. Virtus.pro (VP) was another team that struggled throughout 2017 with the exception of a few stellar events, but the Poles always showed up for the major despite how much they struggled in the events prior to the major. However. QBF came out swinging and shut down VP to pull off an upset. The dark horse of the last major was thrashed by Team Liquid on the map BIG was infamous for. BIG's star Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz lead the way, but everyone else fell behind. TwistZz, jdm64, and ELiGE all had 22 kills each in the beating. Jesper "JW" Wecksel showed his old form as he did back in 2015 and early 2016, but the superteam of FaZe stomped the former best team in the world as olofmeister had 25 kills against his old team. The 3rd best team in the world of Astralis went up against a rising mousesports. mousesports went up to a 12-0 lead before Astralis avoided being the first team to be 16-0'd at a major.; however, Astralis would still get pounced on as mousesports easily took the win. oskar and suNny had more kills combined than all of Astralis combined as Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz struggled in his return to competition. Cloud9 and G2 was supposed to be a very even match up, as just 51% of predictions had G2 winning. G2 took a 10-1 lead on one of its favorite maps and then closed out the game despite Cloud9 showing up at certain times. Despite tarik having 26 kills, NBK- did better as G2 went up 1-0. In the first game on Nuke all tournament, Gambit dominated Natus Vincere in the biggest storyline of the first round, as Zeus had left Gambit after winning the major to rejoin Na'Vi; Gambit took a massive 13-2 lead on its Terrorist side on a map in which Counter-Terrorist are heavily favored and then closed out the game after nearly giving Na'Vi the 16-0. The PGL MVP Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev and fan favorite Mikhail "Dosia" Stolyarov both had easy times against their former captain's team as Gambit became the first Legend to win in the first round. Space Soldiers kept it close against the world's number one of SK Gaming; João "felps" Vasconcellos had a successful return to his team and Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo went with a risky call towards the end of the game and ended up winning the game. Calyx and XANATARES lived up to their expectations while Marcelo "coldzera" David, the best player of 2017, struggled in the closest game of the first round.

QBF continued its Cinderella run after defeating the defending champions of Gambit. Dosia and AdreN had big games for Gambit, but players such as Abay "HObbit" Khasenov had little impact. balbina and waterfaLLZ had 29 kills each in the victory. An expected competitive match delivered in the battle between the Turks of Space Soldiers and Cloud9's Turkish in-game leader. A Cloud9 comeback was cut short as MAJ3R and paz stepped up when XANTARES and Calyx couldn't. tarik, autimatic, and RUSH topped the Cloud9 side, but Stewie2K failed to do much. After suffering an upset in the Challenger stage, FaZe Clan was able to flip the roles and blew Vega Squadron out of the water. olofmeister and GuardiaN showed their 2015 form in the win while jR and keshander only had single digit kills. G2 had little issue with Liquid as G2's teamwork beat out individual plays from Liquid members. The double AWP setup between NBK- and kennyS proved effective while Liquid only started to show up late into the game. mousesports historically has a very poor record against SK Gaming, but recent form from mousesports and SK playing with a stand-in was a good chance for the Europeans. coldzera turned things around and had a massive game to help SK leap over chrisJ's team. Fernando "fer" Alvarenga and Epitacio "TACO" de Melo helped out with 22 and 21 kills, respectively, as SK became the last Legend standing to go 2-0. Virtus.pro could not get anything going against Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson's and Robin "flusha" Rönnquist's firepower. VP struggled as Filip "NEO" Kubski could not obtain many kills and the only player who was consistent during VP's struggles, Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski, was battered. Fatih "gob b" Dayik's team never got going on the map that brought it to Legends status, as players such as Kevin "keev" Bartholomäus and Johannes "nex" Maget whereas electronic and flamie shut down the Germans after winning the last 16 rounds of the game. In the so-called "Danish Derby," Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen was able to tactically outplay Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander and Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen and major MVP Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye could not hit their shots. However, gla1ve did the same to MSL in the second half and everyone on Astralis started hitting his shots as Astralis completed a massive comeback.

Vega Squadron appeared to have stifled in performance at the major as it lost by 13 rounds for a second time as oskar and chrisJ of mousesports gave the Russians no mercy. flamie showed the starpower he had as he took in 24 kills against s1mple's former team, as Liquid could not stop Na'Vi's offense in the second half. G2 became the first team into the Champions stage after stomping QBF, as bodyy went off to help shox made the playoffs for the first time since ESL One Katowice 2015. KRiMZ kept his strong form with 27 kills and Maikil "Golden" Selim also contributed to the team with 17 kills as Fnatic won this battle in the age-old rivalry; despite Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth's best efforts, Astralis fell well-short. Two Legends fought off to stave off elimination as tabseN came alive for BIG and huge clutches from nex; missed shots from René "cajunb" Borg in a round late in the game onto nex proved to be costly as North was eliminated after a year of being Legends. karrigan vs. FalleN appeared at another tournament, this time in the group stage. karrigan was able to take down SK with the help of GuardiaN to go into the playoffs and NiKo made the playoffs for the first time at a major in his career. VP was known as the North American killers as the Poles seemingly never lose to those teams; however, the VP free fall continued as Cloud9 had zero problem with the former Legends. Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski tried his best, but Paweł "byali" Bieliński could not get going despite the efforts of Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas trying to keep his team going. The so-called "Golden Five" missed the playoffs for the first time since DreamHack Winter 2013, the very first CS:GO major. Gambit survived a scare and a comeback attempt from Space Soldiers as Dosia went big and Rustem "mou" Telepov killed MAJ3R to move Gambit up to 2-1.

Nikola "LEGIJA" Ninić had his first positive rating in the tournament, but paz did better as a 1-14 deficit for BIG proved to be too much. mousesports took a massive 13-2 lead, but Boombl4 and Kvik lead QBF to a massive comeback and only allowed mousesports to take one round in the second half as QBF continued it surprise run into the playoffs. The Astralis vs. Cloud9 match proved to mark a spot in history, as Xyp9x, dupreeh, and dev1ce lost their status of being three of just five players to make the playoffs at every major, leaving just olofmeister and KRiMZ as the two remaining players to hold the streak. In the next elimination match, Team Liquid nearly surmounted a comeback against Vega Squadron, but the Russians held their ground and were able to eliminated the Americans. Gambit, despite being the defending champion, had struggles against SK Gaming as the team only won one map against the Brazilians and made a questionable map choice by striking to Overpass, the map in which SK was the best in the world at. SK made Gambit regret its decision as Bektiyar "fitch" Bahytov continued to struggle at the major and SK's domineering first half and SK became the first returning Legend to recertify its status. Edward appeared to return to his 2015 self as he and Na'Vi put Fnatic in a struggle. Fnatic needed players like Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson to show up big, but Na'Vi headed to Boston early and reclaimed a Legends spot after a downer at the PGL Major.

KRiMZ wanted to join his former teammate olofmeister as he and Lekr0 turned things around from their last match and dominated the defending champions. Gambit was just the second team in major history to exit the group stage in the major after winning the previous major, as Team EnVyUs (its core now with G2 Esports) went out in last place at MLG Columbus 2016 after winning DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 and now the Fnatic organization joined KRiMZ as being the only organization to be in the playoffs at every major. AdreN had little impact as he could not hit his shots accurately in the loss. Vega Squadron floundered to Cloud9 as Stewie2K shined and Vega's run at the major came to an end. Skadoodle ended his curse of not making the playoffs and Cloud9 had a North American team returned to Legend Status after more than a year. This major appeared to be end many losing streaks for players, as chrisJ of mousesports ended a seven major streak without being in the playoffs; Skadoodle had an eight major streak, shox was at six, and NiKo was at five. Space Soldiers's impressive run came to an end as it just came short against mousesports. oskar came up big for mousesports and MAJ3R had many impact kills as Calyx and XANTARES had a quiet game, but in the end, mousesports took the final ticket to Boston to end chrisJ's curse in a thriller.

New Champions stage

The New Champions Stage is a best of three single elimination bracket. Teams play into overtime until a winner is decided. This stage took place at the Agganis Arena between January 26 and January 28.

Bracket

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
	FaZe Clan		2
	mousesports		0
						FaZe Clan		2
						Natus Vincere		0
	Natus Vincere		2
	Quantum Bellator Fire		0
											FaZe Clan		1
											Cloud9		2
	G2 Esports		0
	Cloud9		2
						Cloud9		2
						SK Gaming		1
	SK Gaming		2
	Fnatic		1

Quarterfinals

FaZe Clan vs. mousesports

FaZe and mousesports previously squared off at the ECS Season 4 grand finals. The rematch in the Boston 2018 quarterfinals took place on January 26. NiKo met up with his former teammate chrisJ, and both had their long streaks of missing out on a major top eight broken at this tournament. At ECS, FaZe needed to go into overtime games to close out the last tournament of 2017. Despite being the underdogs, mousesports had a 7-7 record against the European superteam. FaZe had to scrape by SK Gaming to take a top spot in the quarterfinals, while mousesports survived a scare against Space Soldiers after chocking away an eleven-round lead to Quantum Bellator Fire. These two teams met at a major once before. In 2017 at the PGL Major, mousesports upset FaZe in overtime.

Casters: Sadokist & HenryG

FaZe-mouz Vetoes

Map Vetoes
mousesports	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Overpass	Cobblestone	Nuke	Cache	Mirage	Inferno	Train
FaZe Clan		BAN		PICK	BAN

Game one started with a thriller on the rarely-played Nuke. It started off with the pistol round, where rain took down STYKO and ropz and NiKo took down suNny to give FaZe an immediate 5 vs. 2 advantage. oskar was able to kill karrigan and chrisJ was able to take down rain, but immediate trades from NiKo and GuardiaN gave FaZe the first round of the Boston 2018 playoffs. FaZe took a 3-0 lead, but mousesports later 7-4 lead. FaZe was able to take a few rounds here and there, but mousesports's Terrorist side proved to be stronger. In round 15, GuardiaN started strong in a round FaZe needed to win, as Nuke tended to be a very Counter-Terrorist sided map, as he took down STYKO, but suNny was able to trade. olofmeister followed suit onto ropz before chrisJ planted the bomb. suNny then went huge as he took down rain, NiKo, and olofmeister to virtually secure the round for mousesports. karrigan was able to kill oskar, but another kill from suNny gave him the ace and mousesports a strong Terrorist side. In the second half, FaZe showed that it could also perform on the Terrorist side. After take the pistol round and the following two anti-economy rounds, mousesports took one back. In the 20th round, FaZe ran all over mousesports. rain killed oskar, NiKo downed STYKO, olofmeister took down chrisJ and then followed up onto ropz, and rain finished it off with a kill onto suNny to reset mousesports's economy. FaZe's roll came to a stop as mousesports went up to a 14-12 lead before FaZe made it 14-13. However, mousesports was able to save itself by winning the following round, putting FaZe's economy at a low point. Despite this, karrigan's squad had a lucky situation. In round 29, karrigan took down STYKO with an upgraded pistol. ropz took down rain and suNny and oskar followed up onto karrigan and NiKo, respectively. However, suNny accidentally jumped to his death, suddenly giving FaZe a small chance to win the round and stay alive in the map. GuardiaN took out oskar before olofmeister planted the bomb. olofmeister then took down chrisJ and there was no time left to defuse the bomb, forcing ropz to back away, giving FaZe the round. The last round of regulation had some more FaZe magic to show off. In a 2 vs. 4 situation, karrigan planted the bomb with only he and NiKo left alive. karrigan then killed oskar and NiKo followed up onto chrisJ to quickly make it a 1 vs. 2. STYKO then took down karrigan. suNny then threw a molotov towards NiKo's position to try to deny access the Bosnian as mousesports were trying to defuse the bomb. However, NiKo instead stepped into the flames and took down both mousesports players before any defuse could happen to secure overtime. Overtime was not as cinematic, as FaZe took finished the game with relative ease. suNny went massive with 40 kills and ropz did well with 27, but NiKo's 36 and olofmeister's 27 showed up to shut down mousesports.

FaZe's Terrorist side on Cache was too much for mousesports as the normally Counter-Terrorist sided map leaned heavily towards FaZe's offense. In the 15th round, FaZe proved to be relentless. NiKo killed suNny early on near the A bombsite. When FaZe decided to head to the B bombsite, NiKo caught chrisJ at just the right time. STYKO was able to kill karrigan, but ropz and STYKO fell to NiKo and NiKo finished off the ace by taking down oskar in the middle area. In the 20th round, after mousesports won the first three rounds of the half and FaZe winning the first gun round, ropz fell to rain in the early stages of the round. As mousesports creeped into the A bombsite, olofmeister killed STYKO before being traded out by suNny. mousesports didn't expect NiKo to be nearby, as the second best player in the world took down his former teammate chrisJ and oskar before being downed by suNny. However, NiKo did enough as karrigan cleaned up suNny to win a twelfth round. In the 24th round, mousesports lost the 23rd round and went for a bizarre buy with a shotgun – which only is useful close range – a submachine gun, two upgrade pistols, and one weak, unideal pistol. However, rain was able to shut four of them down and FaZe got match and series point. The favorites then easily won the last round to move on to the semifinals. NiKo had 24 kills and olofmeister and GuardiaN had 19 each. ropz had 18, but it was not enough.

FaZe Clan vs. mousesports Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
FaZe Clan	19	Nuke	16	mousesports
FaZe Clan	16	Cache	9	mousesports
FaZe Clan	–	Train	–	mousesports

Natus Vincere vs. Quantum Bellator Fire

Both teams were not expected to be in Boston, as Natus Vincere was in a massive struggle and Quantum Bellator Fire wasn't even supposed to be in the New Legends stage. However, Na'Vi pulled together after a bad loss to Gambit Esports and ran away with three wins in a row to clinch a spot in the playoffs. Many doubted QBF because it faced weak opponents in the New Challengers stage, but wins over Gambit and mousesports secured their spot in the finals. These two teams had never met prior to this tournament, but Na'Vi did easily defeat QBF in the New Challengers stage. Na'Vi's international experience and star players made them favorites in this match. Kvik of QBF not only became the first Lithuanian to play at a major, but also was the first Lithuanian to be in the top eight of a major.

Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

Na'Vi-QBF Vetoes

Map Vetoes
QB Fire	BAN		PICK		BAN
	Overpass	Cache	Mirage	Inferno	Cobblestone	Nuke	Train
Natus Vincere		BAN		PICK		BAN

Na'Vi had an eventful map on Mirage. QBF took the pistol round, but Na'Vi bounced right back and went on a massive streak of 13 unanswered round before QBF took the last round to make it 2-13. In the 19th round, QBF had a great chance to extend the game. Boombl4 took down Zeus and Edward and waterfallZ took out electronic and QBF had a 5 vs. 2. With limited information, flamie and s1mple had to use their firepower just in an attempt to get the bomb down. flamie killed balbina and waterfaLLZ and then s1mple got a triple kill onto Kvik, Boombl4, and jmqa to pull off a miracle round win. QBF never recovered and Na'Vi easily took the first map. flamie took the reins over s1mple and dropped 39 kills. waterfaLLZ was supposed to show up as he had before the playoffs, but the QBF in-game leader only had 7 kills. flamie set a new record for most kills in a half.

Na'Vi continued its stride on Inferno. With Na'Vi up 10-3, QBF needed the next two rounds to have a decent chance to win the game. waterfaLLZ caught out s1mple early in the round and jmqa followed onto electronic. waterfaLLZ took down Edward as Na'Vi were going to the A bombsite. Boombl4 was able to kill Zeus to leave flamie alone against five. flamie tried to take away as many guns as possible, but jmqa didn't allow that and QBF acquired a fourth round. However, Na'Vi took the last round of the half despite QBF garnering a decent amount of information, leaving QBF to have a mountain to climb. In the first gun round of the second half, Edward started with a kill onto Boombl4 with the help of a plethora of grenades. However, flamie died to the bullet of waterfaLLZ to even the playing field. jmqa tried to pull a fake, but Edward killing jmqa allowed Na'Vi to know that QBF was actually going to the A bombsite. electronic killed Kvik before being traded by waterfaLLZ. Zeus took down balbina and waterfaLLZ took down Zeus, but the QBF in-game leader was unable to pull off a 1 vs. 2 as Edward charged in to secure the round. Edward had a vintage performance with 23 kills and flamie had 22 kills. QBF's star Boombl4 had only 10 kills. Natus Vincere went on to face FaZe Clan and QBF's Cinderella story came to a quarterfinals end.

Natus Vincere vs. Quantum Bellator Fire Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Natus Vincere	16	Mirage	4	Quantum Bellator Fire
Natus Vincere	16	Inferno	7	Quantum Bellator Fire
Natus Vincere	–	Train	–	Quantum Bellator Fire

G2 Esports vs. Cloud9

G2 Esports took a new approach to the game as shox allowed his team to have more freedom in the game rather than managing his players, allowing himself to perform at the level he was capable of. Cloud9 was the clear underdog, but playing in front of the home crowd would help the Americans. Historically, Cloud9 has the edge over G2 with an 8-7 head-to-head record, but G2 cruised past Cloud9 in the New Legends stage. G2 did have a perfect 6-0 record coming into the playoffs, but many of those were against teams that were not in contention for a playoffs spot. Meanwhile, Cloud9 had to fight from a 0-2 record to pull itself back up to three wins to clinch a playoff spot. These two teams have met once at a major – at the PGL Major, G2 defeated Cloud9 in overtime in the group stage. Cloud9 was the first North American team to make the playoffs at a major since ESL One Cologne 2016, where Team Liquid placed second. However, G2 was expected to make the finals by defeating Cloud9 and SK Gaming or Fnatic.

Casters: Anders Blume & moses

G2-C9 Vetoes

Map Vetoes
Cloud9	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Nuke	Train	Mirage	Overpass	Cache	Inferno	Cobblestone
G2 Esports		BAN		PICK	BAN

The most anticipated quarterfinals matchup started on Mirage, Cloud9's pick. The match started with G2 winning the pistol round, but heroics from autimatic allowed Cloud9 to win its economy round. With Cloud9 leading 3-2, tarik started off by heading into the middle area with a kill onto G2's kennyS, but autimatic fell to apEX. RUSH then killed bodyy and then apEX followed up onto Stewie2K. RUSH then took down apEX after Skadoodle planted the bomb, but shox was there to trade. Skadoodle then took down shox; NBK- was able to take down tarik and tried to get away as the bomb was too late to defuse, but Skadoodle was able to chase him down to give Cloud9 the round. Cloud9 went up 8-2 before G2 took the last five rounds as the French started to get aggressive and started to get rounds on the board. Cloud9 was up 13-7 in the 21st round as G2 had another gun round. Skadoodle started with a kill onto NBK-. shox took down autimatic and then apEX planted the bomb. Stewie2K later took down shox before being traded by bodyy. apEX found two onto RUSH and tarik. Skadoodle found apEX, but kennyS traded to give G2 the round. However, Cloud9's defense was too strong and won the game. RUSH quietly lead the way with 26 kills. shox had 21, but bodyy only had 8 at the end.

Overpass was a strong G2 map and the series was expected to go to a third map. Cloud9 was up 5-2 when bodyy started off with a kill onto Skadoodle. Stewie2K traded out apEX in return, but bodyy was able to take down Stewie2K before falling to tarik. shox followed up onto tarik and then planted the bomb. On the retake, autimatic started strong with kills onto NBK- and shox. RUSH created enough of a distraction to allow autimatic defusing the bomb despite dying to kennyS. autimatic defused the bomb and then circled around to take down kennyS, leaving nobody alive on the French side. G2 won the 12th round, but its economy was reset after Cloud9 won the next. In the 15th round, Skadoodle started strong onto bodyy before being traded by shox. tarik found a double kill onto NBK- and kennyS, but shox came in with kills onto tarik and Stewie2K. shox tried to plant the bomb, but autimatic had the backstab before being traded by NBK-. RUSH finished things off with a kill onto NBK- to give Cloud9 a 12-3 halftime lead and a huge chance at the upset. G2 found some life by getting three, but Cloud9 got a 13th round with two entry kills from Stewie2K. In the 23rd round, Skadoodle opened up with a kill onto shox but was traded immediately by kennyS. NBK- took down autimatic in the B bombsite but was traded by tarik. Stewie2K caught a flanking apEX. kennyS and bodyy took down RUSH and tarik, respectively, but Stewie2K pulled off the 1 vs. 2 to clinch a semifinals spot. bodyy turned things around with 19 kills and shox had 16, but other G2 members could not pull through. tarik went big with 22 kills in the win as North America's best defeated France's best.

G2 Esports vs. Cloud9 Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
G2 Esports	8	Mirage	16	Cloud9
G2 Esports	7	Overpass	16	Cloud9
G2 Esports	–	Cobblestone	–	Cloud9

SK Gaming vs. Fnatic

The two most decorated CS:GO teams faced off in the quarterfinals. Historically, Fnatic has the head-to-head lead at 11-8, but Fnatic had suffered a downfall from the best team in the world since mid-2016, which was when SK Gaming just started its rise to become the best team in the world. However, Fnatic has two relatively inexperienced players and SK is playing without its regular lineup. Despite Fnatic's historical record, SK has a 4-1 record in 2017. These teams met twice at previous majors. At ESL One Cologne 2015, Fnatic swept SK (known as Luminosity Gaming back then) in the quarterfinals; at Cluj-Napoca 2015, Luminosity pulled off the upset of the tournament by defeating Fnatic. The young rookie in-game leader Golden had to go against whom many are calling the best in-game leader in Global Offensive, FalleN.

Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

SK-Fnatic Vetoes

Map Vetoes
Fnatic	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Cobblestone	Nuke	Inferno	Overpass	Train	Cache	Mirage
SK Gaming		BAN		PICK	BAN

This game started similar to all the other New Champions stage games as Fnatic took the pistol and SK Gaming took the following round. However, Fnatic had a force buy of its own in the next round. Despite TACO taking down three in Lekr0, JW, and flusha and coldzera downing Golden early on, KRiMZ had to ace for this team and needed a 1 vs. 3 clutch to spray down fer, TACO, and FalleN to give Fnatic a third round. Fnatic was able to overrun SK and took ten rounds. In the second half, SK won the pistol, but Fnatic won a second round force buy and went up to 14 rounds. SK was able to get two more before Fnatic's last buy before it was forced to take an economy round. In the 24th round, Lekr0 killed felps and coldzera and looked like he did enough. However, FalleN took down flusha, TACO killed KRiMZ, and FalleN followed up onto Lekr0. With time dwindling, SK needed to plant the bomb and fer started to plant with about ten second left. JW tried to deny the plant, but TACO caught him out and SK secured the round. Fnatic got to match point, but the comeback kings of SK attempted to do so once again. In the 28th round, felps entered with a kill onto JW, but KRiMZ and Lekr0 took down three together. However, FalleN took out Lekr0 and coldzera saved the day with a kill onto KRiMZ to open up the A bombsite. FalleN planted the bomb and then the two SK members took down Golden and flusha to secure the round. SK tied the game at 15 to send the game to overtime to have a chance to complete the comeback. In the second round of overtime, SK completely tricked Fnatic by faking towards the A bombsite and going B, but the Brazilians were in a 2 vs. 4. felps created enough time for TACO and TACO's kills onto flusha and KRiMZ delayed Fnatic by one second, and Fnatic was too late to defuse the bomb; had SK lost that round, Fnatic would have had a 3-0 half in overtime. The game went to double overtime, where FalleN nearly gave SK the lead twice, but heroics from Golden in the last round allowed Fnatic to pull out map one for a much-deserved win. Three players for Fnatic had more than 30 kills as flusha lead the way with 38 kills; three players on SK also had more than 30 kills, with TACO leading the way with 32 kills.

The next map went to Overpass, a map SK is heavily favored on. The rounds went back and forth early on. In round six, with the game tied up 2-2 and Fnatic had just won the previous round after the two teams kept trading one for one, it looked to be the end of trading as JW took down coldzera and Lekro downed TACO. Lekr0 also took down felps after fer killed Golden. FalleN continued to perform as he tagged down Lekro with his SSG, the inferior sniper rifle, and then hit a ridiculous shot onto flusha while trying to move the bomb to the A bombsite. fer killing JW made KRiMZ move towards the A bombsite, but FalleN moved back to the B bombsite and planted the bomb. KRiMZ was able to kill fer, but the bomb was too late the defuse and KRiMZ died to the explosion. SK was the first team to string two rounds together by winning the next round to go up 4-2. SK went up 5-2, but Fnatic was barely able to steal away rounds to take the lead. SK retook the lead and ended the half at 9-6. The pistol round went to Fnatic, but SK had a force buy and the less favored team won the second round once again. SK went up 13-7 before Fnatic picked one up. In round 24, with SK up 13-10, KRiMZ had a massive round with four kills, including a 1 vs. 2 clutch against TACO and coldzera and SK's money was at a low point again. With the score tied 13-13, SK pulled out a miracle from an economy round and stole a round away. In the 30th round, SK was up 15-14, but had a weaker buy. FalleN punished KRiMZ, but JW traded him out. JW ran into the A bombsite while his teammates executed to the B bombsite and JW took down felps. coldzera traded and then everything toppled for the Swedes, as TACO took down flusha and Golden with a weaker weapon and fer finished things off on Lekr0. felps topped the server with 24 kills and Lekr0 had 22, but virtually every player had some sort of big impact in the game.

The final map went to Mirage, a map in which both teams are historically great on and arguably Fnatic's best map. Based on the first two maps, the game went back and forth in the start as expected. In the 13th round, the score was 6-6. There, fer went aggressive to get KRiMZ and coldzera caught out JW. However, Golden and Lekr0 traded some seconds later and then had the man advantage with a kill onto TACO. Golden tried to plant the bomb, but felps killing flusha forced Golden off the plant. Lekr0 traded and Golden tried to plant again. This time, a low FalleN tried to take down Golden, but Lekr0 used his body to partially block the shot, allowing Golden to plant the bomb. Golden took advantage of the low health of FalleN and killed him to secure the round. The teams traded the last two rounds and Fnatic took an 8-7 lead into the halftime break. Fnatic had an 11-9 lead going into the 21st round. There, coldzera caught out a flank from KRiMZ, but three consecutive kills from Fnatic before the bomb was planted from SK allowed an easy retake as the Swedes swept up the felps and fer. However, the Brazilians tied the game again at 12. The turning point came the round after in which SK pulled off a risky and massive play. FalleN threw a standard top mid smoke, which blocks off the sight of the counter-terrorist looking threw the window area, which is at the end of the middle area and has a sightline to the top middle area. At the same time, coldzera threw a smoke intended to block off the window area, but the smoke missed. Meanwhile, the other three SK players were nearby the B bombsite and once the smoke grenades bloomed, FalleN and coldzera joined their teammates and then executed a quick B bombsite rush that overwhelmed Lekr0 and flusha and the living Fnatic players had to save their guns for the next round. After the match, analyst Sean "seang@res" Gares theorized that coldzera missed the window smoke on purpose to keep the player in the window area, JW, so that JW could not support his teammate on the B bombsite. Losing sight of the middle area would mean JW would back off the support his teammate somewhere else since he could not see; however, JW could still see the middle area, so he stayed there in an attempt to pick off a player. In addition, JW had communicated to flusha that the window smoke was missed, so flusha went near the middle area as well to also potentially kill a player, leaving Lekr0 all alone in the B bombsite. This fake was later confirmed by FalleN and SK Gaming analyst Swani. As SK gained traction, Fnatic lost steam and SK got map point first. In round 28, fer took down flusha and felps followed up onto KRiMZ. JW traded felps, but Golden fell and then JW and Lekr0 followed suit. fer, FalleN, and coldzera had big games despite Lekr0's 23. SK Gaming moved on to face Cloud9 in the semifinals as the Brazilians took down a vintage performance of Fnatic in a series worthy of a grand finals.

SK Gaming vs. Fnatic Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
SK Gaming	19	Inferno	22	Fnatic
SK Gaming	16	Overpass	14	Fnatic
SK Gaming	16	Mirage	12	Fnatic

Semifinals

FaZe Clan vs. Natus Vincere

FaZe Clan survived a mousesports opposition after nearly dropping the first game of the playoffs while Natus Vincere cruised passed Quantum Bellator Fire with the help of flamie's massive performance. On LAN, FaZe has a 2-0 advantage over Na'Vi while the overall record holds at 3-3. Zeus was the only member of the champion winning team in Krakòw and looked to repeat it with a new lineup. Natus Vincere looked ready to make a great run to the finals and in their way were the titans, Faze Clan. The eventual #1 player in the world needed to put up big numbers versus the titans of the game

Casters: Sadokist & HenryG

FaZe-Na'Vi Vetoes

Map Vetoes
Natus Vincere	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Cache	Cobblestone	Inferno	Mirage	Nuke	Overpass	Train
FaZe Clan		BAN		PICK	BAN

FaZe started strong with an 8-1 lead and Na'Vi needed a 1 vs. 2 s1mple clutch just to get a second round. In the next round, Zeus died to GuardiaN with less than 40 seconds to go, but s1mple found olofmeister. flamie killed rain before being traded by GuardiaN, but s1mple took down the FaZe AWPer and in-game leader, forcing NiKo to back off to save as the bomb was ticking away. Despite FaZe's start, the Na'Vi that showed up against QBF showed up in the later stages of the half as Na'Vi brought it back to 8-7. In the 22nd round, with FaZe up 13-8, Na'Vi had weak pistols and a saved rifle that Edward saved. rain took full control of the A bombsite, but he was downed by Zeus. GuardiaN traded, but flamie used his pistol to kill him. NiKo and olofmeister followed up, but the duo of electronic and s1mple somehow killed the remaining FaZe members and electronic defused the bomb NiKo planted. However, FaZe found the next round to reset Na'Vi's economy. Na'Vi tried a force buy but failed and FaZe finished up. NiKo and karrigan lead the way for FaZe while flamie topped the Na'Vi side. FaZe struggled, but managed to pull away with the win.

FaZe went with a risky choice of Mirage instead of Overpass, as FaZe dominated other teams other than SK Gaming. However, FaZe kept it close with Na'Vi on the map. With the score tied 5-5, s1mple tagged up karrigan with the AWP and Edward's incendiary grenade finished him off, but FaZe switched spots and headed to the A bombsite. Na'Vi rotated off after thinking it was going to be a B bombsite execute, allowing rain to plant the bomb. olofmeister died to electronic near the Counter-Terrorist spawn, but rain caught flamie on the flank. GuardiaN took down Zeus and Edward, but electronic and s1mple killed rain and GuardiaN, respectively. s1mple tried to defuse the bomb, but NiKo was in the same spot as GuardiaN and took down the Ukrainian start, leaving no time for electronic to defuse the bomb. FaZe had the lead at the end of the half 10-5 and was well on its way to the finals as Na'Vi only got two rounds on its offense. rain and olofmeister outplayed s1mple on the map as flamie and electronic struggled massively.

FaZe Clan vs. Natus Vincere Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
FaZe Clan	16	Inferno	9	Natus Vincere
FaZe Clan	16	Mirage	7	Natus Vincere
FaZe Clan	–	Train	–	Natus Vincere

Cloud9 vs. SK Gaming

Cloud9 pulled off an upset against the inconsistent G2 Esports and looked to be just the second North American team to reach the finals at a major. SK Gaming pulled off a hard-fought win against Fnatic and was nearly taken down in the second game of its quarterfinals. These two teams stood atop of the North American scene and now they battle it out. The head-to-head record between the core of Cloud9 – Stewie2K, autimatic, and Skadoodle – and the core of SK Gaming – FalleN, fer, coldzera, and TACO – is 17-10 in favor of SK; on LAN, SK has a 10-2 record, but Cloud9 did win the most recent encounter at IEM Oakland 2017 with a 16-7 win. With SK Gaming's demon G2 Esports knocked out of the tournament, this match was expected to be close as Cloud9 was in the best form it had ever seen while SK was without its regular support player boltz.

Casters: Anders Blume & moses

C9-SK Vetoes

Map Vetoes
Cloud9	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Nuke	Train	Mirage	Cobblestone	Cache	Overpass	Inferno
SK Gaming		BAN		PICK	BAN

Game 1 started out with a slaughter from Cloud9 onto SK Gaming, who had about a two-hour break between its marathon match against Fnatic and its semifinals match against Cloud9. Cloud9 dominated and SK struggled as the Americans took a 13-2 halftime lead after SK salvaged the fifteenth round. SK had a one-round to play with, but failed to convert much as Skadoodle and autimatic stepped up big as Cloud9's game plan prevailed against FalleN's tactics.

SK already did better than it did in the last map within the first within the first four rounds of Cobblestone as Brazil's number one started out with a 7-0 before Cloud9 took one of its own. In the tenth round, SK was up 7-2. SK ran the clock down late to about 20 seconds and Skadoodle caught out felps. autimatic flanked coldzera, but was traded by fer. However, tarik found a double onto FalleN and fer. TACO did take down RUSH, but Stewie2K was able to trade and Cloud9 made it a game again. Cloud9 brought it all the way back to tie the game at 7, but SK took an eighth round to take a slim lead. SK's defense in the second half held strong. In the 21st round, with SK up 13-7, Cloud9 started to the A bombsite. fer started with a kill onto RUSH but was traded out by tarik. TACO took out autimatic, but Stewie2K sprayed down FalleN and felps. coldzera also took two in Skadoodle and tarik. Stewie2K found a shot onto coldzera, but just barely missed a kill onto TACO and SK continued to go on its win streak. Stewie2K lead the way for Cloud9 with 19 kills, but fell much short of SK. fer finally showed why he was ranked the third best player in the world as he had 27 kills and TACO did well on the defense with 21. FalleN lead the way in the beginning, but fer, who had recently revealed that he played for years with no hearing in his right ear, showed why he was ranked as the third best player in the world.

The game went back and forth until Cloud9 strung consecutive rounds together and went up 7-3. In round 11, the two teams traded two for two, but Stewie2K and RUSH took down felps and TACO, respectively. RUSH then denied FalleN of a kill and Cloud9 had a strong lead and never gave up a round in that half after that. Cloud9 lead 14-7 in round 22. There, Cloud9 went to the A bombsite and got all the kills it needed to plant the bomb. A shut down of felps and fer allowed Cloud9 to get to series point. The Americans stifled an SK comeback and became just the second North American team to reach the finals at a major. tarik had the most impact with 26 kills and Cloud9 looked to continue to dominate.

Cloud9 vs. SK Gaming Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Cloud9	16	Mirage	3	SK Gaming
Cloud9	8	Cobblestone	16	SK Gaming
Cloud9	16	Inferno	9	SK Gaming

Finals

GuardiaN and olofmeister were back in a major grand finals, as it was olofmeister's first since ESL One Cologne 2015, where he won the trophy against Team EnVyUs, whose core is now with G2 Esports, and GuardiaN's first since MLG Columbus 2016, where he lost to Luminosity Gaming, whose roster is now with SK Gaming. karrigan followed up with his former Danish teammates from a year ago and finally reached a major grand finals. NiKo and rain were also in their first major final. Meanwhile, all of Cloud9 was in his first finals and four of them were first time Legends. Upsetting G2 and SK, tarik's team looked to continue its form and win North America's first major in front of its home crowd. However, Cloud9 struggled against FaZe in the past, as FaZe has a clean 8-0 record against North America's best, and FaZe was able to avoid its demon in SK, in which karrigan had a 0-9 record against FalleN in any best of three or best of five series against the Brazilian in-game leader during karrigan's time in Team SoloMid, Astralis, and FaZe Clan and FalleN's time with Luminosity Gaming and SK Gaming. After Cloud9 knocked SK out in the semifinals, FaZe was the clear favorites to win the tournament.

Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

FaZe-C9 Vetoes

Map Vetoes
Cloud9	BAN		PICK			BAN
	Nuke	Cobblestone	Mirage	Overpass	Train	Cache	Inferno
FaZe Clan		BAN		PICK	BAN

Cloud9 went up to an incredible start at 8-2. In round 11, Cloud9 executed to the B bombsite, where Skadoodle started with a kill onto rain. Meanwhile, Stewie2K and autimatic tried to trick FaZe into thinking Cloud9 was faking to A, but two FaZe members stayed at B. olofmeister killed tarik and RUSH, and NiKo downed Stewie2K. autimatic took down GuardiaN and karrigan, but olofmeister secured the round with kills onto Skadoodle and autimatic. FaZe was able to avoid disaster with a 9-6 scoreline at the half after GuardiaN completely shut down Cloud9 in the last round of the first half. FaZe won the second half pistol round, but tarik and Skadoodle tagged down three FaZe players to low health, and when FaZe executed to the B bombsite, autimatic and tarik were able to clean up all five FaZe players. FaZe and Cloud9 were later tied at 12 heading into the 25th round; the two teams were in a 3 vs. 3 and Stewie2K was right on the backs of FaZe after NiKo went down to RUSH on the A bombsite. FaZe planted the bomb on B and Stewie2K missed his shots onto GuardiaN. GuardiaN punished and then rain took down autimatic. RUSH looked to make a play, but had low health and was killed by GuardiaN for the lead. FaZe got to match point and then was against a weak Cloud9 buy. Cloud9 nearly pulled the game to overtime, but after FaZe planted the bomb, olofmeister found the critical kills and FaZe just barely took map 1. Skadoodle lead all players with 27 kills, but Cloud9 never solved the problem of getting past GuardiaN, who had 26 kills. olofmeister was close behind with 25 kills as NiKo and Stewie2K struggled.

Mirage was supposed to be a must win for Cloud9 as Overpass was FaZe's strongest map. With the exception of SK Gaming, FaZe was 19-2 (two losses both against Astralis) with its current lineup and karrigan's teams were 42-13 on the map since FACEIT 2015 Stage 3 Finals at DreamHack Winter 2015 (FaZe was 0-10 against SK Gaming). Despite this, Cloud9 replicated its good start on Mirage. In round 8, Cloud9 was up 7-0, but FaZe looked to get its first round. NiKo had an early kill onto tarik but RUSH traded about ten seconds later. GuardiaN took down Stewie2K in the middle area and olofmeister caught Skadoodle trying to get aggressive, giving FaZe a 2 vs. 4 advantage. autimatic missed a shot onto olofmeister as FaZe was planting the bomb; olofmeister tried to chase autimatic, but this timtime autimatic took him down. autimatic then killed karrigan just after the FaZe captain planted the bomb before. RUSH then got the backstab onto rain, and autimatic threw a highly explosive grenade to take down an already-damaged GuardiaN and defused the bomb to deny the round. FaZe was able to win the following round. GuardiaN shined but everyone else on FaZe was playing poorly and Cloud9 took a massive 12-3 lead. In the second half pistol round, the virtually must-win round was led by rain with three quick kills. RUSH and Skadoodle were able to bring it back to a 2 vs. 3, but fell short. However, a surprise buy from the Americans seemed to catch FaZe off guard and Cloud9 took the round. Cloud9 continued to dominate before a comeback attempt from FaZe, but nevertheless Cloud9 became the second non-SK team to defeat FaZe on Overpass. Skadoodle showed up early for his team, but tarik lead the way late as Cloud9 forced a game three. rain had 22 kills and GuardiaN had 20, but with four Cloud9 players having at least 20 frags, FaZe could not keep up.

Inferno would decide the first major champion of 2018. Both FaZe and Cloud9 had strong performances in the semifinals. FaZe won the pistol round, but another force buy from Cloud9 proved deadly as Cloud9 had looked during its economy rounds throughout the whole tournament to catch FaZe off guard again and then Cloud9 went up 5-1. In the seventh round, Cloud9 tried to play into the A bombsite, but olofmeister sprayed down autimatic, Stewie2K, and RUSH. GuaridiaN followed up onto Skadoodle and karrigan finished things off onto tarik. FaZe would later tie up the score at 5 and then later went up 8-5 after seven consecutive rounds before Skadoodle and tarik were able to clutch a sixth round and then a seventh round to keep the game very competitive. FaZe won the pistol round and the following two economy rounds to go up 11-8. Cloud9 picked up the first gun round. In the 20th round, rain started off with a kill onto Skadoodle, but tarik ran through a smoke to kill NiKo and rain. RUSH failed to down karrigan and then tarik got aggressive but died to the AWP of GuardiaN. autimatic got olofmeister with a grenade, but karrigan killing Stewie2K virtually sealed the round. autimatic got karrigan, but the bomb exploded and FaZe was four rounds away. Cloud9 won a desperate round, but FaZe had a desperate of its own and won, and FaZe went up 14-9. Cloud9 won another force buy to stay in the game. With FaZe up 14-11, the Europeans had guns after an economy round, but despite Cloud9 killing all FaZe players, the bomb had already detonated. On match point, NiKo killed Skadoodle early, but tarik and RUSH held down the A bombsite to stay alive in the finals. Tense final rounds went by as the teams went to a 30th round, with FaZe up 15-14. Both teams had guns, but Cloud9 had a significantly much stronger buy. FaZe went to an A bombsite. Stewie2K killed olofmeister on B, but autimatic went to the A bombsite while FaZe went to B. However, Stewie2K held everything down with less than ten seconds left and by that time, FaZe ran out of time to do anything and the game went to overtime. Cloud9 carried the momentum into overtime and swept the first half of overtime to garner three match points. FaZe won the first round of the second overtime half as NiKo made a massive play by sneaking behind everyone on Cloud9 and taking down the bomb carrier. Cloud9 had a 2 vs. 2 in its favor, but after Skadoodle went down, Stewie2K took down NiKo, but karrigan on low health was able to trade on 11 health points. The next round, Cloud9 turned a 2 vs. 4 into a 2 vs. 1, but GuardiaN barely clutched out a 1 vs. 2 to send the game to double overtime. The game was tied up again at 19 before Cloud9 took a 20-19 lead going into the next half. Cloud9 took match, series, and tournament point once again, going up 21-19. In the next round, tarik caught out karrigan as FaZe headed to the B bombsite, where NiKo killed Stewie2K. autimatic then traded out NiKo and tarik killed olofmeister. GuardiaN planted the bomb as rain traded out tarik. autimatic traded out tarik to leave GuardiaN in another clutch situation. However, Skadoodle took down the star AWPer and RUSH defused the bomb, securing the tournament. tarik lead all players with 38 kills and Stewie2K followed behind with 32. GuardiaN stepped up huge with his 29 kills in crucial situations, but rain sat at the bottom of the scoreboard as the fourth best player of 2017 had limited impact.

Skadoodle was named the U.S. Air Force MVP of the tournament by ELEAGUE, while HLTV.org gave the MVP to tarik.

The final map broke a new record with more than 1.8 million viewers, including more than 1.3 million viewers on Twitch.

Cloud9 became the first ever North American team to win a major and it was the fourth major in which a non-European team won the major in five major tournaments. Until September 2019, Fnatic led the way with three major titles, but Astralis has since taken over with 4 major titles. SK Gaming and G2 Esports stayed in second with two titles, including the former winning one with Luminosity Gaming and the latter winning two under the Team LDLC.com and Team EnVyUs banners. Virtus.pro, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Gambit Esports, and now Cloud9 all have one each.

FaZe Clan vs. Cloud9 Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
FaZe Clan	16	Mirage	14	Cloud9
FaZe Clan	10	Overpass	16	Cloud9
FaZe Clan	19	Inferno	22	Cloud9

Final standings

The final placings are shown below. In addition, the prize distribution, seed for the next major, roster, and coaches are shown. Each team's in-game leader is shown first.

Place	Prize Money	Team	Seed	Roster	Coach
1st	US$500,000	Cloud9	London 2018 Legends	tarik, autimatic, RUSH, Skadoodle, Stewie2K	valens
2nd	US$150,000	FaZe Clan		karrigan, GuardiaN, NiKo, olofmeister, rain	RobbaN
3rd – 4th	US$70,000	Natus Vincere		Zeus, Edward, s1mple, electronic, flamie	kane
		SK Gaming		FalleN, coldzera, felps, fer, TACO
5th – 8th	US$35,000	Fnatic		Golden, flusha, JW, KRiMZ, Lekr0	Jumpy
		G2 Esports		shox, apEX, bodyy, kennyS, NBK-	SmithZz
		mousesports		chrisJ, oskar, ropz, STYKO, suNny	lmbt
		Quantum Bellator Fire		waterfaLLZ, balblna, Boombl4, jmqa, Kvik	iksou
9th – 11th	US$8,750	Gambit Esports	London 2018 New Challengers	Dosia, AdreN, fitch, HObbit, mou	Andi
		Space Soldiers		MAJ3R, Calyx, ngiN, paz, XANTARES	hardstyle
		Vega Squadron		jR, chopper, hutji, keshander, mir	Fierce
12th – 14th	US$8,750	Astralis		gla1ve, dev1ce, dupreeh, Kjaerbye, Xyp9x	zonic
		BIG		gob b, keev, nex, tabseN, LEGIJA	kakafu
		Team Liquid		zews, ELiGE, jdm64, nitr0, Twistzz
15th – 16th	US$8,750	North		MSL, aizy, cajunb, k0nfig, valde	ruggah
		Virtus.pro		TaZ, byali, NEO, pashaBiceps, Snax	kuben
17th	–	AVANGAR	–	Jame, buster, dimasick, KrizzeN, qikert	dastan
18th		Renegades		Nifty, AZR, jks, USTILO, NAF	kassad
19th – 21st	–	Misfits Gaming		seang@res, ShahZaM, SicK, AmaNeK, devoduvek
		Sprout Esports		kRYSTAL, denis, Spiidi, innocent, zehN	tow b
		Team EnVyUs		Happy, Rpk, SIXER, xms, ScreaM	maLeK
22nd – 23rd	–	Flash Gaming		karsa, AttackeR, LOVEYY, Summer, kaze	z8z
		FlipSid3 Tactics		B1ad3, markeloff, seized, WorldEdit, wayLander
DQ	–	100 Thieves		BIT, fnx, HEN1, kNgV-, LUCAS1	bLecker

Post-major ranking

HLTV.org rank teams based on results of teams' performances. The rankings shown below reflect the January 29, 2018 rankings, the first ranking after the major.

HLTV.org post-major ranking

World ranking
Place	Team	Points	Move1
1	SK Gaming	916
2	FaZe Clan	914
3	Cloud9	609	2
4	G2 Esports	408	3
5	Astralis	407	2
6	Fnatic	358
7	mousesports	350	1
9	Natus Vincere	287	5
10	Virtus.pro	204
11	Gambit Esports	190
12	North	286	3
14	Team Liquid	145	3
15	Misfits Gaming	140	2
16	Quantum Bellator Fire	130	44
17	Vega Squadron	121	7
18	Space Soldiers	119	5
19	Renegades	114	1
20	Team EnVyUs	109	5
24	BIG	75	2
27	AVANGAR	56	10
28	Sprout Esports	43	1
54	Flash Gaming	–	7
60	FlipSid3 Tactics	–	?

¹Change since January 8, 2018 ranking

Pro-Am Showmatch

The Pro-Am showmatch was played before the grand finals between FaZe Clan and Cloud9. The showmatch featured the commentating duo James Bardolph and Daniel "ddk" Kapadia as captains, with Bardolph leading God Squad and ddk leading Team Killz. The map was selected via a community vote on ELEAGUE's Twitter page. Each team featured a caster, two professional players, an observer, and an analyst.

Detailed Statistics

God Squad	16-12	Team Killz
James Bardolph apEX kennyS sapphiRe YNk	Cobblestone	ddk Boombl4 jmqa moses Prius

Casters: Richard Lewis & HenryG

References

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