ESports: Cloud 9 Bring First Major to North America

Cloud 9 (2) 14 16 22
Faze Clan (1) 16 10 19

The final of the Counter Strike: Global Offence Boston Major was played last night. After a month of competition, the end of the tournament was brought to a memorable end with North America’s Cloud 9 and the European Faze Clan.

The game started at 7 o’clock (UK time) and a Cloud 9 choice of map, Mirage. In typical Cloud 9 fashion, they scored more points in the first half, accelerating at a pace that looked like they might get an easy first win. Losing motivation while switching sides however, allowed Faze Clan to push forward stealing the first game, 14 rounds to 16.

Repeating their good start, Cloud 9 went up 9 – 0, on Faze chosen map, Overpass. Motivation and excellent plays from Stewie2k (Jake Yip) and Skadoodle (Tyler Latham) pushed Cloud 9 ahead. Faze started to claw back, and pressure built up as Faze brough the game to a 5 round difference. A tactical timeout to collect their nerves, Cloud 9 snuck a victory to bring the finals to a third and final match.

Playing on Inferno, there was no motivation push from Cloud 9 nor Faze Clan, just a neck and neck race to 16 wins. With such a tight race, the game was pushed into overtime. Pulling back into overtime with 6 straight wins, Cloud 9 was up 3 games in overtime, giving them match point. Playing on the Counter Terrorist side, they were unable to pull the a round. Even with an extremely close clutch with Stewie2k, just missing a shot.

For the first time ever in a major competition, the final match was brought to a second overtime. Cloud 9 were able to get the game to a another match point, but with the bomb planted, and GuardiaN (Ladislav Kovács) guarding the plant, the round seemed lost. A quick shot from Skadoodle, however brought Cloud 9 enough time to defuse and win the Boston Major, 2-1.

The underdogs of this competition won, and are the first North American team to bring a major victory back to the U.S. and Canada. The players on both sides fought incredibly hard, and brought back games throughout the competition, but in the end the best team was chosen. Skadoodle was given the MVP award, saying that he hopes to have some rest but can assure fans that Cloud 9 will be back, winning more tournaments.