ELEAGUE Major Boston: 5 things we learned from the Major

The ELEAGUE Major Boston is in the history books (and one for the history books!) so what can Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fans take away from it?

The ELEAGUE Major Boston concluded Sunday night with another historic moment in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive‘s legacy. Cloud9 captured their first Major championship in front of the home crowd at Agganis Arena, in their first-ever trip to the Grand Final.

From this huge moment for North American Counter-Strike to some less successful gameplay in the inaugural ELEAGUE Pro-Am Challenge, there were a lot of things to take away from the first Major of 2018.

From the good to the bad to the completely hilarious, Sunday gave us a fantastic start to this year in CS:GO and we’re going to break it all down for you in one package.

Here’s what we learned from ELEAGUE Major Boston:

1) Cloud9 are the North American hope

Cloud9 shocked everyone when they edged out FaZe Clan in double overtime to win the Major. It was the uphill battle to end all uphill battles: facing the international superteam, never having even played in a Grand Final before, and after being on the brink of elimination last weekend. It couldn’t possibly happen, right?

Wrong.

Kudos to Cloud9 for earning their first Major championship against seemingly all odds. Having them hoist that trophy was a fantastic moment. But of course, that prompts the question: are they the North American contenders we’ve been waiting for? After so many years of NA CS:GO lagging behind European CS:GO, is this the team?

We don’t want to get our hopes up too much — remember when OpTic Gaming (including Cloud9’s Tarik and RUSH) — won ELEAGUE season 2 and then collapsed afterward? But based on what we saw in Boston, if Cloud9 can find a little more consistency, they could be earning another trophy or two in 2018 … and beyond.

2) FaZe Clan are down but not out

Not to take anything away from Cloud9’s performance, but let’s not diminish the efforts of FaZe Clan even though they came up just short of the trophy. The most expensive lineup in Counter-Strike is also one of the most talented, and they’re going to get a Major title someday. Just not this one.

FaZe Clan came into the ELEAGUE Boston Major as favorites. They were expected to make the Grand Final. They’re expected to make the final in every tournament. So it looks like they took a pretty big fall here, but let’s put the loss in perspective and remember that they were one round away from closing this event out on Sunday.

That, too, is also what makes this loss more frustrating. They were up 15-11 and Cloud9 were able to not only win four straight rounds but take them to 2OT. FaZe were surprisingly unable to adapt to what Cloud9 was throwing at them and need to take a hard look at their end-of-game calls going forward. But they’ll be back and still be terrifying.

3) Janko Paunovic is a gangster

It’s no secret that Janko “YNk” Paunovic is the best tactical analyst on the CS:GO scene. Check out our interview with him to see how much insight he brings to every round and every match. But on Sunday, YNk also reminded Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fans that he’s still not to be messed with on the server.

For those who may not know, Janko is a former professional player and his skills remain sharp as heck. Literally, as he took a knife to the back of fellow analyst (and fellow ex-pro) Jason “Moses” O’Toole during the Pro-Am Challenge. And Moses is no slouch either, so this is something to be very proud of.

Watch the sheer savagery of YNk (plus, the awesome call by regular ELEAGUE desk host Richard Lewis and Henry “HenryG” Greer) below. Whether on the analyst desk or in a showmatch, Janko Paunovic is our #1 pick.

4) Sean Gares needs more analyst gigs

While we don’t want to see him hang up his headset just yet, whenever Sean Gares decides to move to a desk job, someone needs to offer this man an analyst gig immediately. The in-game leader of Misfits joined the ELEAGUE crew during The New Legends, and he was a phenomenal addition to the team.

Sean brought every ounce of his IGL’ing knowledge to analyzing games, and the combination of him paired with YNK’s tactical knowledge made for one of the most insightful desks that we’ve ever seen in competitive CS:GO. It was incredibly informative, without being so technical that a casual fan couldn’t understand the wealth of knowledge being imparted.

And from an entertainment standpoint, Sean was a natural fit for the desk as well, with plenty of charisma and even some rapier wit when he burned James Bardolph. He should keep playing as long as he wants to, but he also deserves someone keeping an analyst chair warm.

Plus, how fitting was it that the former leader of Cloud9 was on hand to watch Cloud9 win their first Major?

5) ELEAGUE needs more TBS

The ELEAGUE Major Boston Grand Final was the first ELEAGUE final not to be shown on TBS, and we wish it had been. Especially with a North American team in the final (and then winning it), that would have been great to have on TV, exposed to a nationwide audience.

But TV broadcasts on TBS have always been such a part of the ELEAGUE experience. Remember the first ELEAGUE Major last year? Even though it aired early in the morning for West Coast fans, the battle between Astralis and Virtus.pro was three hours of edge of your seat entertainment, so perfectly produced by Turner Sports that to this day it stands up as some of the best CS:GO ever. This could have been another of those events.

There will be some Counter-Strike on TBS, as the network will air its “Road to the Boston Major” docu-series starting Friday, Feb. 9 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. But let’s hope the ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier finds its way back to TBS, because we need more cool things like this on TV:

Next: Sean Gares discusses ELEAGUE Major Boston

Congratulations to Cloud9 for winning ELEAGUE Major Boston! For more ELEAGUE and Counter-Strike coverage, follow the Gaming category at FanSided.