In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the Major is everything. There are other big tournaments, with their own prestige and their own history. But Majors are in a class of their own. The prize pool and the bragging rights stand apart. And, until January, North America had yet to win a single one.
"Like this is the joke we had all weekend long where it's like a Kazakhstani team won the Major. Where you at now NA." "What up now NA WOO!" "Kazakhstan you know, ehh ehh. North America. What is going on here." At the 11 prior official Valve Majors, only six NA teams had made it out of the main group stage. Only one had reached the grand final — Team Liquid, whose roster was majority American but anchored by Ukrainian superstar Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev. That team made an incredible run at Cologne in 2016, but it ended when they fell to Brazilian powerhouse SK Gaming boku casinos Canada . The constant NA heartbreak had to have a source, but it was difficult to pinpoint what exactly what that might be "And so, the talent is there in the United States. what's always been the hold up it seems is the buyouts, how expensive it is, how expensive it would be. and so or you just kind of have to cheat a little bit and go full liquid and get one of the best European players out there and maybe use him as a standin." Given North America’s history at the Majors, fans were less than hopeful that the streak would be broken in Boston. But the region’s the best bet was Cloud9. The team had gone through changes in August 2017, with n0thing and Shroud leaving the roster, which seemed to highlight internal strife. "Kind of couple weeks before it ended, I kind of felt there was definitely internal conflict in the team. Things like that are bound to happen you have different age levels, different maturity levels. Stuff like that is just bound to come up. No point into getting team stuff I believe that stays in the team." "There is always kind of a barrier right, and this is the unwritten rule when it comes to players is whatever is happening in the team, you don't talk about it with anyone. It's like mob families. Whatever's happening in the family, that's family business and you are not hearing about it. right you're not talking about that to anybody else." "It's not much to talk about really, two weeks ago or something I messaged Jack and I was like "Hey." Jack's the owner of C9 by the way I was like "Hey. I kind of want to step down. I would love to be your guys' backup, I wanna see where full time stream takes me." And he was super supportive he was like "Let's do it. Let's make it happen." Let the record state. That I asked to see myself out." Replacing them were Tarik and RUSH, who had recently completed a stint with OpTic Gaming that included several high-profile victories. "NA it's kinda of dire I don't really have all that much faith in this new Cloud9 because it seems like they're still playing hot potato with the ingame leader role." The move may not have inspired confidence initially, but public opinion eventually began to turn. And the team started putting up promising results at the perfect time: the months preceding the Boston Major, set for January 2018. The strength of those results even led several analysts to rank them among the Major’s Top 5 teams. Because the roster still included three players who had helped the team achieve a 9th-11th finish at the previous major in Krakow, they were automatically qualified for the Boston Major’s “New Challengers” stage. It used a Swiss format, and C9 quickly put up wins against Envy, Sprout and Mouseports to earn their spot in the New Legends stage. Fans held their breath. Though the team had another swiss group stage to make it through, it was an encouraging performance so far. But things immediately got worse. (Casting) Down 0-2, Cloud9 looked like they would continue NA’s Major legacy by bombing out. "Yeah that first half it seems some of the problems I left them with when I was off the team, is still there. I don't know, even watching the last round there. I stood behind the players as I got ready to come on the desk and it just seemed like they were kind of upset, they're probably gonna do an interview and say they felt like they should have won because some of the rounds. Like the very last round they lost Tarik there's a miscom, Rush was supposed to peek A hall or something and Tarik said wait I thought thought you were holding the push. So I don't know if they started getting in their own heads a little bit." But for some members of C9, like Stewie2k, being 0-2 changed something. "Uhm I think after the Space Soldiers game it was a big wake up call for me. Like I said I think it kind of lit the fuel for me. That's where the fire started happening.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |