Teams can vary greatly depending on the map they play. Because of this, it is important for teams to develop a defined map pool and the ability to pick and ban maps. Some teams have a strong map pool and don’t need to focus very much on the veto, like Fnatic in 2015. Some teams develop a strong map pool in order to bully the competition into submission before the game even begins, like FaZe. Some teams are completely oblivious to the advantages gained through having a good map pool and understanding of the map veto process and pay the price for it. The depth and breadth of a team’s map pool, as well as their skill in determining maps based on different match-ups, has become a crucial facet of modern-day Counter-Strike. Due to the constraints that broadcasters are under, it isn’t always possible to provide in-depth analysis of map vetoes. Such was the case with this Major, which is why I have decided to do this analysis.

Below are a list of the games that have been covered in my analysis. I have selected most interesting vetoes from the ELEAGUE Boston Major Challengers Stage, but even after culling the number of games that I would cover, this article is quite lengthy. Skip to the match-ups that interest you most, or you might be reading this article for quite a while.

8-16 Fnatic v.s. FaZe

8-16 Cloud9 v.s. G2

16-5 Gambit v.s. Na’Vi

16-3 FaZe v.s. Vega Squadron

16-12 SK v.s. mousesports

6-16 Virtus.pro v.s. Fnatic

16-14 Astralis v.s. North

16-8 Fnatic v.s. Astralis

12-16 SK v.s. FaZe

7-16 Virtus.pro v.s. Cloud9

6-16 Astralis v.s. Cloud9

10-16 Gambit v.s. SK

7-16 Fnatic v.s. Na’Vi

4-16 Vega Squadron v.s. Cloud9

Fnatic opens with bans on Overpass and Nuke. Overpass is a map that Fnatic does not often play, and two out of the four occasions that Fnatic played Overpass v.s. FaZe were losses. Nuke is a Fnatic permaban. FaZe removes Cobblestone, a map they almost always ban if the other team won’t, but this is not entirely a crutch ban because Fnatic holds some expertise on the map. FaZe banned Inferno, a map that FaZe rose to dominance on, which makes the ban somewhat questionable in isolation. FaZe banned Train, which is one of Fnatic’s better maps and one that they closely beat Fnatic on a month earlier. This forces Fnatic into playing Mirage, a map that Fnatic is good on but FaZe is the best on, and Cache, a map Fnatic does not play often. Fnatic had no viable options based on how FaZe was going to play the veto.

Cloud9 opened up with a targeted ban on Cobblestone and a comfort/targeted ban on Nuke. G2 is good on both of the maps, and Cloud9 never plays Nuke. However, Cloud9 might have done better if they banned Cache instead of Cobblestone since they managed to beat G2 on the map not too long ago and are ranked third on Wallabeebeatle’s map rankings. G2 banned their permaban of Train. They banned Mirage, a very good map for themselves of late, but a map that is certainly Cloud9’s best. G2 ends the veto with a comfort ban of Overpass. Cache was the map played, and going into the map, both teams had good chances as they have similar styles and played the map a similar amount throughout the year. G2 was the slightly more favored team going into this game.

Na’Vi has been a very hot team on Inferno team at this Major, and Gambit takes it out of their hands right away. Overpass has treated Gambit fairly well over 2017, but based on current form, they decided to take that map out of Na’Vi’s hands too. Na’Vi permabans Cache. Na’Vi never plays Cobblestone, but Gambit hasn’t been playing the map either. Averaging out Gambit’s history and their current form compared to Na’Vi’s current form and history, Na’Vi’s ban makes perfect sense. Of the maps that Na’Vi does play, Mirage is the worst of them, and it is also a highly picked map for Gambit. Gambit rounded out the veto phase with a Train ban, taking the battle to Nuke. Gambit isn’t known to be a good Nuke team, but Na’Vi is known to be the worst Nuke team ever. Instead of banning Cobblestone or Mirage, Na’Vi should’ve kept up with their strategy of avoiding Nuke whenever possible. Gambit was heavily favored going into this game.

After losing to Vega Squadron a few days before, FaZe met them again on the second day of the Challengers Stage. The veto phase remained the same from the last match-up except, instead of letting Inferno through, which they lost to Vega on, FaZe let Train to go through. Train was a map that FaZe played eight times on LAN, winning five, in the past three months. Vega Squadron only played it three times on LAN and only versus lower-tier teams. It would seem as though karrigan had not adequately prepared for pick/ban versus Vega in the Contender’s Stage, but one can hardly fault karrigan as FaZe was expected to run over Vega, a team with a similar style but inferior players. Learning from their mistake, karrigan was able to win the veto during their second encounter at the Major.

Cobblestone is a map Vega Squadron permaban. Cache, while a map that they play, is a map with a very low win rate for Vega and a very high win rate for FaZe, making sense on why they would avoid it. FaZe went with the standard Nuke ban. Inferno was removed due to the history of their last match-up. Mirage was removed because Vega plays it frequently and has a positive win rate. karrigan could have attempted to play to his strengths here and let the map go to Mirage, but FaZe has a deep enough map pool and a sour taste in their mouth after their loss to Vega Squadron that they chose to avoid it. Vega bans Overpass, a very good map for FaZe, and the map goes to Train, leaving Vega little hope to win.

SK banned their permaban, Nuke, which also happens to be a map their opponent is the best in the world on. SK banned Inferno. That was not a good decision because mousesports lost three out of three times on the map in the past three months on LAN, and they have a three to eight record on the map for 2017. mousesports banned Overpass, their permaban. Both Cache and Cobblestone are maps that mousesports likes to avoid whenever possible as well. SK banned Train, leaving Mirage to be played. Train is a slightly better map for mousesports than Mirage, making SK’s Train ban the most logical choice; that combined with SK’s greater levels of comfort and experience on Mirage in the past three months make it the best choice available.

Fnatic opened with their permaban of Nuke versus formerly one of the best Nuke teams in the world in Virtus.pro. Fnatic also banned Cobblestone first rotation, which VP is a bit better on than Fnatic. Virtus.pro banned Overpass, Cache, and Mirage. Overpass and Mirage make sense as bans because Virtus.pro doesn’t play them/is worse than Fnatic on them. The Cache ban makes zero sense because it is one of Virtus.pro’s best maps and one of Fnatic’s worst. Instead, Virtus.pro should have banned Overpass, Mirage, and Train, leaving Fnatic to choose between Inferno and Cache. The result would likely have been the same, but Virtus.pro should be lunging for every inch they can take in the pick/ban. Cache and Inferno are similarly good maps for Virtus.pro, the only difference is in how good Fnatic is on them, and in both cases, Virtus.pro is the better team. Even though VP could have done more in the veto, they nonetheless won the veto and lost the game based primarily on their performance on the server.

North vetoed Cache, their permaban, and target banned Astralis’ best map in Overpass. Astralis banned Mirage, which hasn’t been one of Astralis’ best maps and historically has been a good map for North but is no longer. Astralis banned Cobblestone, a map they’ve never liked playing. Astralis’ last ban was spent on Inferno, a map North hasn’t won on since September, and is a map that Astralis has their highest LAN win rate on. North was forced to ban Nuke because of Astralis’ record on the map, so Astralis could figure that it was going to go down to Inferno or Train. Astralis would have been more greatly favored if they had banned Train and let it go to Inferno instead.

In their first rotation, Astralis banned Cobblestone, their permaban, and Inferno, a map they evidently have been trending away from based on their veto with North. Fnatic banned Nuke, a permaban. Fnatic also banned Overpass and Train out of respect for Astralis’ talents on those maps. This left Astralis to choose whether they wanted to play Cache, a map they are not fond of but also a map that Fnatic hasn’t won on LAN for a year, or Mirage, a weak map for Astralis but one of Fnatic’s best maps. Banning Cache instead of Mirage was an obvious mistake, but before it had gotten to that point, Astralis had made another mistake in their veto.

Unless Astralis has secretly realized Inferno has gotten too hot for them, I would say that their avoidance of the map has been one of the reasons why they’ve had problems this Major. Maybe, this change in heart is because of Astralis’ change in roles. But whatever their reason for seemingly avoiding Inferno, it has negatively affected them in the veto.

SK opened with their permaban, Nuke. For their second ban, SK took away one of FaZe’s strengths in Inferno. FaZe banned their near permaban of Cobblestone. They banned Overpass after having been smashed on the map twice by SK and once by Astralis in the past three months. Notwithstanding their otherwise dominant streak on Overpass, FaZe didn’t feel they were ready to make another attempt at reasserting themselves as the best Overpass team. Instead of banning Train, a map that FaZe had lost five out of six times versus SK in 2017, they banned their best map, Mirage. SK is no slouch on Mirage, but they’ve lost to FaZe two out of five times on the map in 2017 compared to the one out of six times on Mirage. Unless karrigan was worried about anti-stratting, I would’ve gone for a Train ban rather than leaving the choice between Train and Cache to SK. SK’s record on Cache is misleading since they’ve only won once versus a tier 1 Cache team. Train would have been a better pick for SK both in terms of material available for anti-stratting and SK’s ability on the map. It was a close game, but SK would have been better suited in picking Train. For that reason, FaZe should have left Mirage in the pool rather than banning Train. This veto was like FaZe exposing a chink in their armor but SK failed to seize upon the opportunity.

Virtus.pro immediately banned their permaban, Overpass, despite Cloud9 not being fans of the map either. VP subsequently banned Inferno. Both of these bans are questionable but the second is particularly so. Wallabeebeatle had ranked Virtus.pro as the second best Inferno team going into the Major after getting wins versus Gambit, FaZe, G2, and Renegades. Cloud9, while certainly not a bad Inferno team, is no FaZe on the map. Cloud9 banned Nuke, a map that VP has been willing and able to play. Cloud9 then banned Cobble, a mistake since they are one of the better teams on the map. Cloud9, although competent on the map, made a respect ban of Cache as it is VP’s best map. VP banned Train, a map that has not been good to them at all, leaving Mirage as the map to be played. C9 was a major favorite going into the game, not only on account of VP’s form but the result of the veto phase.

Cloud9 banned Nuke, a map they don’t ever play. Cloud9 respect banned Inferno. Astralis target banned Cobblestone and Mirage. Astralis banned Cache, a map they are only occasionally willing to play. C9 banned Overpass, a weak map for themselves but a map that Astralis has innovated and continually fought to be number one on. The remaining map was Train, which has not been a bad map for Cloud9, but based on the veto and level of the two teams, one would predict Astralis to come out on top.

SK is a substantially better team on Mirage and Cache, hence why Gambit banned both of them. SK permabans Nuke. Of the maps that SK does play, Inferno is among their worst and among Gambit’s best, as is Train. An observer who hasn’t paid much attention to CS or Gambit’s vetoes may be confused on why SK would leave up Gambitstone and that Gambit had banned it. Times have changed and Cobble has not been one of Gambit’s preferred maps for many months. SK avoided Train because it is Gambit’s best map right now, leaving Overpass and Cobble. Among the two, Gambit chose Overpass and banned Cobble. Gambit did the best that they could in the veto, but Gambit still had an uphill battle to fight on Overpass, which they lost.

Na’Vi banned their permaban, Cache, and also banned Mirage, a map they hardly ever play. Fnatic follows suit and bans their permaban, Nuke, and Overpass, one of their weakest maps. They target ban Train, and Na’Vi target bans Cobblestone. Both teams have a similar record on the map, but Na’Vi has become the BIG of the Boston Major based on their dependence and specialization in the map. Fnatic should’ve been able to pick up on Na’Vi’s tendencies that late into the Challenger’s Stage, and rather than banning Nuke, ban Inferno and leave Na’Vi to make the tough choice of playing both of their permabans, Nuke, or Cobblestone, a map that Fnatic likes but Na’Vi does not.

Vega immediately banned their permaban, Cobblestone. They banned Train, which is a map they are quite shaky on. Cloud9 banned Nuke, permaban, Inferno, a respect ban given Vega’s domination of FaZe in the Challengers Stage, and Overpass, another respect ban. Cache was banned by Vega, and instead of brawling with C9 on a map they were both had a ~50% record on, Vega Squadron opted to take the North Americans head on, on their home map. A choice between C9’s home map and a map that both teams were weak on may sound like a bad idea, but Vega Squadron’s win rate is somewhat deceiving as their losses were to weaker teams than were Cloud9’s, possibly indicating that Vega was much more uncertain than Cloud9 on Cache. Cloud9 was the favored team going into the match-up no matter what johnny-come-lately Vega Squadron hypemen would tell you. Vega Squadron’s win versus FaZe was facilitated, in part, due to their map pool, and in this match-up Vega Squadron does not have the necessary expertise on certain maps needed to beat Cloud9 in a Bo1.

Image Credit: ELEAGUE