The ELEAGUE Boston major is coming to an end, where the expected finalists Faze Clan will clash head-to-head with the dark horses and hometown heroes, Cloud9. Faze Clan entered the playoffs with a smooth 3–0 while Cloud9 had to fight tooth and nail to avert elimination and reach the playoffs with a 3–2 scoreline. In the semi-finals, Faze Clan defeated Na’Vi in a crisp 2–0, in spite of some CZ shenanigans from ‘Zeus’ on Mirage. Cloud9 on the other hand, defeated ‘Fallen’s’ SK Gaming with 2 maps to 1, winning their 2 maps quite easily.

Before these matches were played, SK Gaming and ‘Golden’s’ Fnatic had to fight off each other in the 4th quarterfinal, which can easily be termed as the best match of the event so far. With a score line of 19:22, 16:14 and 16:12, SK Gaming pulled the game right from the palms of Fnatic to secure the semi-final spot and a match against Cloud9. There were multiple instances where the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was not happy, and I as a hard-core SK Gaming fan wants to present my views on them.

Two matches in a day for SK Gaming/ Fnatic

Source: twitter.com/Fallencs

Fun Fact: In the last three Majors, the team that has had to play in both a quarterfinal and semifinal on the same day, lost.

The playoffs for the major began on Friday 10 AM (Local Time), which saw Faze Clan, Na’Vi and Cloud 9 advancing to the semi-finals, where Faze Clan would face Na’Vi and Cloud9 would face the winner of the SK and Fnatic game. The biggest problem was, the winner of SK and Fnatic match would have to play two BO3 matches with only one match being played in between. Unfortunately for them, they had to play a match which not only consisted of 3 maps and a ton of technical issues but also took a toll on both teams mentally as they played a total of 99 rounds in the span of 5 hours. Fortunately and unfortunately, SK Gaming were the winners and they had to play Cloud9 as soon as the next match ended. Which means out of 3 straight BO3’s, SK Gaming had to play 2 while the other 3 semi-finalists get a day of rest and planning.

Source: twitter.com/Thooorin

My Take: First of all, a similar situation happened with Virtus Pro in the PGL Krakow Major where they defeated North in the quarter-finals by winning 2 maps consecutively but later on were defeated by Brazilian underdogs Immortals with a 2–0 scoreline. Secondly, Cloud9 played exceptionally, and in the end, it is not their problem that they were one of the three semi-finalists who received a day of rest. While two BO3’s take a toll on you, SK Gaming’s loss cannot be credited to this only. In the end, Cloud9 proved to be the better team and the scoreline proves it. But maybe organizers should think of the quality of the major and its toll on players rather than the cost of an extra day of the arena as in the end, teams that lose will always think that they could have won if they had only one match in the day.

Crowd Chants

There were certain instances where the crowd following SK Gaming were shouting certain tactics and positions to help SK Gaming. One such instance was when fans were shouting “Janela”, (which translates to window from Portuguese) when ‘Flusha’ was boosted in the window by ‘Golden’ in Mirage, the third map between Fnatic and SK Gaming. There were a lot of instances similar to this, where fans would shout together the position of rival players or the bombsite they were heading to.

A similar situation was seen in the quarterfinal between Faze Clan and Mousesports when ‘Olofmeister’ aimed at a spot where ‘Ropz’ was saving. The crowd started making noise and he shot through the wall to kill ‘Ropz’. Many such instances have been witnessed in many events, major or not. One such instance was ECS Season 3 Europe in May/June 2017, where Astralis player ‘Dupreeh’ tweeted against the crowd screaming the bomb site they were going to.

Source: twitter.com/dupreehCSGO

It is also seen that Swedish pistol master ‘Dennis’ also states that he can hear through noise-canceling headsets which takes the fun away from sneaky plays and 1v1 battles.

My take: It is impossible to control the crowd, period. People will shout and try to help their team no matter what. Be it a tier5 event or a major, these instances are as normal as headshots. The fact that players can listen and actually benefit from such noises is heavily debatable. Can these noises become an unfair advantage? Well yes, it can! Be it SK Gaming, Faze Clan or any other team, these calls can prove match altering and maybe even tournament altering. While SK Gaming may not have benefited from the shouts, they still were against the spirit of the game and should be looked upon in future events.

The curious case of the missing Sound Booths

Simply put, it is a major and majors should have Sound Booths. Even EPICENTER 2017 had booths, and it was not even a major! Sound Booths are necessary when you are expecting large amounts of crowds. When the stakes increase, the crowd will always get noisy, and along with them, the casters will feel the need to elevate their voice levels as well.

Source: EPICENTER 2017

My Take: We can debate whether or not SK Gaming benefited from chants, or ‘Olofmeister’ killed ‘Ropz’ because of the crowd, but they were put in that situation of the doubt due to the missing Sound Booths. When you are organizing an event that enables the transfer of millions of dollars all around, you should spend a buck on Sound Booths. It is as simple as that! There are some speculations that they are not present because of ‘Fire Hazards’ or ‘Dampening the Energy of a LAN Tournament’ and many other. BUT SOUND BOOTHS ARE NEEDED!!!!

ELEAGUE showing ‘Coldzera’s’ mother A LOT!

It was the quarterfinal between Fnatic and SK Gaming and it was as intense as it could be. Like many other events, the families of players in the server were in the crowd to support them. A familiar face, ‘Coldzera’s’ mother was also in the crowd. As she has become a familiar face for fans, ELEAGUE decided to show her on the big screen, which was followed by a huge applause from the crowd. It was taken as an appreciation by ELEAGUE and they decided to show her again. And Again. And Again. And you guessed it, AGAIN!

They started showing her mid-round, after every round and they even carved a special space for her on the main screen so they can show her while she is watching her son play. It was widely disapproved by fans around the world as it was unfair to Fnatic fans who were also present in the arena.

My Take: As a person who recognizes ‘Coldzera’s’ mother from a number of events, I was really pissed at the number of times she was shown on the screen. The number of times she was shown was more than the number of rounds VP has lost in the current major. It is good to show the support, but focusing on just one is converting the major into a soap opera. Fnatic fans were also present who were shouting at the top of their lungs and they deserved as much screen time as anyone else. The memes, the jokes, and the insults hurled at a player’s mother is ELEAGUE’s fault and only their fault. It is really sad that SK Gaming, who had no part in production received a lot of flak from the fans all around the world.

Source: GosuGamers

I understand that sometimes SK Gaming fans (Brazilian and others) become toxic, but it is not the fault of SK Gaming. All players of SK Gaming, including ‘Felps’ and ‘Boltz’, have a story to tell. “Fer’, ‘Fallen’, ‘Taco’ and ‘Coldzera’ have all come far from humble beginnings and have seen a lot in their early days. There is a reason why ‘Fallen’ is called the Godfather of Brazilian CS and he deserves the respect. I, as a simple SK Gaming fan for over 3 years, ask all of you to ignore the toxic fans and provide the Brazilian Masters the respect they deserve for being the #1 team in the world.