The Boston Major’s Russian Cinderella Story

If you work as a caster on the Russian stream and you know they’re gonna be good; come out, write up a twitlonger or publish it on cybersport or whatever and outline why these teams are going to be so good. Outline what is it, that these ignorant Westerners don’t understand … Do all of that so that when they all get their shit pushed in you can all fuck off forever. Blyat.

- Thorin about Vega Squadron and CIS teams, By the Numbers # 17

And who could disagree? The sharks had met their match, again and again and again. Vega had a handful of games won versus teams that a more forgiving man than I would call tier two across the majority of the latter half of 2017. Getting thrown into the new challenger’s stage after being rocked out of the Krakow major as a 0–3 loss made Vega sit very comfortably in the 0–3 slot of many pick-em’s.

But as the Aussies would soon find out, Vega picked up the CT side of Mirage and blew their doors open in a 10–5 beginning to the half. A swift forcebuy victory from Renegades was able to jettison them back into the game as they managed to get themselves onto a 12–9 scoreline, having reset Vega’s money and putting themselves in a spot where they could very well take control. It wasn’t enough. Money and hearts broken after a subsequent round loss, Renegades went out in regulation time regardless of their struggle to get back to a 15–14 deficit.

The analysts wrote it off as Renegades making mistakes, Vega making some unexpected plays and Renegades not achieving a peak we saw in the past. But the sharks had smelt blood in the water.

Up next, we saw the Swiss system dish out a serving of cruelty. The favorites to win the entire major awaited them. Faze Clan.

Perhaps the only cheerleader that Vega found was in the form of one balding trickster who seemed to have thrown his prediction in the hat for the sake of a quick joke at his own expense. Even his pom poms drooped once the map was determined to be inferno, a map where Faze had set up camp as the best team in the world — one which even SK could seldom match them on.

Not even Moses knew what was truly in store for him

But the next map had YouTube content creators and analysts drop their business like hot cakes and flock to the demo screens; the race was on. A single score illuminating the Reddit threads: 16–6 for Vega Squadron. Perfectly timed grenades, basics polished to perfection, timings down to the second, Vega Squadron hadn’t just rolled over Faze — they did it in a manner which gave hope to the believers.

A fickle hope, it turned out to be. After Faze came G2, another team who would leave few combative faces in a crowd should the claim of their candidacy as potential champions be made. And a 12–1 start on the terrorist side of overpass was enough for many to turn their streams off to afford them the dignity of a private death.

But then, from the ashes of their flames came the embers of rebirth. Chopper and jR taking the reigns, fighting tooth and nail was enough to back the French into a corner in an overtime situation. But that was where experience persevered, and G2 took the victory away 19–16; but not before Vega could flex their muscles and add a few grey hairs to the heads of G2.

Finally, it was time to face off a Team Liquid in Mirage running hotter than one would expect with the forced addition of Zews. Despite Chopper having a lights out performance to take them up 4–2, Nitro had come to play. Money unstable, Vega were caught with their pants down and their wallets out, and it wasn’t until the tenth round where Liquid had already climbed up to 5 when finally they got their hands on a set of guns.

Three versus three, Nitro on the B site with an AWP to his name and money on his mind. But a door was left open for Vega to creep back into once Liquid broke the bank to purchase a double AWP versus the force buy coming through from Vega. With the round lost and money in the bin for Liquid, Vega regained control of the game and took it to a 9–6 for themselves before switching to the CT side.

And here came the tragedy of jR on the back of Nitro who was ready to transcend to godhood. Missing shots with his AWP that he had no business missing, Vega were only able to get two rounds to Liquid’s six — bringing them back to an 11–12 scoreline before jR finally netted himself a handful of kills to bring it down to a three versus two with Elige and JDM having planted the bomb. A quick exchange of kills left Mir in a 1v1 vs an Elige who — out of ammo — jumped behind a smoke into A ramp, forcing Mir to give chase. But their will was shattered, as once again Elige turned around with a smirk on his face to shoot him down with his glock.

Elige after resetting Vega’s economy

Vega Squadron, though, were not ones to crack. Chopper, truly the MVP of the game, with only a CZ in his hands was able to intercept Liquid’s quick push up catwalk with a flurry of bullets. Vega Squadron was back in the game. 13–12 with money in their pockets and the equalizer soon to follow. Despite letting Liquid reset them immediately after, Vega kept it competitive by leaving only one player alive on Liquid and with the money left in the bank from the eco victory were able to afford one last hurrah.

Nitro cooling down and only having gotten one kill in the past few rounds left Liquid in a position where they were feeling nervous at best. jR with the AWP posted himself up on ticketbooth to draw the attention towards him with a quick headshot down into the connector. The rest was history as Keshandr quickly revealed himself from the window to pincer Liquid into a 14–14 with no money to speak of. Vega Squadron was finally able to wipe the sweat from their brows as the last two rounds were mopped up — leaving Chopper with 35 kills in regulation time.

Now, with wins over some of the best teams in the world across three different maps with a fourth that they are known to play which has consistently been banned against them (Train), Vega are the definition of a great underdog story. The question hanging in the air is, will they be able to continue this at the next stage? Or have they met their match?

Regardless, Vega have outperformed most expectations, and left one bald old man very, very happy.