Change is the only Constant

This saying is true in all walks of life and Counter-Strike is no exception. Eleague Boston Major 2018 has proved the saying true as we saw a few CS GO Legends bow out of the first Major in 2018.

The New Legends stage saw sixteen teams in participation and only eight would qualify for the main stage. Being a Legend in Counter-Strike brings a lot of respect and a guaranteed spot at the next Major Legends stage. For a team, it means more sponsors, respect amongst peers, possible higher salary etc.

The CS GO Majors are held almost six months apart. The concept of having a Legends status is to provide the best teams a spot at the Major. But with six months gap in between the Majors, the teams see a lot of changes. This might be via roster changes, Organisation or just their current form during the Major.

The Legends were absent

The Legends were absent from the Major. While they did attend the Major, we did not see the teams have any sort of impact in their matches. There were seven legends from the previous Major.

PGL Krakow Legends:

Gambit

Astralis

Virtus Pro

Fnatic

SK Gaming

BIG

North

The PGL Krakow finalists in Team Immortals faced roster issues followed by Visa issues. So they had to forfeit their appearance at the Major despite being a Legend for Eleague Boston.

Virtus Pro and Astralis are two of the famous teams in the Legends status from last year. But they were hardly able to make a big impact in the Legends part of the tournament. Both the teams had a minimal impact hardly winning a few rounds in some matches. The teams have some of the best players in Counter-Strike, but their poor current form has impacted their performance.

Virtus Pro

Virtus Pro won a total of sixteen rounds in three maps. The Polish roster has been on the decline for quite some time. It was not a big shock to see them being unable to make it to the Main stage, however, the manner in which they lost some of these matches were truly shocking.

The longest-running lineup in Counter-Strike Global Offensive history has stuck together for a long time. They believe that poor form does not warrant a roster change, although we might see that theory being put to test post this Major.

They faced off against QBF, Fnatic and Cloud9. These three teams eventually went on to become Legends for this year, but Virtus Pro were very poor in their teamwork and coordination on these maps. While we saw attempts at individual plays from the Polish team, they were simply not enough to propel Virtus Pro to the next stage

Astralis

Astralis had a somewhat better performance than Virtus Pro. Before we speak about Astralis, we should mention that they were without Device for much of the last few weeks Device’s hospitalization might have been one of the reasons for their poor performance.

However, Astralis have been practising with Device from December 25th. They did make some changes to the way their roster composition works, with Dupreeh playing the AWP instead of Device. This definitely had an impact on their performance.

The difference was evident as the only map where we saw Device have any impact was against Cloud9 on Train. The remaining three maps, including the win against North Device was way below on the scoreboard. Astralis lost matches with score lines of 16-2, 16-6. These scorelines just indicate how clueless the Astralis players were on certain maps. Their performance on Train and Cache saw them being constantly outplayed by their opponents. Without getting the picks that Device would constantly provide them with his AWP, they were at a big disadvantage.

We did not really expect much of BIG, Gambit and North during this Major. Rightfully so, they did not qualify for the Champions stage losing out to some of the newer teams in the event.

A Legend in every CS GO Major

The only team to be a Legend in every CS GO Major – Fnatic, secured their spot this year as well. The Swedish roster won their Round 5 match against Gambit in a dominating fashion, 16-2.

The Fnatic lineup has some of the greatest names in CS GO history. The roster which evoked words like unbeatable, hackers, arrogant has been the only team to finish in the Top eight of every major.

The current roster for Fnatic is:

Krimz

JW

Flusha

Golden

Lekro

Fnatic will face off against SK Gaming in their quarterfinal match on 27th January at 10 EST.

Return of Na’Vi

Na’Vi has been a team constantly near the top in Counter-Strike. With well-known veterans on the roster, Na’Vi has been a consistent presence in the CS GO Majors. They were eliminated in the Group stage of the previous major, which meant that they lost their Legends status. To be fair, their performance prior to this major was not encouraging at all. However, the team managed to put together a good performance when it mattered. They won against BIG, Liquid, and Fnatic to secure their Legends status in the Round 4 matches itself.



Na’Vi has a lot of potential, but it also depends on a lot on how they play around their roster. With the team unable to even make it to the Top 10 of HLTV rankings, we still see Simple showing up big time regularly in their matches. He was instrumental in NaVi’s performance during Eleague Boston Legends stage.

This major will be the 9th appearance for Na’Vi as a Legend. We don’t expect them to be able to put up strong performances in the Quarterfinals, but being a Legend itself should be an achievement for the team. They face off against Quantum Bellator fire in the Quarterfinals.

Quantum Bellator Fire

I can’t realize that we are legends, for me it was a difficult way. We came from open quals which i played in a computer club because internet in my house was not playable. For 2 weeks every day i was driving to the club early and went home in midnight. Thanks my team for support — Gregory Oleinick (@balblna) January 23, 2018

Any review of the Eleague Boston Major cannot be complete without a mention of the Quantum Bellator Fire team. The CIS team is still in ESEA Main, a low level in the ladder to professional. But their matchups and their performance on individual days meant that they are now a Legend at the Majors.

Quantum Bellator were not even performing well prior to the Major. Their run at the major can only be called a fluke. A month before the actual Major matches, QBF were losing to unknown local teams.

The team was playing from Internet Cafes in preparation for the Major. Their qualification process, as well as several of their online tournament matches, have been played from the local LAN cafes. The team, despite all this, managed a run at the Major which saw them secure a spot as a Major Legend.

Even in their last match, they were able to mount an amazing comeback against Mouz. They were down 2-13 and despite the drastic difference had a splendid T side to win the match.

With the team facing off against Na’Vi in their quarterfinal match, they have a chance to secure a path to the Major semifinals.

The Best teams will not reach the semifinals.

The Best teams from amongst the remaining eight will not reach the semifinals. The draws for the Quarterfinals are announced.

Quarter Final Draw:

Two of the strongest teams in the Major have been matched up against each other. Mousesports and Faze will battle each other out in the repeat of the ECS S4 LAN Finals. The LAN Finals saw a very close match between the two teams saw the series go into the last round on the third map.

But we also have two relatively weak teams in Natus Vincere and Quantum Bellator Fire competing in a CIS rumble. The winner of this match will be matched up against either Mouz / Faze. While Quantum have had a decent run till now, they are in no ways a tough opponent for either Mouz / Faze in a Best of three matchup. The same can be said about NaVi, whose form leaves a lot to be desired right now.

This seeding is definitely not optimal. We would have liked to see Mousesports either match up against NaVi or Quantum Bellator Fire, which would provide an optimal bracket. The Quarterfinals start on the 26th of January at 10 EST. You can watch the Majors live on Twitch.

P.S. 100 Thieves did not attend the major due to visa issues. Fnatic and SK were the only two Legends to retain their status.