Is Cloud9 vs. FaZe Clan Still The Biggest Upset In CS:GO Major History

The ELeague Boston 2018 Major went down as a great major final and upset, but some argue it wasn’t the best at either. CS:GO’s long history has provided for many memorable finals, and despite stiff competition, the C9 upset over the FaZe juggernaut reigns King as the greatest major upset all time. 

FaZe Clan Were Favorites until Cloud9 Proved Otherwise 

Eleague Major 2018 was FaZe Clan’s best chance to finally win a major. The European superteam were blessed with an easy side of the championship bracket while Cloud9 had to battle against G2 and SK Gaming. 

FaZe Clan dropped one map prior to the grand final the entire major while Cloud9 battled through the New Legends stage just to get to the top eight. Cloud9’s reverse sweep in the finals would shatter FaZe’s confidence and the superteam never looked the same way since, but it was a poisoned chalice that also led to a two-year rebuild that is still ongoing. 

FaZe Clan were favorites due to their head to head matchup results against Cloud9, the map pool in the grand finals, their raw skill advantage, and because they had a more veteran lineup that featured a prior major winner (Olofmeister). So how did Cloud9 prove they were ready and able to win a major trophy and how can you pick up on that? 

Image Credit: Daily Esports

For starters, Cloud9 made a major statement in how they came back in the New legends stage. After cruising through the New Challengers Stage 3-0, Cloud9 were a top seed and favorite to advance through the next stage. The snag came when they were stomped by G2 round 1 and lost a heartbreaker to Space Soldiers round 2 which put the North American darlings in panic mode. 

Panic mode did wonders for the team as they were able to rally back with wins against Virtus.Pro, Astralis and Vega Squadron to secure the last ticket out of the station. Cloud9 avoided drawing extremely unfavorable matchups and played really well to secure a berth to the next stage. 

Watching Cloud9, they were clearly a different team than the one that lost to G2 on Cache in the previous round, and they were a team that had a lot to prove on home soil. With the wind at their backs and a lot of warmup, they came into the G2 rematch guns blazing and 2-0d the French superteam.

Cloud9’s followup against SK Gaming in the semifinals was a great series, but SK Gaming were forced to play a marathon series against Fnatic in the quarterfinals the same day which was sure to have caused the Brazilians some fatigue. 

FaZe Clan’s biggest benefit (number one seed and an easy side of the bracket) was also their downfall as they were never truly challenged in the playoffs until the grand final. Sure Mouz pushed FaZe to OT on Nuke, but they were never a threat to win the series. Na’Vi failed to reach a double-digit round count on either map due to a severe disparity in firepower. 

FaZe meandered through the bracket while Cloud9 came into the matchup battle-tested and ready to fight. The grand final saw both teams pick three maps that were good for either side, but FaZe were heavily favored due to their overwhelming dominance that year on Overpass. 

Generally when a team wins an upset it is because they are extremely good on a certain set of maps (Gambit on Cobblestone/Train/Nuke during their Major win season) but Cloud9 actually lost their best map (Mirage) after having a first half lead. Cloud9 fan’s hearts collectively dropped when C9 blew a 9-6 lead to lose 14-16 because it was their best chance to advance to the more neutral Inferno. 

What separates Cloud9’s upset from others is their ability to bounce back due to individuals overperforming (Skadoodle and Tarik) in clutch situations to bring home the bacon. Overpass had FaZe heavily favored to 2-0, but big performances from Cloud9 early meant a 16-10 scoreline and a game three. 

Cloud9’s other big advantage came from being the massive arena favorites. Yes, the headphones are supposed to be noise cancelling, but they were not in booths which meant that crowd noise is able to play a factor. While fans were respectful in not calling out certain players’ positions, they were able to motivate the young C9 core and it clearly had an effect on fan favorites Tarik and Stewie2k. 

Inferno was the ultimate back and forth that everyone remembers, and is what caused Eleague to have over 1 million peak viewers on Twitch. Both were really good teams on Inferno, but it came down to Cloud9 having better individual performances in the clutch that won them overtime. FaZe Clan possessed insanely good aimers, but Cloud9’s chemistry reigned supreme as they were able to take advantage of broken rounds. 

Cloud9 were hard to predict as major champs but not impossible because the signs for a NA team to break the curse were there from the onset. A mix of perseverance, having a friendly home crowd and good chemistry were the ultimate difference in the greatest upset of CS:GO history. 

Astralis and Virtus.Pro are Good Examples of Two Different Kind of Champions

Cloud9 were the best-upset story, but every major is not the result of a good upset. In fact, some majors are (unfortunately) quite boring because the championship bracket is too predictable. When Virtus.Pro won their only major at EMS One Katowice 2014 the scene was much more defined between heavyweights and the rest of the field. 

Virtus.Pro went 2-0 in their group and proceeded to drop one map in the playoffs to LGB while keeping NiP in check in the grand finals. The “golden five” of Virtus.Pro would go on to stay relevant in CS:GO until 2018. 

When Astralis beat Virtus.Pro, they faced much stiffer competition in their major run in Atlanta, Georgia. Astralis nearly missed out on the playoffs after going 3-2 in the group stage with losses to GODSENT and SK Gaming. Astralis had a memorable three game set with Na’Vi to start the playoffs followed by a tight 2-0 over Fnatic in the semifinals. 

Astralis’ iconic three game set against VP was followed by a really great all around playoff set that hasn’t always happened in majors. Astralis beating VP really opened doors in the future to allow other teams the opportunity to try and challenge for the throne. 

Photo Credit: StarLadder

Since 2017 we have seen teams such as Team Liquid, Na’Vi and ENCE be highly favored underdogs that were unable to seal the deal, but we also saw Gambit and Cloud9 win majors against all odds.

Astralis established an era in a highly competitive era with multiple teams considered true title contenders while Virtus.Pro were clear favorites with one or two other team that were bubble contenders at best.

Predicting CS:GO Majors Requires Faith 

CS:GO majors are never the same and require a certain level of “faith” in picking a potential champion. Picking upsets like Cloud9, Gambit and Envy require you to have a deeper reason to predict them to win over the heavy favorites. 

The past five majors have gone as follow: Astralis, Astralis, Astralis, Cloud9 and Gambit. Looking at that in isolation it would seem that Astralis was the clear favorite 3/5 of those majors, but on closer inspection it is a little more messy than that. 

In the Gambit win they defeated Astralis 2-1 in the semifinals due to having an overlapping map pool and because they were playing some really good Counter Strike at the time. Cloud9’s major Astralis were favorites going into the event, but they didn’t even make the top eight. 

Astralis were favorited as finalists in the past three, but were only clear cut favorites for one of them. Team Liquid were popular favorites for the Berlin and Katowice majors and Berlin saw the rise of ENCE and NRG as sneaky title contenders. 

Team Liquid had an era leading up to the Berlin Major, but if you looked at their major history you would have major doubts/concerns because they had shown prior history of choking in big moments. Doing your research is so key to being successful at predicting major champions because every champion has a reason why they are successful.



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