ELEAGUE Major 2017

ELEAGUE Major 2017

2017
The ELEAGUE Major 2017 logo
Tournament information
Sport	Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Location	Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Dates	January 22, 2017–January 29, 2017
Administrator(s)	Valve ELEAGUE
Tournament format(s)	16 team swiss-system group stage 8 team single-elimination playoff
Venue	Fox Theatre
Teams	16 teams
Purse	$1,000,000 USD
Final positions
Champions	Astralis
1st runners-up	Virtus.pro
2nd runners-up	SK Gaming Fnatic
MVP	Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye
← Cologne 2016 Kraków 2017 →

ELEAGUE Major: Atlanta 2017, also known as ELEAGUE Major 2017 or Atlanta 2017, was the tenth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship. It was organized by ELEAGUE and held in Atlanta, Georgia, United States from January 22 to 29, 2017. It featured sixteen professional teams from around the world. Eight teams directly qualified based on their top eight placement in the last major, ESL One Cologne 2016, while another eight teams qualified through the ELEAGUE Offline Major Qualifier. ELEAGUE Major was the third consecutive Major with a prize pool of $1,000,000.^[1]

The playoff stage consisted of eight teams. Astralis, Fnatic, Gambit Gaming, Natus Vincere, SK Gaming, and Virtus.pro were returning Legends. FaZe Clan and North were new Legends, replacing FlipSid3 Tactics and Team Liquid, who failed to make it past the group stage. The grand finals pitted Astralis, in its first ever final after nine playoff appearances, and Virtus.pro, which was in its second finals and looking for its second major title. Astralis had defeated Natus Vincere and Fnatic in the playoff stage, while Virtus.pro had beaten North and defending champions SK Gaming. In the third map of the best-of-three final, Astralis edged out Virtus.pro in the final round of regulation for its first major title.

Background[]

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve. It is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series. In professional CS:GO, the Valve-sponsored Majors are the most prestigious tournaments.^[2][3]

Entering the 2017 ELEAGUE Major, the two-time defending champion was SK Gaming, which won both MLG Columbus 2016 (as Luminosity Gaming) and ESL One Cologne 2016. SK was also the first non-European team to win a Major. At the time, Fnatic was the most decorated team, with three Majors, and SK Gaming was in second, with two.

Format[]

The top eight teams from the ESL One Cologne 2016 ("Legends") were automatically invited to ESL One Cologne 2016. The remaining eight spots were filled by teams that advanced from the ELEAGUE Major Main Qualifier. The ELEAGUE Main Qualifier was a 16-team tournament consisting of the bottom eight teams from Cologne 2016, as well as eight teams promoted from four regional qualifiers. The top eight teams at the Main Qualifier then advanced to the Major as the "Challengers".

Unlike previous Majors, which used the GSL-format for group stages, this Major was the first to use the Swiss-system for group stages.^[4] The top eight teams at the end of the group stage advanced to the playoff stage. All playoff matches were best-of-three, single elimination.

Map pool[]

The seven-map pool did not change from Cologne 2016. Before each best-of-one match in the group stage, teams alternated banning maps until five maps had been banned. One of the two remaining maps was randomly selected, and the team that that did not get a third ban then selected which side it wanted to start on.^[5] In all best-of-three series, each team first banned a map, leaving a five-map pool. Each team then chose a map, with the opposing team selecting which side they wanted to start on for their opponent's map choice. The two map picks were the first two maps in the best-of-three. The teams then each banned one more map, leaving one map remaining for the best-of-three decider if necessary.^[5]

Maps Cache Cobblestone Dust II Mirage Nuke Overpass Train

Broadcast talent[]

ELEAGUE retained much of the broadcast team that had been featured in ELEAGUE Season 1 and Season 2.^[6]

Hosts

• Sue "Smix" Lee
• Chris Puckett

Analysts

• Richard Lewis
• Jason "moses" O'Toole
• Duncan "Thorin" Shields

Commentators

• James Bardolph
• Anders Blume
• Henry "HenryG" Greer
• Daniel "ddk" Kapadia
• Auguste "Semmler" Massonnat
• Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett

Observers

• Kevin "kVIN_S" Swift
• David DJ "Prius" Kuntz
• Benjamin "CoffeeMcSwagger" Budka

Others

• Jason "Alchemist" Baker (Producer)
• Steve Daily (Director)
• Reece Fowler (Gameplay Director)

Broadcasts[]

All streams were broadcast on Twitch in various languages.

ELEAGUE TV 99Damage BiDa HuomaoTV Ogaming TV SpilerTV Starladder

Major Qualifier[]

Like the previous Majors, there was a single Main Qualifier after four Minors, or regional qualifiers. The bottom eight teams from ESL One Cologne 2016 received automatic bids to the Main Qualifier. Two teams each from the Asia, North America, Europe, and CIS Minors also competed in the Main Qualifier.

Regional Qualifiers[]

The final four teams from each qualifier are shown below: two from each moved on to the Main Qualifier.

Asia Minor[]

Europe Minor[]

CIS Minor[]

Americas Minor[]

Main Qualifier[]

The Main Qualifier was a sixteen-team Swiss-system tournament in which, after the first round, teams only played other teams with the same win-loss record. Each match was best-of-one, and no team played another team twice. All teams played until they had either won or lost three games: any team with three wins advanced to the Major, and any team with three losses was eliminated.

First round seeding was determined by the following:

• Teams that placed 9th-12th at the previous Major (Team Dignitas, FaZe Clan, mousesports, Ninjas in Pyjamas) were first seeds
• Teams that placed 13th-16th at the previous Major (Team EnVyUs, G2 Esports, OpTic Gaming, Counter Logic Gaming) were second seeds
• Teams that placed first in their regional qualifiers (TyLoo, Vega Squadron, GODSENT, Immortals) were third seeds
• Teams that were runners-up in their regional qualifiers (Renegades, Team Spirit, Hellraisers, Cloud9) were fourth seeds

GODSENT and FaZe Clan were the first teams to advance to the Major. The next three teams to move on were mousesports, OpTic Gaming, and Team Dignitas. In the fifth round of matches, the final teams to move on were Team EnVyUs, G2 Esports, and HellRaisers.^[7]

Main Qualifier[]

Cologne 2016 Bottom 8 mousesports Ninjas in Pyjamas Team Dignitas FaZe Clan Team EnVyUs G2 Esports OpTic Gaming Counter Logic Gaming

Regional Qualifiers Immortals (Americas Minor #1) Cloud9 (Americas Minor #2) TyLoo (Asia Minor #1) Renegades (Asia Minor #2) Vega Squadron1 (CIS Minor #1) Team Spirit (CIS Minor #2) GODSENT (Europe Minor #1) HellRaisers (Europe Minor #2)

¹The players of ALL-IN are signed by Vega Squadron after the CIS Minor.^[8]

Teams competing[]

The top eight teams from ESL One Cologne 2016 (Legends) were joined by the eight teams from the main qualifier (Challengers).

Legends SK Gaming Team Liquid Virtus.pro Fnatic Astralis FlipSid3 Tactics Gambit Gaming Natus Vincere

Challengers GODSENT FaZe Clan OpTic Gaming mousesports Team EnVyUs G2 Esports North1 HellRaisers

¹ The five players and coach of Team Dignitas mutually part ways with the team shortly after the Major Qualifier. The roster is then signed by the Danish football (soccer) club F.C. Copenhagen and Nordisk Film was named North.^[9]

Perhaps the biggest change was Team Dignitas and the Philadelphia 76ers and their players and coach mutually parting ways and the organizations announced plans to build a North American roster; in addition, it plans to invest into positions such as a sports psychologist and a nutritionist.^[10][11][12] The coach, Casper "ruggah" Due, said, despite "competitive offers," the roster decided to leave the team.^[13] Roughly a day later, the team is reported to sign with the Danish football (soccer) club F.C. Copenhagen and the Denmark-based Nordisk Film and officially signed on January 3, 2016. The team will be called North.^{[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]} Team Dignitas (now North) signed Emil "Magiskb0Y" Reif and releases Jesper "tenzki" Mikalski after ESL One Cologne 2016.^[22]

Prior to the major, changes took place. GODSENT acquired Robin "flusha" Rönnquist, Jesper "JW" Wecksell, and Freddy "KRiMZ" Johansson from Fnatic, who acquired Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson and Simon "twist" Eliasson, so GODSENT acquired the Legends spot from Fnatic.^[23] However, KRiMZ rejoined Fnatic while Lekr0 rejoined GODSENT, giving the Legends spot back to Fnatic.^[24] Fnatic used John "wenton" Eriksson to fill in its last spot, but is soon replaced by Joakim "disco doplan" Gidetun.^[25]

Natus Vincere acquired Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev from Team Liquid and released Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko.^[26] Meanwhile, Zeus went on to join Gambit Gaming with Abay "HObbit" Khasenov and Gambit released Ivan "spaze" Obrezhan and Dmitry "hooch" Bogdanov. Team Liquid then signs the Danish player Jacob "Pimp" Winneche.^[27]

FlipSid3 Tactics released Oleksandr "Shara" Hordieiev and sign Denis "electronic" Sharipov.^[28]

Astralis agreed to release Finn "karrigan" Andersen and sign Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander as in game leader. karrigan is then signed by FaZe Clan.^[29] In addition, FaZe Clan replaced Ricardo "fox" Pacheco with Aleksi "allu" Jalli.^[30]

mousesports release Johannes "nex" Maget and sign the Czech AWPer Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný from the HellRaisers roster.^[31] However, due to internal problems, oskar is benched and mousesports sign the Spanish player Christian "loWel" Antoran, who came from PENTA Sports.^[32]

Damian "daps" Steele announces his departure from OpTic Gaming and bring back recently released OpTic player Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz.^[33] OpTic then acquire Tarik "tarik" Celik from Counter Logic Gaming to fill up its five-man roster.^[34]

Team EnVyUs release Timothée "DEVIL" Démolon and sign Christophe "SIXER" Xia.^[35]

SK Gaming benched Lincoln "fnx" Lau following internal problems.^[36] The team brought in fox as a temporary replacement and moved fnx to the substitute role.^[37]

Pre-major ranking[]

The HLTV.org January 16, 2017 rankings of teams in the major is displayed below. The ranking was the final one released before the ELEAGUE Major. It included all tournaments up to ELEAGUE Season 2, in which OpTic Gaming defeated Astralis in the finals, and ECS Season 2 Finals, in which Astralis defeated OpTic Gaming in the finals.^[38]

Group stage[]

The group stage was a sixteen-team Swiss-system format in which, after the first round, teams only played other teams with the same win-loss record. Each match was best-of-one, and no team played another team twice. All teams played until they had either won or lost three games: any team with three wins advanced to the playoff stage, and any team with three losses was eliminated.

First round seeding was determined by the following:

• Teams that placed top four at the previous Major (SK Gaming, Team Liquid, Fnatic, Virtus.pro) were first seeds
• Teams that placed 5th-8th place at the previous Major (Astralis, FlipSid3 Tactics, Gambit Gaming, Natus Vincere) were second seeds
• Teams that placed first in the main qualifier (GODSENT, FaZe Clan) and the top two teams that placed third based on their seeds going into the major qualifier (North, mousesports) were third seeds
• The remaining teams (OpTic Gaming, Team EnVyUs, G2 Esports, HellRaisers) were fourth seeds

In the first round, first seeds played a randomly drawn fourth seed, and second seeds played a randomly drawn third seed. After this round, teams were randomly drawn against other teams with the same record (e.g., 1–0 teams against 1–0 teams, 0–1 teams against 0–1 teams). The eight teams to win three (out of a possible five) games were granted "Legend" status and an automatic invitation to the next Major.

This was the first Major in which GODSENT players Robin "flusha" Rönnquist and Jesper "JW" Wecksell did not advance to the playoffs, after losing to North in the fifth round and placing 9th. They had maintained Legend status with Fnatic prior to transferring to GODSENT.

Place	Team	Record	Differential	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5
1–2	Natus Vincere	3–0	+36	mousesports 16–3 Cobblestone	High match Team EnVyUs 16–6 Cobblestone	High match SK Gaming 16–3 Dust II	Playoffs	Playoffs
	Virtus.pro	3–0	+11	OpTic Gaming 16–13 Cobblestone	High match G2 Esports 16–14 Nuke	High match Gambit Gaming 16–10 Train	Playoffs	Playoffs
3–5	Gambit Gaming	3–1	+11	North 16–8 Cobblestone	High match GODSENT 16–9 Overpass	High match Virtus.pro 10–16 Train	High match FaZe Clan 16–14 Overpass	Playoffs
	Fnatic	3–1	+7	G2 Esports 10–16 Cache	Low match North 16–13 Cobblestone	Mid match mousesports 16–11 Dust II	High match Team EnVyUs 16–11 Cobblestone	Playoffs
	SK Gaming	3–1	0	HellRaisers 16–7 Mirage	High match FaZe Clan 19–17 Mirage	High match Natus Vincere 3–16 Dust II	High match Astralis 19–17 Dust II	Playoffs
6–8	Astralis	3–2	+15	GODSENT 6–16 Train	Low match OpTic Gaming 16–12 Train	Mid match G2 Esports 16–11 Train	High match SK Gaming 17–19 Dust II	Team Liquid 16–3 Mirage
	FaZe Clan	3–2	+12	FlipSid3 Tactics 16–9 Nuke	High match SK Gaming 17–19 Mirage	Mid match Team Liquid 22–18 Nuke	High match Gambit Gaming 14–16 Overpass	Team EnVyUs 16–11 Nuke
	North	3–2	+2	Gambit Gaming 8–16 Cobblestone	Low match Fnatic 13–16 Cobblestone	Low match HellRaisers 19–15 Mirage	Low match G2 Esports 16–9 Overpass	GODSENT 19–17 Overpass
9–11	Team EnVyUs	2–3	-3	Team Liquid 25–21 Cache	High match Natus Vincere 6–16 Cobblestone	Mid match GODSENT 16–13 Cache	High match Fnatic 11–16 Cobblestone	FaZe Clan 11–16 Nuke
	GODSENT	2–3	-4	Astralis 16–6 Train	High match Gambit Gaming 9–16 Overpass	Mid match Team EnVyUs 3–16 Cache	Low match OpTic Gaming 16–8 Cache	North 17–19 Overpass
	Team Liquid	2–3	-7	Team EnVyUs 21–25 Cache	Low match FlipSid3 Tactics 16–14 Overpass	Mid match FaZe Clan 18–22 Nuke	Low match mousesports 16–4 Nuke	Astralis 3–16 Mirage
12–14	G2 Esports	1–3	-11	Fnatic 16–10 Cache	High match Virtus.pro 14–16 Nuke	Mid match Astralis 11–16 Train	Low match North 9–16 Overpass	Eliminated
	OpTic Gaming	1–3	-12	Virtus.pro 13–16 Cobblestone	Low match Astralis 12–16 Train	Low match FlipSid3 Tactics 16–13 Train	Low match GODSENT 8–16 Cache	Eliminated
	mousesports	1–3	-22	Natus Vincere 3–16 Cobblestone	Low match HellRaisers 16–7 Cache	Mid match Fnatic 11–16 Dust II	Low match Team Liquid 4–16 Nuke	Eliminated
15–16	FlipSid3 Tactics	0–3	-12	FaZe Clan 9–16 Nuke	Low match Team Liquid 14–16 Overpass	Low match OpTic Gaming 13–16 Train	Eliminated	Eliminated
	HellRaisers	0–3	-22	SK Gaming 7–16 Mirage	Low match mousesports 7–16 Cache	Low match North 15–19 Mirage	Eliminated	Eliminated

Playoffs[]

Bracket[]

Natus Vincere and Virtus.pro were the top seeds after the group stage, and would face a random opponent from the pool of Astralis, FaZe Clan, and North (the teams who finished 3–2). Natus Vincere was paired with Astralis and Virtus.pro drew North. From the pool of Gambit Gaming, Fnatic, and SK Gaming (the teams who finished 3–1), Gambit and Fnatic were randomly drawn to face each other. The remaining two teams, SK Gaming and FaZe Clan, were then paired to finalize the bracket.

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
	Natus Vincere		1
	Astralis		2
						Astralis		2
						Fnatic		0
	Gambit Gaming		1
	Fnatic		2
											Astralis		2
											Virtus.pro		1
	Virtus.pro		2
	North		1
						Virtus.pro		2
						SK Gaming		0
	SK Gaming		2
	FaZe Clan		1

Quarterfinals[]

Natus Vincere vs. Astralis[]

Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

The first game of the playoffs in the Fox Theatre pitted Natus Vincere and Astralis against each other.

Natus Vincere vs. Astralis Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Natus Vincere	7	Overpass	16	Astralis
Natus Vincere	16	Mirage	14	Astralis
Natus Vincere	10	Dust II	16	Astralis

Gambit Gaming vs Fnatic[]

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

Gambit Gaming vs. Fnatic Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Gambit Gaming	7	Cache	16	Fnatic
Gambit Gaming	16	Overpass	3	Fnatic
Gambit Gaming	7	Dust II	16	Fnatic

Virtus.pro vs North[]

Casters: Sadokist & HenryG

Virtus.pro was the other team along with Na'Vi to go a perfect 3–0 in the group stage, defeating OpTic Gaming, G2 Esports, and Gambit Gaming.

Virtus.pro vs North Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Virtus.pro	16	Overpass	4	North
Virtus.pro	12	Cache	16	North
Virtus.pro	16	Cobblestone	13	North

SK Gaming vs FaZe Clan[]

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

SK Gaming was considered the world's best team of 2016 after winning the two majors of the year, MLG Columbus 2016 and ESL One Cologne 2016, and could be the first team ever to win three major titles in a row.

SK Gaming vs. FaZe Clan Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
SK Gaming	7	Mirage	16	FaZe Clan
SK Gaming	16	Train	3	FaZe Clan
SK Gaming	16	Overpass	5	FaZe Clan

Semifinals[]

Astralis vs Fnatic[]

Casters: Sadokist & HenryG

Astralis vs. Fnatic Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Astralis	19	Cache	16	Fnatic
Astralis	16	Nuke	5	Fnatic
Astralis	–	Dust II	–	Fnatic

Virtus.pro vs SK Gaming[]

Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

The two-time defending champions in SK Gaming will faced off against Virtus.pro for the third Major in a row, with SK squeaking past Virtus.pro in both of those prior series.

Virtus.pro vs. SK Gaming Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Virtus.pro	19	Train	17	SK Gaming
Virtus.pro	16	Cobblestone	14	SK Gaming
Virtus.pro	–	Overpass	–	SK Gaming

Finals[]

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

After five quarterfinal and four semifinal eliminations, the roster of Astralis finally made the a grand finals at a Major. Virtus.pro, however, had been to and won a Major final at EMS One Katowice 2014, defeating the Ninjas in Pyjamas two games to zero. Since then, Virtus.pro had not been back to a grand finals.

The first map was Nuke, a map Virtus.pro was considered very strong on. Astralis would tie the game at 12 rounds apiece, but Virtus.pro won the next four rounds, taking the first map 16–12. Snax and byali lead the way for the Polish team with 24 kills while Kjaerbye lead Astralis with 22 kills and gla1ve and dev1ce had 20 kills.

The second map was Overpass. Virtus.pro took the lead for the first time since round one at 14-13 and were two rounds away from taking the Major. However, Astralis won the last three rounds, taking Overpass 16–14. Xyp9x was the most impactful with 28 kills. dev1ce had the least kills of either team with only 13 kills.

The final map, Train, was historically known as one of Virtus.pro's strongest. After a strong Virtus.pro start, Astralis made a late comeback, tying the score at 14 and taking their first lead at 15–14. After winning the final round of regulation, Astralis was crowned the champion of the ELEAGUE Atlanta Major. Kjaerbye had 29 kills in the final map,^[39][40] and was named the Major MVP; he became the youngest player to earn the title.^[41]

Astralis vs. Virtus.pro Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Astralis	12	Nuke	16	Virtus.pro
Astralis	16	Overpass	14	Virtus.pro
Astralis	16	Train	14	Virtus.pro

Final standings[]

The final standings are shown below. The in game leaders of each team are shown first.

Place	Prize money	Team	Invitation to following Major	Roster	Coach
1st	US$500,000	Astralis	PGL Major 2017	gla1ve, dev1ce, dupreeh, Xyp9x, Kjaerbye	zonic
2nd	US$150,000	Virtus.pro		NEO, TaZ, pashaBiceps, Snax, byali	kuben
3rd – 4th	US$70,000	Fnatic		dennis, olofmeister, KRiMZ, disco doplan, twist,	Jumpy
		SK Gaming		FalleN, coldzera, fer, TACO, fox	dead
5th – 8th	US$35,000	Natus Vincere		seized, s1mple, Edward, flamie, GuardiaN	starix
		Gambit Gaming		Zeus, AdreN, mou, HObbit, Dosia	kane
		North		MSL, k0nfig, cajunb, Magisk, RUBINO	ruggah
		FaZe Clan		karrigan, rain, aizy, allu, kioShiMa	RobbaN
9th – 11th	US$8,750	GODSENT	PGL Major 2017 Offline Qualifier	pronax, flusha, JW, Lekr0, pronax, znajder	rdl
		Team EnVyUs		Happy, kennyS, apEX, SIXER, NBK-	enkay J
		Team Liquid		nitr0, Hiko, ELiGE, jdm64, Pimp	zews
12th – 14th	US$8,750	G2 Esports		shox, SmithZz, bodyy, Rpk, ScreaM	NiaK
		mousesports		NiKo, Spiidi, denis, chrisJ, loWel	lmbt
		OpTic Gaming		stanislaw, NAF, RUSH, tarik, mixwell
15th – 16th	US$8,750	HellRaisers		ANGE1, bondik, Zero, STYKO, DeadFox	Johnta
		FlipSid3 Tactics		Blad3, markeloff, WorldEdit, electronic, wayLander[42]

Post-Major Ranking[]

The HLTV.org January 30, 2017 rankings of teams in the major is displayed below. The ranking was the first one released after the ELEAGUE Major.^[43]

Clash for Cash[]

ELEAGUE announced a televised rematch, dubbed the "Clash for Cash", between the two finalists on June 16, 2017.^[44] It featured a US$250,000 prize pool for the winner.^[45] Despite losing the first map in the best-of-three, Astralis dominated the last two maps and easily took the match.^[46]

Astralis vs. Virtus.pro Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Astralis	7	Nuke	16	Virtus.pro
Astralis	16	Overpass	4	Virtus.pro
Astralis	16	Mirage	3	Virtus.pro

References[]