The ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, also known as ELEAGUE Major 2018 or Boston 2018, was the twelfth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship and the second organized by ELEAGUE. The group stage was held in Atlanta, Georgia, United States from January 12 to January 22, 2018, and the playoff stage took place at the Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts, United States from January 26 to January 28, 2018. It featured 24 professional teams from around the world, as ELEAGUE and Valve agreed to expand the Major from the usual 16. All 16 teams from the previous major, PGL Major: Kraków 2017, directly qualified for the Major, while another eight teams qualified through their respective regional qualifiers. Boston 2018 was the fifth consecutive major with a prize pool of $1,000,000. This wa
The ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, also known as ELEAGUE Major 2018 or Boston 2018, was the twelfth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship and the second organized by ELEAGUE. The group stage was held in Atlanta, Georgia, United States from January 12 to January 22, 2018, and the playoff stage took place at the Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts, United States from January 26 to January 28, 2018. It featured 24 professional teams from around the world, as ELEAGUE and Valve agreed to expand the Major from the usual 16. All 16 teams from the previous major, PGL Major: Kraków 2017, directly qualified for the Major, while another eight teams qualified through their respective regional qualifiers. Boston 2018 was the fifth consecutive major with a prize pool of $1,000,000. This was also the first CS:GO Major to take place in two cities. SK Gaming and Fnatic were the only returning Legends, as it was the fewest returning Legends in major history; the two teams ended up being the only remaining teams to make the playoffs out off all the majors both teams attended, with Fnatic's run starting at 2013 DreamHack Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Championship and SK Gaming's run starting at ESL One Katowice 2015, in which the Brazilians were with the organization Keyd Stars. FaZe Clan, G2 Esports, Natus Vincere, Quantum Bellator Fire, Cloud9, and mousesports were new Legends. Defending champions Gambit Esports, 100 Thieves (formerly Immortals), Astralis, BIG, North, and Virtus.pro were out as Legends after five teams were knocked out in the New Legends stage and 100 Thieves not making the major due to visa issues. This marked the first time Astralis's core three – Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz, Peter "dupreeh" Rothmann, and Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth – did not make the playoffs for the first time in Global Offensive major history, leaving just Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer of FaZe Clan and Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson of Fnatic as the only two remaining players to become Legends at all twelve majors. The grand finals featured FaZe Clan, which was the favorite to win the tournament, and Cloud9, which was the second North American team to reach a major final. FaZe defeated mousesports and Natus Vincere to reach the finals, while Cloud9 pulled off two upsets with wins against G2 Esports and SK Gaming. In what is being called one of the greatest finals of all time, Cloud9 etched out the win over FaZe Clan to become the first ever North American team to win a major. It would also mark just the fourth time in CS:GO history in which a North American team won a premier international event, behind iBUYPOWER winning the ESEA Global Finals Season 15, Cloud9 winning ESL Pro League Season 4, and OpTic Gaming winning ELEAGUE Season 2.