ELEAGUE Major 2017

ELEAGUE

2017
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)	Turner Studios William Morris Endeavor
Tournament format(s)	16 team swiss group stage Eight team single-elimination playoff
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

ELEAGUE Major 2017, also known as ELEAGUE Atlanta 2017, was the tenth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major tournament. It was organized by ELEAGUE and held in Atlanta, Georgia, United States from January 22 to 29, 2017. It features 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 is the third consecutive major with a prize pool of $1,000,000.^[1]

Format

There will be four regional qualifiers and two from each qualifier will move on to the main qualifier.

In the major qualifier, the top eight teams will move on to the major. These teams will be known as "Challengers". The top eight teams from the previous major will receive automatic bids to the major; these teams are known as "Legends."

Unlike the previous majors, in which there were group stages, this major will use the Swiss tournament for the first stage, just like the Major Qualifier.^[2] The eight remaining teams after the group stage will move on to the Playoffs. All playoff games will be best of three and single elimination and the winner is decided after one team remains.

Map Pool

The same map pool was kept from the last major.

There were seven maps to choose from. In the group stage, each team bans two maps. Then, one team bans another map from the remaining two maps, the map played is randomly selected. The team that did not get the third ban gets to choose which sides it starts on. In the playoffs, each team will remove one map. Then, each side chooses a map, which will be played in the first two matches. The team that did not choose the map will choose which side it starts on. Then each team will remove one more map so that one map is remaining. That map will be the third and decider map.

Maps Cache Cobblestone Dust II Mirage Nuke Overpass Train

Broadcast Talent

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

Others

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

Main Qualifier

Like the previous majors, there will be a major qualifier and regional qualifiers. The bottom eight teams from ESL One Cologne 2016 will receive automatic bids to the main qualifier. Two teams each from the Asia, North America, Europe, and CIS Minors will be able to compete in the major qualifier

Regional Qualifiers

The final four teams from each qualifier are shown below; two from each move on to the main qualifying event. All games are offline.

Asia Minor

Europe Minor

CIS Minor

Americas Minor

Main Qualifier

The main qualifier will be a sixteen team swiss tournament, where after the Day 1 games, teams will play other teams with the same win-loss record. Every round will consist of one game. In addition, teams will not play the same team twice. Any team with three wins would qualify for the major, and any team with three losses would be eliminated.

First round seeding was determined by the following:

• Teams that placed 9th at the previous major (Team Dignitas, FaZe Clan, mousesports, Ninjas in Pyjamas) were first seeds
• Teams that placed 13th place 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 runner-ups in their regional qualifiers (Renegades, Team Spirit, Hellraisers, Cloud9) were fourth seeds

In the second round, the winners in the first round will face each other in the "high" matches; the losers will face each other in the "low" matches.

In the third round, the winners of the high matches from round two will face each other. The winners of these two matches will qualify for the major. The losers of the high round and the winners of the low round will face each other in the "mid" matches. The losers from the previous low matches will face each other in round three's low matches. The losers of these low matches are eliminated. Twelve teams remain in the Qualifier.

In the fourth round, the losers of the high matches and the winners of the low matches will face each other in round four's high matches. The winners of the high matches qualify for the major. The losers of the mid matches and the winners of the low matches will face each other in the low matches of round four. The losers of these matches are eliminated from the Qualifier. Six teams remain.

In the last round, the remaining teams will face off. The winners of these matches will qualify for the major and the losing teams will be eliminated.

GODSENT and FaZe Clan were the first teams to move on. The next three teams to move on were mousesports, OpTic Gaming, and Team Dignitas. In the last round, the final teams to move on were Team EnVyUs, G2 Esports, and HellRaisers.^[3]

This qualifier was significant in that it will be the first time that the Ninjas in Pyjamas as a franchise and four of its players – GeT RiGhT, f0rest, Xizt, and friberg – will not play in a major, after being upset by Vega Squadron.^[4]

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)

¹ - The players of ALL-IN are signed by Vega Squadron after the CIS Minor.^[5]

Teams Competing

The top eight teams from ESL One Cologne 2016 (Legends) will be 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.^[6]

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.^[7][8][9] The coach, Casper "ruggah" Due, said, despite "competitive offers," the roster decided to leave the team.^[10] 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.^{[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]}

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.^[19] However, KRiMZ rejoined Fnatic while Lekr0 rejoined GODSENT, giving the Legends spot back to Fnatic.^[20] Fnatic used John "wenton" Eriksson to fill in its last spot, but is soon replaced by Joakim "disco doplan" Gidetun.^[21]

Natus Vincere acquired Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev from Team Liquid and released Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko.^[22] 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.^[23]

Flipsid3 Tactics released Oleksandr "Shara" Hordieiev and sign Denis "electronic" Sharipov.^[24]

Astralis agreed to release Finn "karrigan" Andersen and sign Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander as in game leader. karrigan is then signed by FaZe Clan.^[25][26] In addition, FaZe Clan replaced Ricardo "fox" Pacheco with Aleksi "allu" Jalli.^[27]

mousesports release Johannes "nex" Maget and sign the Czech AWPer Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný from the HellRaisers roster.^[28] However, due to internal problems, oskar is benched and mousesports sign the Spanish player Christian "loWel" Antoran, who came from PENTA Sports.^[29]

Damian "daps" Steele announces his departure from OpTic Gaming and bring back recently released OpTic player Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz.^[30] OpTic then acquire Tarik "tarik" Celik from Counter Logic Gaming to fill up its five-man roster.^[31]

Team EnVyUs release Timothée "DEVIL" Démolon and sign Christophe "SIXER" Xia.^[32]

SK Gaming benched Lincoln "fnx" Lau following internal problems.^[33] The team brought in fox as a temporary replacement and moved fnx to the substitute role.^[34]

Team Dignitas (now North) signs Emil "Magiskb0Y" Reif and releases Jesper "tenzki" Mikalski after ESL One Cologne 2016.^[35]

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.^[36]

Group Stage

The group stage will be a sixteen team swiss tournament, where after the Day 1 games, teams will play other teams with the same win-loss record. Every round will consist of one game. In addition, teams will not play the same team twice. Any team with three wins would qualify for the major, and any team with three losses would be 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) are first seeds
• Teams that placed 5th place at the previous major (Astralis, Flipsid3 Tactics, Gambit Gaming, Natus Vincere) are 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) are third seeds
• The remaining teams (OpTic Gaming, Team EnVyUs, G2 Esports, HellRaisers) are fourth seeds

Each team from the first seed will play a team from the fourth seed. Each team from the second seed will play a team from the third seed. These teams will be randomly selected. These matches will determine the first round.

In the second round, the teams with a 1–0 record will face each other and the teams with a 0–1 record will face each other.

In the third round, teams with a 2–0 record will face each other. The winners of these matches will move on to the Playoffs. The teams with a 1–1 record will face each other to determine their places in the next round. The teams with a 0–2 record will face each other and the losers of these matches will be eliminated from the tournament.

In the fourth round, teams with a 2–1 record will face each other. The winners of these matches will advance to the Playoffs. The teams with a 1–2 record will face each other and the losers of these matches will be eliminated from the tournament.

In the last round, the remaining teams (2–2 record) will face off. The winners of these matches will advance to the Playoffs and the losers will be eliminated from the tournament.

The eight teams that advance will obtain the "Legend" status and will be automatically invited to the next major.

This will be the first major in which GODSENT players Robin "flusha" Rönnquist and Jesper "JW" Wecksell will not be playing in the playoffs, after losing to North 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	Team EnVyUs 16–6 Cobblestone	SK Gaming 16–3 Dust II	Playoffs	Playoffs
	Virtus.pro	3–0	+11	OpTic Gaming 16–13 Cobblestone	G2 Esports 16–14 Nuke	Gambit Gaming 16–10 Train	Playoffs	Playoffs
3–5	Gambit Gaming	3–1	+11	North 16–8 Cobblestone	GODSENT 16–9 Overpass	Virtus.pro 10–16 Train	FaZe Clan 16–14 Overpass	Playoffs
	Fnatic	3–1	+7	G2 Esports 10–16 Cache	North 16–13 Cobblestone	mousesports 16–11 Dust II	Team EnVyUs 16–11 Cobblestone	Playoffs
	SK Gaming	3–1	0	HellRaisers 16–7 Mirage	FaZe Clan 19–17 Mirage	Natus Vincere 3–16 Dust II	Astralis 19–17 Dust II	Playoffs
6–8	Astralis	3–2	+15	GODSENT 6–16 Train	OpTic Gaming 16–12 Train	G2 Esports 16–11 Train	SK Gaming 17–19 Dust II	Team Liquid 16–3 Mirage
	FaZe Clan	3–2	+12	Flipsid3 Tactics 16–9 Nuke	SK Gaming 17–19 Mirage	Team Liquid 22–18 Nuke	Gambit Gaming 14–16 Overpass	Team EnVyUs 16–11 Nuke
	North	3–2	+2	Gambit Gaming 8–16 Cobblestone	Fnatic 13–16 Cobblestone	HellRaisers 19–15 Mirage	G2 Esports 16–9 Overpass	GODSENT 19–17 Overpass
9–11	Team EnVyUs	2–3	-3	Team Liquid 25–21 Cache	Natus Vincere 6–16 Cobblestone	GODSENT 16–13 Cache	Fnatic 11–16 Cobblestone	FaZe Clan 11–16 Nuke
	GODSENT	2–3	-4	Astralis 16–6 Train	Gambit Gaming 9–16 Overpass	Team EnVyUs 3–16 Cache	OpTic Gaming 16–8 Cache	North 17–19 Overpass
	Team Liquid	2–3	-7	Team EnVyUs 21–25 Cache	Flipsid3 Tactics 16–14 Overpass	FaZe Clan 18–22 Nuke	mousesports 16–4 Nuke	Astralis 3–16 Mirage
12–14	G2 Esports	1–3	-11	Fnatic 16–10 Cache	Virtus.pro 14–16 Nuke	Astralis 11–16 Train	North 9–16 Overpass	Eliminated
	OpTic Gaming	1–3	-12	Virtus.pro 13–16 Cobblestone	Astralis 12–16 Train	Flipsid3 Tactics 16–13 Train	GODSENT 8–16 Cache	Eliminated
	mousesports	1–3	-22	Natus Vincere 3–16 Cobblestone	HellRaisers 16–7 Cache	Fnatic 11–16 Dust II	Team Liquid 4–16 Nuke	Eliminated
15–16	Flipsid3 Tactics	0–3	-12	FaZe Clan 9–16 Nuke	Team Liquid 14–16 Overpass	OpTic Gaming 13–16 Train	Eliminated	Eliminated
	HellRaisers	0–3	-22	SK Gaming 7–16 Mirage	mousesports 7–16 Cache	North 15–19 Mirage	Eliminated	Eliminated

Playoffs

Playoffs 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 Scores and Summary

Natus Vincere vs. Astralis

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

Natus Vincere (Na'Vi) was unequivocally the strongest team in the group stage, defeating each team by at least ten rounds, including the considered world's number two team SK Gaming. Na'Vi rifler Egor "flamie" Vasilyev had the highest Average Damage per Round (ADR) out of any player.

Meanwhile, Astralis, who was considered to be the world's number one team coming into the major, struggled in the group stage, especially after GODSENT upset Astralis 6-16 in the first round. Astralis bounced back to win games against OpTic Gaming and G2 Esports, but then fell to SK Gaming in the fourth round, putting the team on the brink of elimination. However, Astralis easily defeated ESL One Cologne 2016's runner-ups Team Liquid 16-3 on Mirage in the last round to make the playoffs.

Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

The first map on Astralis's map choice, Overpass, was a complete blowout by the Danish team. Astralis took a convincing 12-3 halftime lead. While Na'Vi closed the gap to 13-7, Astralis took the last three rounds to take the first map. Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz and Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye led the way with 22 kills and flamie was close with 21 kills. Na'Vi's star players Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács and Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev struggled throughout the map, with only 11 and 10 kills, respectively.

The second map on Mirage, Na'Vi's map choice, was a much closer game. Na'Vi took a strong 9-1 lead going into the 11th round. However, Astralis came back and won the last five rounds of the half to bring the game to a respectable score line of 9-6. Eventually, the game was tied 10-10. Astralis took a 14-10 lead late into the game and was two rounds away from making the semifinals, but Na'Vi tied the score back at 14 a piece heading into the last two rounds of regulation. In a crucial moment in round 29, Astralis had a 4-2 man advantage with 25 seconds left in the round. Kjaerbye was planting the bomb with 5 seconds left, the approximate time needed to plant the bomb, but s1mple came in with 3 seconds left and killed Kjaerbye before the bomb could be planted, resulting in the time running out and a round to Na'Vi. In round 30, Na'Vi had a 2-1 man advantage and Astralis player Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth had to clutch the round with the bomb planted to send the game into overtime. However, Na'Vi in game leader Denis "seized" Kostin and Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev won the round before Xyp9x would kill either player, giving the round and map to Na'Vi. After struggling on Overpass, GuardiaN and s1mple delivered for their team, with 26 and 27 kills, respectively. dev1ce led his team with 25 kills and Astralis captain Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander had 23 kills.

Both teams are considered to be very strong on Dust II, the final map of the series. Na'Vi took a slim 8-7 lead into halftime. While the first half was virtually even, the second half seemed to be all Astralis, as Na'Vi could only get two rounds in the second half. Once again, dev1ce topped the scoreboard with 26 kills. The HLTV.com's ranked third best player had six more kills than the closest player. Astralis's win on Dust II would mean it would face either Gambit Gaming or Fnatic.

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

Gambit Gaming made some major changes to its roster by acquiring Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko from Na'Vi and being loaned Abay "HObbit" Khasenov from Tengri. Under Zeus's leadership, the Gambit roster unexpectedly made it out of the group stage, despited placing top eight at the previous major. The team defeated a top five team in North and GODSENT, which had just beaten tournament favorites Astralis before falling to Virtus.pro. However, in the fourth round, Gambit defeated FaZe Clan 16-14 behind a stellar performance from Dauren 'AdreN' Kystaubayev. Fnatic, formerly the world's number one team, holds the most major titles with three and is one of two teams to win two majors in a row along to SK Gaming. Fnatic made some drastic changes with the departures of Robin "flusha" Rönnquist and Jesper "JW" Wecksell to GODSENT. In the group stage, the team suffered a loss to G2 Esports but then bounced back to win the next three games to move on to the playoffs, including the deciding game on Cobblestone against Team EnVyUs, 16-11.

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

The first map of the series on Cache seemed good for Gambit at the very beginning after winning the first round, the pistol round. However, Fnatic bounced right back and would take a 10-2 lead before Gambit would take a third round. The score would be a 10-5 Fnatic lead at halftime, a respectable scoreline for Gambit. Gambit once again won the pistol round but then against lost the following round. Fnatic never looked back and would go on to win the map 16-7. Despite AdreN having 22 kills for Gambit, his team could not pull off a win as Fnatic's Simon "twist" Eliasson would equal AdreN in kills. Zeus and Mikhail "Dosia" Stolyarov struggled as both had under ten kills.

On Gambit's map, Overpass, Zeus and company would answer right back. Gambit would lead the charge behind HObbit's 20 kills and took a 12-3 halftime score. Gambit would easily win the next four rounds to take a convincing 16-3 win going into the third map. Freddy "KRiMZ" Johansson lead the way for Fnatic with 15 kills but all but one Gambit player had more kills than him by the end of the map.

The third map appeared to be Fnatic's map, as the players took a 8-0 lead before Gambit would even get its first round on the board. However, Gambit would bite back and bring the score at the half back to a respectable 6-9 deficit, despite being on the more favored side of the map in the first half. However, Gambit struggled immensely in the second half, despite Rustem "mou" Tlepov's 20 kills in the game. Gambit squeezed out one round while Fnatic ran over Zeus's squad and took a 16-7 victory and ono to its way to a semifinals date against Astralis. twist would lead the way with 27 kills while Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer Gustafsson had some influential, round changing kills. Once again, Dosia and Zeus had fewer than ten kills and all but mou on the Gambit roster had a positive kill to death differential.

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

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 have the longest active standing roster as the players have been with each other for more than three years. The team also includes Filip "NEO" Kubski, who is considered to be one of the greatest CS 1.6 players of all time, along with Ninjas in Pyjama's Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg. Virtus.pro was the only team to take a map off of SK Gaming at MLG Columbus 2016 (which was then Luminosity Gaming) and ESL One Cologne 2016.

North had just left Team Dignitas after mutually parting ways after the major qualifier and then were picked up by top Danish football (soccer) club F.C. Copenhagen and Nordisk Films. In addition, Jesper "tenzki" Mikalski was released from the roster and then brought in Emil "Magisk" Reif. With the exception of René "cajunb" Borg, who was with Astralis, the other four members were in their first playoffs. North looked to be in trouble in the group stage, as it had started out 0-2 with losses against Gambit Gaming and Fnatic and needed one more loss to be eliminated or win three straight to make it to the playoffs. The team under the leadership of Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen did the latter and defeated HellRaisers, G2 Esports, and GODSENT in overtime to qualify for the playoffs.

Casters: Sadokist & HenryG

The first map on Overpass, despite being North's pick, was all Virtus.pro. Behind the fragging power of Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski in the first few rounds and then Virtus.pro captain NEO and HLTV.com's ranked number five player Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski taking over later, Virtus.pro pumped out a 14-0 lead before North took the last round of the half. At this point, cajunb had no kills in the fifteen rounds. Virtus.pro would take the pistol round in the second half, making the score 15-1, but North would come back with three rounds before Virtus.pro closing it out at 16-4. Ruben "RUBINO" Villarroel from Norway seemed to be the only player from North to get something going with 15 kills, but Snax's 27 kills, NEO's 18, and pashaBicep's 16 outnumber his total.

North, however, would answer back on Virtus.pro's map pick of Cache. Virtus.pro had an initial 6-5 lead, but North would win the last 4 rounds of the half to take a 9-6. North would extend its lead to 12-6 before Virtus.pro would bring it back to a two-round game at a 14-12 scoreline in North's favor. However, North would prevail and end Virtus.pro's win streak at six before taking the last two rounds to secure the second map. pashaBiceps lead the entire server with 27 kills, but the combination of cajunb and Magisk would prove to hold strong and topple Virtus.pro.

The last map of January 27 would be Cobblestone between the two teams. It seemed like North would convincingly steal Virtus.pro's chances at a second major title, with Magisk's 29 kills by the end of the half and a 12-3 score before switching sides. Virtus.pro never settled its economy to a stable amount. However, Virtus.pro would later show that the experience of its players would prevail over the powerful rookies. pashaBiceps started the comeback with 28 kills, while NEO, Snax, and Paweł "byali" Bieliński all had 19 kills. Magisk was buffered to just eight kills in the second half and North only managed to pull out just one round in the second half, while Virtus.pro made the nine round comeback and won the last thirteen of fourteen rounds to take the map 16-13 over North and a semifinals match against either SK Gaming or FaZe Clan.

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

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. However, the team made a roster change by benching Lincoln "fnx" Lau due to internal issues and bringing in former FaZe Clan player Ricardo "fox" Pacheco from Portugal as a temporary replacement. SK Gaming have the world's number one and two players, according to HLTV.com's rankings, in Marcelo "coldzera" David and captain Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo. In the group stage, the Brazilian squad easily defeated the HellRaisers and edged out FaZe Clan in the second round before being diminished by Na'Vi 3-16 in the third round. In a very close 19-17 game, SK Gaming squeaked past Astralis to make the playoffs.

Meanwhile, FaZe Clan has seen a jump in performance after bringing in former Ninjas in Pyjamas Finnish player Aleksi "allu" Jalli to replace fox as an AWPer and bringing former in game leader of Astralis Finn "karrigan" Andersen as the team's new captain. Since then, the team has seen some impressive results, including a third-place finish at ELEAGUE Season 2. FaZe defeated Flipsid3 Tactics before falling to SK Gaming after the team lost a 15-9 lead. The team defeated Team Liquid in overtime but then lost to Gambit Gaming in a very close two round loss. The team needed to defeated Team EnVyUs to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in the team's history and did just that with a 16-11 victory.

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

All three maps heavily favored one side. On Mirage, took the pistol round and then a 3-0 lead before SK brought it back to a 3-2 score. However, SK could only get another round before the half ended, giving FaZe a huge 12-3 lead at the half. FaZe took the pistol round in the second half, which appeared to be the end, but SK won an economy round and eventually brought it to a 14-7 deficit for the Brazilian team. FaZe would still hold on to its lead and take a 16-7 victory over the defending major champions. SK's Fernando "fer" Alvarenga led everyone with 20 kills, but coldzera, FalleN, and Epitácio "TACO" de Melo struggled, while Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey led the FaZe Clan with 19 kills, followed closely by Philip "aizy" Aistrup with 18 kills.

Train, however, was the next map and SK is widely considered to be the best team on the said map. SK would take a 6-0 lead before FaZe would get a round, despite FaZe starting on the more favored side. Each team would trade three rounds each before SK took a 12-3 score at the half. SK would never look back after that and would go on to win the map 16-3. While allu lead his team with 14 kills, the two stars of Mirage had under ten kills, while fer had 22 kills and TACO had 19 kills.

The last map was Overpass, a map both teams are considered to be very strong on. SK would start off with a booming 6-0 lead, but FaZe would answer back by going on a 5-1 run, bringing the score to 7-5. SK would however win the last three rounds of the half, but this would still give FaZe a 5-10 deficit, a respectable score as it started on the less favored side. However, SK would never give FaZe a round in the second half and went on a 6-0 run, winning the map in an emphatic 16-5 fashion. fer once again led his team with 26 kills and FalleN broke the 20 kill mark with 21. Although TACO and fox were the worst on their team, they matched the top members of FaZe with 13 kills (kioShiMa and karrigan). Star player Håvard "rain" Nygaard for FaZe failed to show up, only getting 5 kills while dying 20 times. SK moved on to face Virtus.pro, which faced three times in the majors, beating the Polish team the last two times they met.

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 Scores and Summary

Astralis vs Fnatic

In the past, Fnatic dominated the Astralis lineup, despite Astralis seemingly was the only team to go head to head with the Swedish team. After powering through Na'Vi, Astralis faced off against Fnatic, which easily took care of Gambit in its two wins.

Casters: Sadokist & HenryG

Cache, one of Fnatic's best maps, started off with Fnatic winning the pistol round, but Astralis answered right back on its economy round. Astralis took a 6-2 lead before Fnatic came back to win four in a row. However, Astralis would take the last three rounds of the half, bringing the score to 9-6. Astralis took the pistol round in the second half but Fnatic won an economy round of its own. Astralis eventually took a 15-11 lead and was one round away from taking 1 -0 lead in the series. However, Fnatic prevailed for another three rounds to make it a 15-14 game. In the 30th round, olofmeister was in a 1 vs 2 situation against dev1ce and gla1ve. olofmeister brought dev1ce down while gla1ve planted the bomb. gla1ve only had a submachine gun, so he had a less powerful weapon. olofmeister was defusing the bomb inside of smoke and gla1ve failed to find him, tying the score at 15-15. In overtime, Astralis won all three rounds on its half, taking a 18-15 lead into the half. Fnatic brought one back and was in a 2 vs 1 situation when Kjaerbye won the clutch, giving Astralis the 19-16 victory. Peter "dupreeh" Rothmann had 31 kills and dev1ce had 27 kills to lead the way, while KRiMZ had 37 kills for Fnatic. olofmeister and Xyp9x struggled until late in the game, when both had influential kills.

Nuke was a map neither team had much experience on, but since Fnatic banned Overpass, Astralis took a risk. Astralis took a dominating 12-3 lead into the second half while playing on the less favored side. Astralis then took the first two rounds of the second half but then Fnatic took the next two rounds to make it 14-5. However, Astralis would close it out with the last two rounds, reaching its first ever grand finals in the majors. The team was led by the 22 kills of dev1ce and 20 kills of Kjaerbye, while KRiMZ of Fnatic showed up once again for the team, while olofmeister got 15 kills. Astralis would either face SK Gaming, who it lost to in the group stage, or Virtus.pro, who it lost to at the previous major in the quarterfinals.

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

The two-time defending champions in SK Gaming will face off against Virtus.pro for the third major in a row, in which SK squeaked past Virtus.pro in both series. However, the last time these two teams played – in ESL One New York 2016 in New York and EPICENTER 2016 in Moscow – Virtus.pro defeated SK 2-1 in both series.

Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

Virtus.pro started on the more favored side on Train, SK's map pick. Virtus.pro is arguably the best team on Train historically speaking and SK is arguably currently the best team on Train. SK struggled getting into bombsites but still came to an honest 5-10 deficit. In the second half, SK stormed back to a 14-13 lead when Virtus,pro came back to win the next two rounds. In the final round, SK were in a man disadvantage; however, it quickly made it a 2 vs 1 advantage and then tied the game at 15 all. At the end of the first overtime half, SK lost the first round on a defuse by NEO but SK came back at to win the next two. However, Virtus.pro's counter terrorist side would prove to be strong and took the last three rounds to scratch out a win against arguably the best Train team in the world. Nine out of the ten players had over 20 kills (exception is Paweł "byali" Bieliński of Virtus.pro). NEO had 28 kills for Virtus.pro and Snax had 27 while coldzera and fox had 26 kills each.

The next map was Cobblestone, a map both teams are very good on. SK took off with a 5-0 lead, but Virtus.pro brought it back to a 9-6 SK advantage. Virtus.pro won the pistol round and many more consecutive rounds after and Virtus.pro dominated its way through SK and brought its score to 14 rounds and all seemed to end for SK. However, SK brought the game back to make it 15-14 going into the last round, after fox had to influential kills in round 28. In the last round, SK captain FalleN took a risk by bringing the clock down to under 30 seconds before starting its execution, but Virtus.pro veteran Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas shut the SK players down, giving Virtus.pro another two round victory. SK impressed many after playing with a stand-in and only having a short period of time to prepare with fox and still made it to the semifinals of a major tournament. TaZ lead the server with a massive 30 kills and pashaBiceps had 24 kills. coldzera for SK went huge for his team with 28 kills, while fer, who was dominant throughout the whole tournament, only had 8 kills. Virtus.pro will face Astralis in the grand finals.

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 Scores and Summary

After 5 quarterfinals and 4 semifinals, the roster of Astralis is finally in a grand finals at a major tournament, defeating Na'Vi and Fnatic. dev1ce proved to be the star of the team once again as he topped the scoreboard of his team in nearly every game and Kjaerbye showed that Astralis traded cajunb for him by virtue of influential kills. Virtus.pro, however, have been to a major grand finals at EMS One Katowice 2014 and won, defeating the Ninjas in Pyjamas two games to zero. Since then, Virtus.pro have not been back to a grand finals, including the last two times – at MLG Columbus 2016, the team lost to SK Gaming, then signed with Luminosity Gaming, and then at ESL One Cologne 2016, again losing the same SK Gaming lineup. Virtus.pro finally defeated SK Gaming for the first time since ESL One Katowice 2015, when SK were with Keyd Stars, and its biggest demon in the majors.

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

The first map was Nuke, a map Virtus.pro is widely considered to be the best on. However, Astralis did handily defeat Fnatic 16-5 on the same map in the semifinals. Astralis won the pistol round, but then lost the anti-economy round and would go on to lose five in a row before picking up another one. In spite of that, Astralis, playing on the more favored side, would go on to tie the game at 5. Virtus.pro proved that its players were the best on Nuke and went on a 4-1 run to close the half. Astralis again won the pistol round, but this time won the two anti-economy rounds it needed to tie the game at 9. Astralis would go on to tie the game at 12, but Virtus.pro would move on to take the lead right back and win 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, a map both teams are excellent on. Virtus.pro won the pistol round, but Astralis fought back to win its economy round and the next two. The score would end up being a deficit for Virtus.pro at 6-9, even though playing on the more favored side. The deficit extended when Astralis took the pistol round, but Virtus.pro bit back with an economy round victory. The score would reach 10-9 in Astralis's favor when the Danish team finally got another round on the board. Astralis extended its lead to 13-9 before the Poles earned another round. Virtus.pro to take a lead for the first time since round one at 14-13 and were two rounds away from taking the major. However, Astralis prevailed against the veterans and won the last three rounds, barely taking Overpass 16-14. While dupreeh had 24 kills, Xyp9x was the most impactful with 28 kills. dev1ce had the least kills of either team with only 13 kills. Snax went huge for his team with 27 kills, but TaZ struggled with just 15 kills.

Train is historically a map Virtus.pro is historically legendary for and Astralis was the team to end SK Gaming's 17 game win streak on Train. While the first two maps were close in terms of rounds, Virtus.pro immediately jumped to a 7-0 lead before Astralis closed the gap to went on a 6-1 run, to make the score 8-6. Virtus.pro would convincingly win the last round, to make the score at the half 9-6. Virtus.pro won the all important pistol round and the following anti-economy rounds before Astralis won the first gun round to make the score 12-7. However, Virtus.pro partially bought into the next round and won the round. Astralis would win an economy round of its own the following round and then eventually closed the gap to a close 13-12. Virtus.pro had very little equipment to use in the following round but still somehow managed to win the round behind NEO and Snax, giving the Poles a 14th round. Astralis would tie the score at 14 and then took the lead for the first time at 15-14. Virtus.pro needed the 30th round to send the game to overtime. The Polish team was on a very limited buy with one inferior rifle, a submachine gun, a shotgun, and two pistols while Astralis had everything it needed. Kjaerbye found byali as the Danes were heading to the A bombsite quickly. Snax attempted to challenge Kjaerbye but he was taken down. pashaBiceps came in to take down Xyp9x but dupreeh traded him out. dupreedh then proceeded to take down NEO and then headshot TaZ for the final kill of ELEAGUE Major 2017. Kjaerbye had 29 kills and dev1ce showed up in the last few rounds, but only ending the game with 15 kills. TaZ and Snax had 27 and 24 kills, respectively, for Virtus.pro while NEO struggled throughout the map, with the exception of a few maps, with only 11 kills.^[37][38]

Kjaerbye was named the most valuable player for the ELEAGUE major and was the youngest player to earn the title.^[39]

Fnatic (from Sweden) still lead all teams with three majors and SK Gaming (Brazil) has two, including one under the Luminosity Gaming banner. With Astralis (Denmark) winning the ELEAGUE major, there were now five teams at one major each, with the other teams being Virtus.pro (Poland), Ninjas in Pyjamas (Sweden), Team LDLC.com (France), and Team EnVyUs (France), and 80% of majors have been won by European teams. This also broke the strong of a non-European team winning the major, as SK Gaming had both 2016 majors.

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	Seed	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

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.^[40]

Clash for Cash

ELEAGUE announced a rematch between the two finalists that took place on June 16, 2017. It featured a US$250,000 prize pool and the winner takes home all of it. The showmatch was dubbed "Clash for Cash." In the end, Astralis turned up in the last two games and easily took the set in three.^[41]

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