The North Americans of Cloud9 came up big on Friday with a quick 2-0 win over G2 Esports to advance to the ELEAGUE Major: Boston semifinals at the Agganis Arena.
Cloud9 started on their map pick, Mirage as G2 took the spotlight with a close pistol win. Cloud9 turned around and forced in the second round for a win thanks to Timothy "autimatic" Ta's triple deagle kill. The momentum swing for Cloud9 granted them the next seven of eight rounds to establish an economy and a lead. G2 finally got back into the action with Richard "shox" Papillon getting a quad kill while Dan "apEX" Madesclaire's triple closed the half on a strong note.
"I sat with tarik and the guys prior and talked about having an aggressive playstyle, which works for us because that's how the guys want to play and this also allows them to find other ways to win," Cloud9 coach Soham "Valens" Chowdhury told eGamerNews in a post-match interview.
The second half continued with the North American's dominance as the team put on five quick rounds over G2 before apEX gave G2 some hope with his miraculous 3-vs-4 double kill in a post-plant situation. Unfortunately for G2 fans, Cloud9 returned with their buy round and with the help by Will "RUSH" Wierzba's great individual performance they took the first game 16-8.
The action then switched over to Overpass where Cloud9 started on the CT-side of one of their least played maps, but managed to carry the momentum from the first game into the second. Cloud9 won the pistol and picked up the anti-eco's thanks to a 1-vs-2 clutch from RUSH to deny G2 their third round buy.
"We weren't sure as to why [G2] picked Overpass over Cache, but either way we had a game plan going into Overpass, which allowed us to feel more comfortable," Valens added.
While G2 picked up a couple rounds in the rest of the half, Cloud9 was simply on another level. This was perfectly demonstrated with their near impossible 3-vs-2 post-plant situation that broke the pride of the French as the North Americans claimed the 12-3 half.
G2 had a great start to the second half getting the second pistol win and both anti-eco's under their belts, but once again, it wasn't long before Cloud9 jumped right back into the driver's seat. They remained there the rest of the way and came away with a 16-7 win.
