Cloud9 vs SK Gaming

ELEAGUE Major 2018 Semi Finals,

Here we go with the first match of the ELEAGUE Major 2018 Semi Finals. In a weird formatted swiss system, SK Gaming will be playing a second best of 3 game today against North America's Cloud9. This is a tad surprising as this is one of the biggest Major events of the entire year the format for timing has been set to put one team to the brink of exhaustion by forcing them to play a possible 6 full competitive games in one day.

SK Gaming :

Their is no denying that SK Gaming is the worlds best, and the even with their stand in Phelps, SK have shown and impressive performance and I have seen a lot of wonderful CS playing today already by the Brazilians. I have no doubt that SK when they return with their full lineup with Boltz, that it will be another year of dominating performances for them. They seemed to have struggled a little against Fnatic forcing nearly two different games into overtime and going the full distance and playing all 3 games against them, but ultimately pulled off the win and advanced to the semi's.

Maps for SK are as followed; Mirage is 8-5, Overpass is 8-2, Cobblestone is 8-1, Inferno is 3-5, Cache is 5-2, Train is 5-1, and Nuke is the perma ban

Cloud9 :

For the first time in Cloud9's history the team has made it not only to the top 8 of the Major, but now the top 4. They did a fantastic job against G2 and in a surprise to almost everyone, beat out the French "super team". I always put "super team" in quotes because of how inconstant G2 really is and I don't see them winning much until they fix their ability to close games.Back to Cloud9, everyone stepped up including Skadoodle the primary AWPer. Who often doesn't perform in high stress event, but I feel he's ready to move on to being a more stable performer across all games no matter the stakes.

Cloud9's maps are as followed; Mirage is 14-4, Inferno is 8-2, Train is 7-3, Cobblestone is 8-2, Overpass is 2-4, Cache is 3-2, and Nuke is the perma ban.

Map Pick/Ban :

The perma ban between both of these teams is Nuke, so it'll come down to the pick ban to decide what exact maps these teams want to get down to. I'm certain that Mirage won't be banned out, and will likely be the deciding map. In terms of bans, Cloud9 will want to ban out Train, as SK are notorious for their CT side on that map. SK will likely follow with an Inferno ban. Picks will go for likely Overpass and Cobblestone, as these are the two remaining maps that have the highest win rate. Cache is the remaining ban to take place.

Final Thoughts:

In this match up we have rare opportunity to exploit what I think is a flaw in an otherwise perfect system. Though SK Gaming do have basically a 2 hour break between games, they still have to warm up and possible watch the games in between theirs in order to try and gain an advantage in the next map. It will be a very busy day or SK and I feel a certain level of exhaustion will take place. I mean, SK have today already played 99 rounds of Counter Strike. This being said, Cloud9 are fresh and have seen how SK are playing because of the earlier matches and I feel Cloud9 if they play solid and don't give SK any wiggle room are going to be the victors of this game.