We bid farewell to the "New Legends Stage" held in Atlanta earlier this week and are now heading towards Boston for the Major finale.
The "New Champions Stage" will be the last round of the Boston Major circuit and determine the new champion between the last remaining eight teams. The round will run from 26th to 28th of January, 2018, inside the Agganis Arena in Boston, MA.

To start with likely the biggest impression that Atlanta left us with - once more we were pleasantly surprised by one of the underdogs that came from the CIS Minor.
Quantum Bellator Fire demolished
Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas' Virtus.pro 16-3 on Cache, defeated Gambit Gaming 19-16 on Inferno and mousesports 16-14 on Train to secure a spot in Massachusetts. Their only loss was against the Frenchmen of G2 Esports, where the Russians scored only four rounds in total on Cache.
Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub's G2 Esports came well prepared in Atlanta and showed an impressive improvement so far as the French team were the first to qualify for the third stage of the tournament by overwhelming Cloud 9, Team Liquid and the Russians from QBF.
Unfortunately, the only contender coming from the Scandinavian region will be the Swedish Fnatic, who will face our Brazilians in the quarter-finals this Saturday in Boston, as none of the Danish teams managed to retain their Legends status.
Nicolai 'device' Reedtz's Astralis ended up going home with only one win in the scoreboard, which was a narrow 16-14 versus their countrymen of North.
FaZe Clan, led by the Danish veteran
Finn 'karrigan' Andersen, also had a consistent performance during the "New Legends Stage" as the European squad were the second to claim a spot after G2 with a clean 3-0 sweep. FaZe outmatched Fnatic, Vega Squadron and last, but not least, our Brazilian division 16-12 on Cache.
Despite their recent respectable showing at late last year's events, the returning Krakow Major champions Gambit Gaming failed to move forward and defend their title without the leadership of
Danylo 'Zeus' Teslenko, who on the other hand qualified together with the rest of Natus Vincere. The Kazakhstan team was eliminated by the Swedes of Fnatic 16-2 on Mirage.
The North American team Cloud 9, the aforementioned above Fnatic and the revamped roster of mousesports all had trouble in securing the remaining spots for the formerly known as the playoffs stage, but were successful in the deciding hour.
The Turkish team Space Soldiers had an amazing beginning in the United States, but despite
Ahmet 'paz' Karahoca's strong individual performance, the team was unable to reach Boston after falling short to
Martin 'styko' Styk's mousesports.
The Polish pride Virtus.pro was disappointingly one of the first two teams, alongside the Danish team North, to be sent home after being knocked out by
Tarik 'tarik' Celik and company without winning a single map.
The other two teams to be eliminated in Atlanta were BIG and Team Liquid, the latest who had to use their coach
Wilton 'zews' Prado as a stand-in.
The following teams retained/received a Legends status and will be present in Boston for the Major's final stage this month:
G2 Esports (shox, bodyy, NBK, kennyS & apEX)
FaZe (rain, karrigan, NiKo, GuardiaN & olofmeister)
Quantum Bellator Fire (balblna, Kvik, jmqa, waterfaLLZ & Boombl4)
SK Gaming (FalleN, fer, coldzera, TACO & felps)
Natus Vincere (Edward, flamie, s1mple, Zeus & electronic)
Fnatic (KRiMZ, jw, flusha, Golden & Lekr0)
Cloud 9 (Skadoodle, Stewie2k, autimatic, RUSH & tarik)
mousesports (chrisJ, oskar, ropz, suNny & STYKO)

SK Gaming reached the final round of the Major circuit with three victories over Space Soldiers, mousesports and the Krakow Major champions Gambit Gaming, and a narrow 12-16 defeat on Cache to
Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer's FaZe Clan.
Our Brazilians will face
Jesper 'jw' Wecksell's Fnatic in the quarter-finals this Saturday, 26th of January, at 16:00 CET.
More information can as usual be found in our esport index.
Stay tuned to SK Gaming for more news and updates.
The "New Champions Stage" will be the last round of the Boston Major circuit and determine the new champion between the last remaining eight teams. The round will run from 26th to 28th of January, 2018, inside the Agganis Arena in Boston, MA.

To start with likely the biggest impression that Atlanta left us with - once more we were pleasantly surprised by one of the underdogs that came from the CIS Minor.
Quantum Bellator Fire demolished


Unfortunately, the only contender coming from the Scandinavian region will be the Swedish Fnatic, who will face our Brazilians in the quarter-finals this Saturday in Boston, as none of the Danish teams managed to retain their Legends status.

FaZe Clan, led by the Danish veteran

Despite their recent respectable showing at late last year's events, the returning Krakow Major champions Gambit Gaming failed to move forward and defend their title without the leadership of

The North American team Cloud 9, the aforementioned above Fnatic and the revamped roster of mousesports all had trouble in securing the remaining spots for the formerly known as the playoffs stage, but were successful in the deciding hour.
The Turkish team Space Soldiers had an amazing beginning in the United States, but despite


The Polish pride Virtus.pro was disappointingly one of the first two teams, alongside the Danish team North, to be sent home after being knocked out by

The other two teams to be eliminated in Atlanta were BIG and Team Liquid, the latest who had to use their coach

The following teams retained/received a Legends status and will be present in Boston for the Major's final stage this month:









SK Gaming reached the final round of the Major circuit with three victories over Space Soldiers, mousesports and the Krakow Major champions Gambit Gaming, and a narrow 12-16 defeat on Cache to

Our Brazilians will face

More information can as usual be found in our esport index.
Stay tuned to SK Gaming for more news and updates.

Evgeni Chardakov
Counter-Strike expert, writer, analyst and former competitive player with more than 15 years of experience within the discipline. Working with SK Gaming and ESEA.


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