The second semi-final of the ELEAGUE Major 2018 finished with Cloud9 earning a 2-1 victory (Mirage 16-3, Cobblestone 8-16, Inferno 16-9), earning a spot in the grand final.

Cloud9 came into the match firing on all cylinders, the first six rounds went their way comfortably and their main star early on, William "⁠RUSH⁠" Wierzba, was 7K-0D over that period. Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David and Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga stepped up for the Brazilians in the next round, getting the early kills and clutching a 2v2, but in a chaotic followup, Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta rose to the occassion and clutched the round for Cloud9 (7-1).

RUSH's crisp entries on B in round eight broke SK's economy and allowed the North American team to continue bullying the Brazilians from the Terrorist side of Mirage. Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo and co.'s consecutive loss bonus resulted in a lot of buys, albeit limited ones, but they couldn't edge out any of the close rounds, allowing Cloud9 to run away and finish 13-2 up.

Tyler "⁠Skadoodle⁠" Latham, had a great first half, took his form into the second one and started off with two quick USP-S kills in the pistol. Despite Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik adding a kill of his own shortly, SK still managed to contest the round, but Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo's clutch attempt was denied by the timer.

SK exploded on the A site in a force buy, putting their third round on the board, but fumbled in the next one, when they had superior utility, and allowed Cloud9 to close out the game 16-3.

tarik was key in Cloud9's semi-final win

A clean and confident 3-0 start for SK on the Terrorist side of their map pick, Cobblestone, was just what the doctor ordered after their poor showing on Mirage. In the first gun round, autimatic picked up two clean kills on A long with the support of Skadoodle's flashbangs, but TACO replied with two entries on B that saw SK bring the round back in their control and advance their lead.

SK didn't stop putting on the pressure, FalleN's triple with the AWP made the score 6-0, but Cloud9 managed to reply shortly, edging out a 2v2 on B (7-1). A fast B play was SK's choice in the next round, aiming to break Cloud9 with pace, but the defense held strong and Cloud9 started their own streak of rounds.

The North Americans replied to SK's seven-round winning streak with one of their own, equalizing the score at 7-7 with tarik playing well across the run. However, SK got back in the driver's seat by winning the CT pistol, shutting down Cloud9's A split.

FalleN's Scout headshots closed out the anti-ecos, but it was fer's aggression on A that proved to be the thorn in Cloud9's Terrorist side. After picking up a couple of kills in previous SK round wins, the 26-year-old single-handedly got his side on map point, killing four on a fast B flank (15-7). The same player ended up closing out the map as well, clutching a 1v1 against Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip to force map three - Inferno.

SK bow out of the tournament with a respectable 3-4th place finish

SK's mid push in the Terrorist pistol on Inferno was easily shut down by Cloud9, with RUSH pulling off a hero double on the A site to prevent his side being reset by a force buy. After losing the first three rounds, TACO got his side running by clutching a 1v2 and then getting a key entry in the next round.

Just when it seemed that FalleN's team was in the prime position to start building on the T-side, a series of force-buy wins happened. In the end, Cloud9 ended up on top, largely thanks to the heroics of tarik, who was 19K-5D after nine rounds (6-3).

The local team ran away with the CT half after that, not dropping a single round to SK before the end of the half, finishing it 12-3 up. João "⁠felps⁠" Vasconcellos flanked Cloud9 on the pistol, softening up his opponents for fer, who killed two in the retake. SK sustained the pressure despite losing against a force-buy, bringing the score to 13-7 with fairly confident round wins.

At that point, Cloud9 managed to break into the B site on the back of autimatic's entries, while Stewie2K's double resolved the clutch. Cloud9 wasn't able to close it out right away, as coldzera did well in back-to-back rounds, but managed to do it in the end with a B rush, making the score 16-9.

ELEAGUE Major 2018Best of 3 Cloud9Matchpage 2 1 28th January 2018 SK 16Mirage 3 8Cobblestone 16 16Inferno 9

Cloud9	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Timothy 'autimatic' Taautimatic	58 - 40	+18	84.3	1.29
Tarik 'tarik' Celiktarik	55 - 48	+7	94.8	1.25
Jake 'Stewie2K' YipStewie2K	49 - 44	+5	74.6	1.14
William 'RUSH' WierzbaRUSH	44 - 44	0	80.5	1.06
Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamSkadoodle	43 - 41	+2	65.5	1.02

SK	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Fernando 'fer' Alvarengafer	48 - 49	-1	80.5	1.10
Marcelo 'coldzera' Davidcoldzera	47 - 42	+5	65.6	0.99
Epitacio 'TACO' de MeloTACO	44 - 52	-8	69.1	0.98
Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFalleN	39 - 51	-12	68.2	0.83
João 'felps' Vasconcellosfelps	38 - 55	-17	70.6	0.82

Tyler 'Skadoodle' Latham Age: 24 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 847 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.58 Marcelo 'coldzera' David Age: 23 Team: SK Rating 1.0: 1.22 Maps played: 694 KPR: 0.81 DPR: 0.61 Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo Age: 23 Team: SK Rating 1.0: 0.96 Maps played: 603 KPR: 0.63 DPR: 0.63 João 'felps' Vasconcellos Age: 21 Team: SKB Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 488 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.71 Cloud9 #5 Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaTarik 'tarik' CelikTimothy 'autimatic' TaJake 'Stewie2K' Yip Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga Age: 26 Team: SK Rating 1.0: 1.12 Maps played: 736 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.68 Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo Age: 26 Team: SK Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 740 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.60 SK #1 Marcelo 'coldzera' DavidFernando 'fer' AlvarengaGabriel 'FalleN' ToledoRicardo 'boltz' PrassEpitacio 'TACO' de Melo Tarik 'tarik' Celik Age: 21 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 770 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.68 Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip Age: 20 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 640 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.69 William 'RUSH' Wierzba Age: 23 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 693 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.67 Timothy 'autimatic' Ta Age: 21 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 669 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.68