ELEAGUE Major: Boston broke its own record to set a new all-time figure for concurrent viewers on a single Twitch channel. The stream generated more than 1,130,000 concurrent to break a similar record set last year.
The culmination of a three week event saw eight of the world’s best teams grace the Agganis Arena over the weekend to battle it out for their share of the $1,000,000 prize money. Whilst surprise package Quantum Bellator Fire were pushed out by a dominant Natus Vincere in the quarter-finals, FaZe breezed past mous and SK edged past Fnatic. G2 Esports yet again managed to choke heavily as they were annihilated by North American hope Cloud9 in the last eight.
The final four saw FaZe face Na’Vi and SK Gaming have to play a second best of three in a day against Cloud9. The first of the two games was a disappointment as Na’Vi didn’t put much resistance up and FaZe breezed into the final. The second match, however, was scintillating. Cloud9 would eventually come out on top in what was a gruelling encounter and ELEAGUE would face staunch criticism from the Brazilian team as they were yet again forced to play two lengthy series in a day.
Fast-forward to Sunday, and after the show match had concluded it was time for the final. Star-studded roster FaZe would face North American hopes Cloud9 on the latters home soil. The fans were raucous, with highly original chants of “USA, USA, USA” and “Let’s go Cloud9” ringing around the Agganis Arena. The first map – Cloud9’s map pick – didn’t go the way of the American squad. They bounced back though to annihilate FaZe on Overpass and the last of the three maps was truly epic.
The battle went down on Inferno and it wasn’t until a second overtime that eventually one team could take the match point. FaZe had championship points in regulation, and Cloud9 had three in the first overtime. Each and every one was squandered following epic clutches and missteps from either team. Then, eventually, Cloud9 would not be denied. Still a fairly new team – Cloud9 achieved what many thought was not possible in winning a Major as a North American team. They did it too, in front of a record breaking audience.
Esports Insider says: Great figures from ELEAGUE and that’s not even including the television viewers. We’re sure overall it was even higher – and it should be too. It was one of the most memorable esports matches we can remember watching. If you haven’t seen it – go and watch it.