HCS Raleigh: Cloud9 stomp eUnited to win first major Halo Infinite trophy

Cloud9 secured the first major trophy for Halo Infinite as they took down eUnited to become HCS Raleigh champions.

The first major event of Halo Infinite, the Halo Championship Series (HCS) Kickoff Major, ended with a bang as Cloud9 (C9) dominated the grand final matchup against eUnited. The winning squad had stomped through the tournament's upper bracket, not once dropping a series and losing only six maps in total. C9 then capped off their near-perfect HCS Raleigh run with a 4-1 thrashing of eUnited in the best-of-seven finals to claim the first major Halo Infinite trophy.

Coming from the lower bracket, eUnited faced a gargantuan task of having to win two straight series to garner the trophy. In the lower bracket finals, the squad took down FaZe Clan to book a rematch with Cloud9 in the final series. C9, however, gave them little hope for an upset, taking care of business.

On Streets, C9 struck first with an Oddball win, sharing the ball and controlling the spawn points. They had trailed at first but came in the clutch for the second round to go up 1-0 in the series. The game slowed slightly on Recharge, as the sides battled through a very close Slayer round. It was advantage C9 though, as they edged out the win 46-45 off the back of last-second kills from Kevin “Eco” Smith.

The veteran roster continued to power through their opponents, quickly amassing a huge lead in Strongholds on Live Fire. C9 players had impressive rotations alongside a triple cap to ensure that the squad came away with the win, 250-157. EUnited did try to bounce back as they secured the fourth map, starting with an early flag capture on Aquarius. However, the team couldn't string together a comeback in the series as C9 regained control in the fifth map on Bazaar.

It was another Slayer mode, with C9 cruising to the victory after locking down several pick-ups including the rocket launcher, overshield, and Dynamo grenades. Veteran pros Jonathan “Renegade” Willette and Braedon “StelluR” Boettcher together racked up 33 kills on the map, and added yet another trophy to their collection. Meanwhile, this marked Zane “Pznguin” Christopher Hearon's first ever major Halo title, as Cloud9 were crowned Raleigh champions to cap off a strong 2021 campaign for the team.