Astralis beat Liquid 3-1 to win ESL Pro League S7

Astralis won ESL Pro League Season 7 after beating Liquid in 4 maps.

Going into the finals in Dallas, many believed – including FaZe’s rain – that Astralis’ victory was predetermined and the question was whether they could win in just three maps. The overwhelming 16-1 win at Dust2 marked the series as going in favor of Astralis, but Liquid responded and made the champion break out in a sweat as well.

Dust2 is Liquid’s map pick, but the results don’t speak for themselves. The triple from dupreeh in the pistol round helped Astralis run smoothly. Not only did Liquid lose all the gunfights, but they couldn’t react to flash/smoke/molly from their opponents.

In the 7th round, NAF and Twistzz almost reversed the situation from 2v5 but Magisk successfully clutched 1v2. Liquid then finally got their first score across the board after beating Astralis’ double AWP setup. Unfortunately, Astralis showed no signs of stopping and Ho won all the remaining rounds of the half to lead 14-1.

The second half was not very good when Liquid couldn’t stop the A push in the pistol round. With no money left, the North American team hopelessly let the opponent win their map pick right away.

The next map is Nuke. Liquid won the all-important pistol round and the next anti-eco round. Astralis fired in round 3 and won, but Liquid responded as soon as NAF tripled with a galil.

Liquid took advantage of the match’s momentum to take a 5-1 lead but lost a surprise 2v1 to gla1ve. It was the turning point for Astralis. They gradually narrowed the gap and took the lead, not allowing the opponent to find a way to survive.

Now on to CT, Liquid played more firmly and took the lead in the 1v3 cluch phase of nitr0. Astralis did not allow themselves to lose, and won 4 rounds in a row to take the lead.

Liquid won 3 more rounds, pushing the score to 14-13, but they couldn’t finish the map as Astralis fought hard in the last 3 rounds to win 16-14.

Moving on to Mirage, Liquid’s second map pick. This time, the North American team looked different. Liquid gradually pressured the opponent and widened the gap. But Astralis did not let the match get out of reach: winning 6 of the last 7 rounds to close the gap to 8-7.

A 1v3 clutch from Xyp9x gave Astralis the lead and extended the gap for another 4 rounds. Liquid’s situation looks pretty bleak. Taking a 7-13 lead, Liquid tightened their defense and began to shrink the score. Until the 30th round, NAF made a treble to prevent bombing and help their team win 16-14.

With that momentum, Liquid started off like flying on the map Inferno when winning 5 of the first 6 rounds. The North American team stumbled when they let Astralis win the eco round.

Astralis started to win a few sporadic rounds to keep the gap to a minimum, but Liquid didn’t lose the lead and dominated the game: only allowing the opponent to pocket 5 rounds in the first half.

In the second half, Liquid had a pistol round with a quad-kill from EliGE in B. Unfortunately, Astralis responded immediately and extinguished the Liquid fire on his home field. The Danish team lost just one more round before finishing the map at 16-12, claiming their second international cup in just a month.

Final rankings of teams at ESL Pro League Season 7

first. Astralis – $250,000

2. Liquid – $110,000

3-4. FaZe – $55,000

3-4. Natus Vincere – $55,000

5-6. mousesports – $32,000

5-6. SK – $32,000

7-8. OpTic – $24,000

7-8. Heroic – $24,000

9-12. Cloud9 – $22,000

9-12. NRG – $22,000

9-12. Space Soldiers – $22,000

9-12. Renegades – $22,000

13-16. NiP – $20,000

13-16. MVP PK – $20,000

13-16. Grayhound – $20,000

13-16. Sharks – $20,000

Source: HLTV