CSGO: Astralis beat Liquid to win ECS Season 8 Finals

Astralis came back with a one-map lead to defeat Liquid 2-1 and claim the Esports Championship Series (ECS) season 8 title.

In the ninth encounter this year between the two strongest teams of 2019 – and the third in a final – Astralis overcame their opponents to take home their third cup of the season, after winning the StarLadder Major and IEM. Beijing. In front of a Liquid who was hungry for the first title after 4 months of nothing, the Danish team lost to the first map Vertigo despite almost completing a spectacular flip. But undefeated, Astralis responded to his opponent in the next two maps.

Liquid are yet to win against Astralis this season after four attempts, while the Danes are looking to finish the year as the world No. “I think Liquid played really well, but we wanted to show that 2019 or 2018 are just numbers and Astralis is always the best team,” Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander said after the game when asked about the North region. America is emerging in recent weeks. The two teams will probably meet again in a few days, at the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals.

Liquid pick map Vertigo surprised many people, including Astralis. Astralis coach zonic said his team was “ambushed” in the veto. The reason is because before that, Astralis had won all 6 games on this map over the past 3 months, including 2 times against Liquid (at the StarLadder Major and ESL One New York).

The North American team spoke up with a perfect CT pistol round, then widened the lead to 3-0. Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen exploded when he opened the A side with three important frags, helping Astralis win the first round. Unfortunately, his team could not close the gap.

In the remaining rounds of the first half, the Danish team was completely silent and sometimes did not dare to attack the bombsite. Despite breaking through Liquid’s defenses with the Desert Eagle, Astralis quickly collapsed after that. A 1v2 clutch from Stewie2K helped Liquid win the 11th round of the first half, but the hero of the team was NAF. He got himself 22 frags.

The chessboard turned in the second half. Astralis this time extinguished all efforts of Liquid, to equalize the score 13-13. However, with only a P250, NAF rescued Liquid with a triple phase. His win inspired the team to hit map points, before Xyp9x did the same for Astralis, pushing the game to overtime.

It seemed that the mental advantage belonged to Astralis, but Liquid dominated and won all 4 rounds in a row, not giving the opponent a chance to protest.

Entering the Nuke map, Astralis was dealt a painful defeat when successfully letting nitr0 3v1 succeed: kill 2 people and then defuse the bomb in smoke. The North American team led 3-0 but could not keep up the pressure as Astralis hoarded money. The rest of the half was tense, with neither side willing to give in to the other. Liquid temporarily led 8-7 thanks to the last two rounds of the first half.

On the T side, Liquid won the pistol round with a quick push A, then won 2 rounds later. The Danish team remained calm, tightened their defenses when they got the gun, and completely overwhelmed the opponent with a score of 16-11.

Dust2’s first half was one-way: Astralis controlled from the start and crushed CT. They led 12-3, not allowing the opponent to have any winning streak.

Things took a turn for the worse for the NA team when they lost the pistol round. Even so, the boys still performed impressively and won several rounds in a row thanks to Twistzz’s work, including a 1v3 clutch. But their comeback was soon extinguished. Astralis won 3 rounds in a row to get their 5th title of 2019.

Final rankings of teams at ECS Season 8 Finals:

first. Astralis – $225,000
2. Liquid – $100,000
3-4. fnatic – $50,000
3-4. Evil Geniuses – $50,000
5-6. MIBR – $25,000
5-6. NiP – $25,000
7-8. Sharks – $12,500
7-8. AVANGAR – $12,500