Astralis stands above 15 other teams in Chicago as they defeat Team Liquid in the grand finals of the Intel Extreme Masters Chicago “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” tournament and come one step closer to the Intel Grand Slam.
The best of five map grand final started on Mirage. The first map took all 30 rounds to finish as Astralis won 16-14. The map was hotly contested in the beginning, with Astralis taking the terrorist side and Liquid the counter-terrorists. Liquid began to pull away around the tenth round with a score of 7-3. By the end of the half, Liquid retained the edge nine rounds to six. Liquid looked to have the map in hand at the start of round 25, leading 14-10. Being put on the back foot, Astralis rallied putting together the last six rounds of the map and taking a mapping lead in the series. It is hard to tell whether Astralis’ win on this map was due to their skill or Team Liquid dropping the ball. It probably was a little bit of both. There were a few rounds that Liquid should have won easily and Astralis did a great job of keeping the Liquid economy in check. They made sure to make every round as costly as possible for Liquid, leaving only two or three players alive for Liquid at the end of rounds forcing them to re-buy weapons and armor and never letting Liquid gain a solid foothold. This was deciding factor as Liquid could only make sub-par buys in the final rounds. NAF led the way for Liquid scoring 28 kills on Mirage. Taco and Twistzz also put up respectable numbers with 23 and 24 kills respectively. Astralis may not have led the game but had a more consistent performance as a team. Every member of Astralis had between 18 and 25 kills and kept their deaths below 20, other than Dupreeh who had 21. While the entirety of Astralis put up numbers, Liquid was held back by EliGE and nitr0. nitr0 struggled on Mirage getting only 12 kills, while EliGE fells way behind the pack with only eight. Astralis won the second map handily 16-7, as they continued to show their traditional dominance on Nuke. Astralis took an early and dominating lead on the T-side taking four straight rounds before Liquid won their first in the fifth round. Liquid began to push back by the end of the half, but as the two teams switched sides Astralis held the lead 9-6. From there it was all downhill for Liquid, as they were only able to pick up one round in the second half as Astralis marched on to get their needed 16 rounds and second map. The map did not last long enough for either side to break 20 kills, but Astralis came the closest with two players reaching 19. On the Liquid side, the quietest players on the first map made the biggest splash for their team as nitr0 and EliGE let the North American squad with 17 and 14 kills respectively. If Astralis dominated Nuke, they absolutely squashed Liquid on the third and final map Inferno 16-4. Liquid started off quick on the T-side, winning the first three rounds. After that, Astralis came alive winning three straight. Liquid stopped Astralis’ streak by winning the final round in round seven. From this point onward it was all Astralis as they won the next 13 rounds and the championship in Chicago. Astralis left Chicago with a trophy and their share of the $250,000 prize pool. For winning the tournament, Astralis share was $100,000. This tournament also brought Astralis one championship away from the Intel Grand Slam. “The Intel Grand Slam is a new and ground-breaking esport competition. It ties competitions hosted by ESL and Dreamhack together by offering one million dollars to the first CSGO team which can win four tournaments in the span of ten to complete the first Intel Grand Slam,” according to the Intel Grand Slam website. With the win in Chicago, Astralis has three of the four needed titles to win the million dollars and the first Intel Grand Slam.
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September 2019
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