Astralis Sweeps Liquid in BLAST Pro Finale
Astralis end out the major calendar year for CS:GO with yet another win over Liquid. The North American squad had met them earlier on during the first day of the event where they lost out in a swift 2-0, but the finals was apparently no different.
The series began with a map veto that was basically identical to what we saw on Thursday - with Liquid picking Inferno, Astralis Nuke, and leaving the decider to be Dust 2. Although analysts and players may have thought that Liquid - given the benefit of a double elimination bracket - would be able to clean things up on their end, Liquid actually ended up losing out with an almost identical scoreline.
Inferno - picked by Liquid - saw Astralis starting up with a 10-1 lead on their CT side, where it quickly became clear to North American fans that they shouldn’t have their hopes up in case they ever did. In classic Liquid fashion though, they managed to mount a mini comeback to launch themselves forwards and win five out of the six rounds that followed courtesy of a pistol win to start off their second half. Unfortunately for the star spangled banner, it swiftly proved insufficient as Astralis still managed to defeat them 16-11.
Nuke was hardly any different as Astralis managed to claim seven rounds in the first half of the terrorist side. From there, a flubbed anti-eco after their pistol win on terrorist side left Liquid floundering for money, and Astralis happy to clean things up. Dupreeh stole away an MVP level performance on Inferno, but it was Xyp9x who really tied things up on Nuke, matching Device kill for kill as they both top-fragged collectively.
Winning the event has guaranteed Astralis their fourth trophy since the previous player break ended, alongside a cool sum of $350,000.
Liquid fans continue to wonder when things will turn around, as their 2019 ends the same way 2018 did - with a loss to Astralis. Although the post-Katowice season looked to be Liquid’s to dominate, a loss in the major to Astralis saw the same crumbling team as all mental problems versus the squad seemed to come back.
Twistzz in particular seemed to be completely absent from the server as he had below a 1.00 rating in both series. Though the rest of Liquid wasn’t performing particularly well - Twistzz seems to have gone from the player who would perform no matter what in 2018, to one who is having troubles with his mental game yet again. He’s alluded to issues with his health in the past, and Counter-Strike fans all hope for his resurgence into the next year.
Last year we saw Stewie2k being added to the roster in place of TACO at the end of the year, alongside coach Adren. Though this gave a significant boost to the team - to the point where they’re the first ever North American team to be in conversation for an era, they fell just short of the achievement.
Astralis had their fair share of controversy surrounding them this year, but they end it with a bang over their main rivals since the past two years at Bahrain. It may not be an era for them yet, but 2020 might have something to say about that.
You can expect to see Astralis next in January, where they’ll be playing the initial season of the BLAST Premier in London.
Image via Blast Pro Series
