Astralis win ECS Season 5 Finals Beating Team Liquid in Grand Final – Highlights and Final Placements

The ECS Grand Final is done and dusted and Astralis are your new champions after defeating Team Liquid in an intense match.

The veto saw both teams deviate somewhat from the maps that have been their bread and butter throughout the tournament as Team Liquid picked Miage and Astralis picked Dust 2. The deciding map, if needed, would be Nuke.

Astralis got off to the perfect start on Mirage with a CT side pistol round followed by the crucial anti-ecos for a perfect 3-0 start. The Danes also managed to pick up the first rifle round and soon raced off to a commanding lead.

So commanding, in fact, that Team Liquid seemed to be completely incapable of getting a single round on the board. As has been the pattern throughout the tournament, Astralis’ CT side seemed impenetrable.

Team Liquid finally managed to get on the board in round 10 and quickly doubled down to get their second. Astralis then looked set to win an incredible eco round but Team Liquid’s youngest star, Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken clutched up to keep them in with a shot.

The North American’s eventually managed to reduce the deficit to 4-11 by the end of the first half but they were still facing an uphill battle after switching to the CT side.

That uphill battle got even steeper when Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen clutched an intense pistol round to give Astralis the economical advantage once again at the start of the second half.

The Danes capitalized on this and soon found themselves on match point with a score of 15-4. Team Liquid had terrible economy going into round 20 but bough up what they could and somehow prevented the inevitable for a moment at least.

The North Americans were able to string a number of impressive rounds together and looked set to make a stunning comeback but Astralis eventually prevailed to take the first map with a score of 16-14.

Astralis opened up on Dust 2 with yet another pistol round win but Team Liquid answered right back with a force buy and started stringing rounds together on the T side to take a comfortable lead.

Astralis eventually got back on the board with a force buy round of their own but Liquid’s 6-2 start to the map was certainly better than their opening rounds on Mirage and they immediately regained control.

It looked like Team Liquid could do no wrong as they won clutch after clutch to continue stretching out their lead. Astralis finally responded in round 13 to reduce the deficit to 3-10 but the half was already a disaster for the Danes.

Halftime saw Team Liquid holding a 10-5 lead but Astralis managed to win a seemingly impossible pistol round to keep themselves in with a shot of making a comeback. Device and co. then started to mirror Liquid’s first half performance and soon drew level at 10-10.

After a tournament that featured some of the most impressive CT sides in recent memory, it was actually Astralis’ T side that was the difference maker on Dust 2 as Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth started to take over the game.

Eventually the Danish side secured map and championship point at 15-12 as Tam Liquid opted to save with four p layers alive as they faced a B site retake.

Unfortunately the North Americans could not extend the match any longer and Astralis eventually secured the tournament win, proving yet again that they are the best team on Earth.

ECS Season 5 Final Placements