Astralis are the best Counter-Strike team in the history of the game. This is no longer an opinion, it’s a fact. The Danish powerhouse conquered the ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals on home soil in Odense and clinched the $1,000,000 Intel® Grand Slam playing some of the most confident CS ever displayed at a professional LAN tournament.
The ESL Pro League S8 Finals started off with a fair share of surprises that enabled the possibility of a minnow breaking through to upset the top dogs. Sharks Esports eliminated North early on in the group stage, Ghost Gaming bested their more experienced NA rivals NRG and Renegades defeated BIG en route to a playoffs berth.
Despite these disturbances to the established order, the Arena Days were proof once again that there is a clear pecking order in the CS scene with Team Liquid and Astralis storming to the Grand Final without much trouble. The fans in Odense would witness a rematch of the Season 7 finals in Dallas, quite literally.
Team Liquid gave it their best and managed to snatch the first map of the series, Train, but the local favorites quickly put any hopes of an NA victory to sleep. Astralis took Mirage, Inferno and Dust II in succession to secure their ultimate triumph.
The ESL Pro League Season 8 champions and first-ever Intel® Grand Slam will be back in action at the IEM Katowice 2019 CS:GO Major in February, where they’ll aim to write yet another chapter in their epic.
Results:
Group A
Group B
Playoffs
Highlights:
Potentially the @VodafoneGaming #PlayFaster moment of the day? What do you think? #ESLProLeague pic.twitter.com/nAft5zsxQU
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) December 8, 2018
We've had a very NICE tournament so far #ESLProLeague pic.twitter.com/IYKT22UHbn
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) December 8, 2018
Enjoy the best moments of the #ESLProLeague Season 8 GRAND FINALS!
Song: https://t.co/JocUiJ5lEr pic.twitter.com/NOWpaoUK5c
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) December 9, 2018
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