Astralis have won the ESL Pro League Season 8 finals, thus completing the Intel Grand Slam. The Danes defeated TeamLiquid 3-1 in the grand final after losing the first map on Train.
Mirage, Inferno and Dust 2 have gone the way of Astralis despite Liquid putting up a much better fight than they had a month ago in the final of IEM Chicago. Astralis celebrated in front of a crowd of Danish fans and with their families who came to support.
The champions' run to the Intel Grand Slam involved winning the DreamHack Masters Marseille, ESL Pro League Season 7, Intel Extreme Masters Chicago and ESL Pro League Season 8 events.
Overall, the Danish team won nine trophies in 2018 so far, with an over 50% win rate in events attended. They will pick up over over #3,500,000 in prize money (including the $250,000 prize for winning the ESL Pro League and $1,000,000 for the Intel Grand Slam).
Their performance levels in 2018 were unprecedented, especially taking into account that they only won four trophies in total in 2016 and 2017. Now, Astralis will be remembered as one of the best CSGO teams in history.
The Intel Grand Slam will start with a new season in 2019 with all teams' championship accounts erased. The first event of the new season will be the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice CSGO Major.
