Despite massive improvements from Team Liquid, Astralis cemented their hold on the #1 spot after winning the BLAST Pro Global Final in Bahrain. This pushes their 2019 title count to six, well ahead of anyone else in the world. They have a knack for exploiting their enemy’s weaknesses through adaptation. The event is relatively short for a big event, which makes every single game important. Nonetheless, the Danes made sure they played it clean. They did not drop a map in the entire tournament. Astralis are simply playing on a whole different level compared to every other team out there.
Second career MVP for dupreeh
As for their performance throughout the three-day tournament, they truly deserve their #1 spot. In KD difference, Peter “dupreeh“ Rasmussen led all players in the event with +45. He also held the top spot for Kills per round at 0.83, and Headshots per round at 0.41. On top of that, he placed in the top three and top five of every other category.
It’s interesting to see how multi-faceted this Danish squad is. You could argue that every single player on the team can realistically vie for an MVP without any ego issues. Aside from that, it should be a welcome relief for star AWPer Nicolai “dev1ce“ Reedtz, knowing he doesn’t have to 1v5 every single time.
Playoff Stage
Astralis started their tournament run with a clean 2-0 against Team Liquid. Even though the American side kept things relatively close, Astralis kept a good hold on the entire series.
The Astralis win sent Team Liquid to the lower bracket, where they would eventually slog through to the grand final. On the other hand, Astralis won the next round against Ninjas in Pyjamas. NiP won the initial round against FaZe Clan but eventually fell to the Danish overlords. That meant Astralis waited for the three teams to sort themselves out in the lower bracket.
Team Liquid sent FaZe Clan home in a tight 2-1 series then sent NiP away in the following round.
Grand Final
If you were a Liquid fan like me, you’d be depressed with how Astralis constantly had their number each time. On the first map of the final, the Danish squad raced off to a quick 8 round lead before the Americans could even get on the board. Dupreeh ended the first half with 17 frags and, along with dev1ce, would not let Team Liquid get close. After the switch, Liquid found some success but ultimately fell to the hot-shooting duo of dupreeh and dev1ce.
In the second map, things pretty much played similarly. Astralis definitely wanted to sink their fangs for the end game. However, the NA side managed to keep it close, ending the first half of Nuke with an 8-7 lead. In the end, Astralis ended the map and the tournament in the one the best ways possible: through an Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth’s clutch. GG.
**Featured image source: @astralisgg Twitter
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