After six days of fighting, Astralis confirmed that they are the best csgo Global Offensive team in the world. They barely even had to play at their best throughout the entire tournament. In the end, they dominated Liquid with a 3-1 scoreline.
Not only did Astralis win their share of $750,000 prize pool. They were also awarded with Grand Slam title that bagged them additional $1.000,000 as a bonus for winning four big tournaments in 2018.
WINNERS
Just like in life, there will always be losers and winners. In this part of the article, we will go throughout some of the teams who performed well above their expectations, and some who underperformed.
Renegades
Australian organization definitely deserved their place here in Odense, but barely anyone was favoring them to even advance to the playoffs. Even though they did not have a good start to this event(16-5 defeat against HellRaisers), they really upped their game. After HellRaisers, they were playing to stay alive in ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals.
ViCi was their first opponent in the best-of-3 series. They barely had to try, as they closed the series 2-0 in a dominating fashion. After the Chinese organization, BIG was up next. Needless to say that everyone was expecting BIG to win, but Renegades proved everyone wrong. Even though they lost one map against Germans, they still came out on top as they sealed the deal with a 2-1 scoreline.
G2 was up next, and it was the first time where Renegades lost the first map of the series. However, that did not rattle them as they mounted a comeback to advance to the playoffs.
Lastly, their toughest challenge yet, mousesports. Australians were able to win the first map, but something went horribly wrong for them in other maps, and they were eliminated from the event. 5th – 6th place seems like a job well done for a team that was not expected to advance to the playoffs.
Even though they were eliminated from ESL One Pro League Season 8, their player is still topping the charts. Justin “jks” Savage has been rock solid for this team. He had the biggest KD ratio in the event. +90 to his name. He was also rated as the best player of the event, with a 1.35 rating.
However, Renegades did not base their gameplay around jks. He was just a guy that stood out. They were all performing on a very high level, and the level of preparation they have had for this event is out of this world. Some of their players are not yet used to the big stage, and this will be a valuable experience for them. Overall, a great performance from Australians, and if they keep on improving, who knows maybe we will see them in top 5 soon.
Mousesports
Ever since mousesports benched STYKO for Snax they struggled. They were barely making it through their group and in most of the cases, they would not even see the big stage. The entire roster was aware that something will have to be changed, and they did the best thing possible. STYKO was placed back into the active roster, while Snax was benched.
Some will say that Germans had it easy in this event, but that is not the case. Their opening match was a tough one, even though results may say differently. Ghost is a very capable team, and the only reason they struggled was that of the pace that mousesports brought to this game.
Mousesports
Secondly, Natus Vincere is not an easy opponent by any means. Yes, they are struggling as of late, but to leave them in single digits in both maps speaks volumes.
After Natus Vincere, Germans were really hyped and they did not keep their calm. Their next opponent was another team who is still finding their footing, MIBR. mousesports lost this game in a dominating fashion, mainly because they underestimated Brazilians.
Lastly, they had to play against Renegades, who were red hot. Even though it was not their best game in this event, they were still able to come out on top, and that says a lot about their quality. They are able to win games even if they are not at their best.
Their tournament came to an end once they were paired against Astralis. Swift 2-0 defeat.
Just like Renegades, mousesports have a lot to be proud of. They defeated #3 team in the world, Natus Vincere. They did not just defeat them, they annihilated them. Furthermore, they played a good all-around Counter-Strike. They utility was on point, they were winning aim duels, but sometimes you are just unlucky with your timings.
ASTRALIS
Reigning kings, Astralis are definitely making a name of themselves. Not only in Esports scene. Governments are hearing of their major success, and not so long ago they were invited to the mayor’s office.
They have been dominating everyone throughout the entire 2018 and they are not planning to stop. They have won almost every important tournament this year, they have beaten competition several times.
Furthermore, they are unbeaten on their best map, Nuke. The last time that they lost on Nuke was 10 months ago, 15.2.2018 to be more exact. After their defeat to Heroic, they are on a 32-0 run, which is incredible.
They marked this year not only with their individual skill. They are all highly skilled players, but that is not what is winning the game for them. Team play, cohesion, utility usage, strategies, executions, timings, that is what is important to them and that is why the always dominate their opponents.
LOSERS
North
Not a lot of people expect North to make a major upset here in Odense, but we all thought they will at least keep it competitive. They failed to do so and they only played three total maps before being eliminated from ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals.
Their defeat against Sharks will haunt them for a while. I have never seen a legit top 10 contender get dominated so hard. What makes it worst, Sharks are not even a tier 1 team. There is no way they would even qualify to this event if they had to play against teams from Europe and North America.
Overall, a very poor performance from Danes. I guess something will have to be changed in their roster, or an extra effort will have to be put in.
Natus Vincere
Ukrainians were looking for retribution for their performance at Intel Extreme Master Chicago 2018. They had an entire month to prepare for this event, and they blew it.
They were shocked by ORDER in their opening match, but they were able to mount a comeback and prevail with a 16-14 scoreline. If they were playing against any other team that had experience, they would be fighting for survival next.
After ORDER, they were facing mousesports. It feels like they did not even show up to this series, and they were unable to do anything good. One of the reasons they lost is their map veto. They kept forcing Train into their map pool and that backfired. Overall, a poor performance mainly from their in-game leader and a coach, and of course, all the players except
Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev.
Once placed in a lower bracket, they had easier opponents. They started against Sharks whom they defeat with ease. After that, they were placed against Ghost, and they were on the verge of losing the series, but s1mple dominated North Americans and they qualified to the playoffs.
Lastly, they played against Liquid in quarter-finals. Given the form they were in, a swift 2-0 was scheduled. That is exactly what happened. They stood no chance against the team play Liquid brought to the table.
To conclude, poor performance all around, pointless map vetos, no “home” map. Natus Vincere does not have anything going for them at the moment, and it will be interesting to see will their best player, s1mple stick around for much longer.
CONCLUSION
We have seen a lot of great indivudal plays, team plays, and 300 IQ plays throughout the last six days of ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals.
We have also seen a mixture of weapons being used. The main reason behind that is Valve’s update where they reduced the cost of certain weapons which are now more viable, and we are seeing them used as an alternative to an AWP.
Furthermore, a lot of comebacks occurred in this event, and a good comeback is always good to see.
To conclude, Astralis has won another event and with this trophy, they sealed the first ever Grand Slam, as this was their fourth big tournament trophy. In other news, Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz was awarded with yet another MVP title for his performance. That is his 7th MVP award in 2018. Unbelievable.
What do you think, will anyone be able to compete against Astralis in 2019? Do you think device will be rated as the best CS:GO player in 2018? Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments down below.
