RESULTS: Astralis Wins ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals

Team Liquid and Astralis faced off in Sunday's grand finals of the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals to decide which team would become the latest champion in the professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) scene and walk away with the $250,000 grand prize. Astralis was able to continue the strong play they had shown throughout the tournament and defeated Team Liquid 3-1 in the best-of-five series to claim the ESL Pro League Season 7 championship. 

ALL HAIL THE VICTORS - @astralisgg take Inferno 16-12 over @TeamLiquid winning the series 3:1 securing their rightful place as the champions of #ESLProLeague GGWP pic.twitter.com/fFkXZFgKG5

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) May 20, 2018

The first grand finals map of the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals was Dust II, and it was all Astralis as the team's roster was able to secure a commanding 14-1 lead in the first half on the counter terrorist side. Astralis was able to quickly wrap up Dust II in the second half with two more round wins to collect the 16-1 win and the 1-0 lead in the grand finals. Nicolai "device" Reedtz led the way for Astralis on Dust II, as he finished with 22 kills, 133.9 average damage per round, an overall rating of 2.26 and seven deaths. 

Nuke was the second map of the grand finals, and it was a much closer affair between the two teams. Astrallis was able to secure a 9-6 lead in the first half on the terrorist side, but Team Liquid battled back in the second half to the tune of eight round wins. However, the first half lead proved to just be enough for Astralis, as the Swedish roster was able to collect seven round wins to claim the 16-14 win and 2-0 grand finals lead. Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander was a major factor in Astralis' win on Nuke with 26 kills, 99.6 average damage per round, an overall rating of 1.27 and 20 deaths.

Team Liquid did not allow Astralis to sweep them however, as the North American team was able to only be down 7-8 in the first half on the following map Mirage on the counter terrorist side. The North American team would continue their strong play in the second half on the counter terrorist side with nine round wins en route to a 16-14 victory. This cut Astralis' lead to 2-1 in the grand finals of the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals. Keith "NAF" Markovic was the driving force behind Team Liquid's victory on Mirage with 26 kills, 95.8 average damage per round, an overall rating of 1.34 and 19 deaths.

However, Astralis was able to close out the grand finals with a 16-12 victory over Team Liquid on Inferno, as the championship team was able to secure five rounds on the terrorist side and 11 rounds on the counter terrorist side. It was not an easy battle for Astralis, as Team liquid was able to take a 10-5 lead in the first half, but failed to continue the momentum in the second half, as the North American team was only able to win two more rounds. device put together another strong performance in the grand finals on Inferno, as he finished with 22 kills, 74.5 average damage per round, an overall rating of 1.27 and 14 deaths. 

With the victory, Astralis can now call themselves ESL Pro League Season 7 champions and continue to cement their status as the top team in professional CS:GO. 

(cover photo  and stats courtesy of HLTV)