Astralis Claim Victory At EPL Season 8 Finals

Danish powerhouse Astralis has closed out their year with an impressive performance, claiming victory as the winners of Season 8 in the ESL Pro League. With this victory, Astralis can well and truly back their claim to be the best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team in the world right now.

Astralis claimed victory over Team Liquid in just four games of their best-of-five series, walking away with $250,000 for first place along with reaching the requirements for claiming $1 million for winning season one of the Intel Grand Slam, which is awarded to the first team to win four out of 10 events in a consecutive window. The next closest team to claiming the prize was FaZe Clan, who picked up two victories before Astralis claimed their four.

"Best ****ing team in the world" - @Sadokist. #ESLProLeague pic.twitter.com/tkVuXLFc1X

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) December 9, 2018

The Grand Finals themselves saw Team Liquid actually take the lead, securing victory on Train 16-8 after a dominant first round on T side. Despite this early setback, Astralis were able to pick up the wins they needed on Mirage 16-11, Inferno 16-11, and Dust2 16-10, ultimately proving too strong for Team Liquid.

This tournament has without a doubt helped cement Astralis as the strongest team for 2018, being their 9^th successful title run of the year after claiming victory at DreamHack Masters Marseille, the EPL Season Seven Finals, the ECS Season Five Finals, the 2018 ELEAGUE CS: GO Premier, the FACEIT London Major, BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen, IEM Chicago, and the ECS Season Six Finals. There are only a few events left for 2018, with Astralis set to compete in the BLAST Pro Series: Lisbon 2018 in less than a weeks’ time. Can the Danish super team claim their 10^th victory of the calendar year?