Astralis Pulls a Stunner Against Na’ Vi to Take Home the ESL Pro League 12

The European Playoffs of the ESL Pro League 12 took place last night. The matchup was between European giants Na’ Vi who had reached the finals through the upper bracket and Astralis who had reached the final through the lower bracket.

Astralis had lost to Heroic in the first round of the playoffs; however, they defeated them in the lower brackets finals with a score of 2-0 to reach the Grand Finals.

While all the other games of the playoffs were following the best of 3 format, the Grand Finals were a BO5. Na’ Vi had map advantage and a default lead of 1-0 since they had reached the grand final undefeated.

Astralis vs. Na’ Vi (Map 1)

The teams played their first game on the classic CS:GO map – Dust2. It didn’t take Na’ Vi too long to establish their dominance. They won 5 rounds back-to-back without much difficulty. Astralis managed to steal 2 rounds before Na’ Vi took the upper hand again.

Na’ Vi won 3 more rounds before Astralis started to make a comeback and take the score to 8-6. The momentum went back and forth before the score stood at 9-9. Following that, Na’ Vi took control, winning 7 rounds while only giving away 3. Denis “electronic” Sharipov clutched the last round with 3 kills to help Na’ Vi win the first map with a score of 16-12.

Two Straight Map Wins to Level the Score

The teams played their second game on Nuke. The first rounds were very intense, with both of them winning a few rounds. Na’ Vi had a three-round advantage with a scoreline of 8-5 during the first break.

Post the break, Na’ Vi won 4 more rounds while Astralis managed only one. However, the game turned around for Astralis following that, as they went on to win 10 rounds while only giving away two, thus winning the second map.

The last round came down to a 2v1 with only Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz the only player alive from the Danish team. He was up against Na’ Vi’s s1mple and electronic. However, he managed to take down electronic with his desert eagle and picked up his AK-47.

He finished the round and the game in style by taking out s1mple with a single headshot tap with the AK. The final score for round 2 was 16-14 in favor of Astralis.

With both teams winning a map each, the score after the second map was 2-1 in favor of Na’ Vi. However, Astralis came into the game determined to win. They absolutely dominated Na’ Vi in the third map, which was Train.

The score was 12-2 in favor of the Danish team at the break. However, Na’ Vi wasn’t going to give up this easy. They fought back to win 13 rounds and gave away only 3 to equalize the score at 15-15.

The map went to extra rounds, and the last 11 rounds were jam-packed with action. However, Astralis had made their intentions clear from the very beginning and took another map in their bag with a final score of 22-19.

Astralis Make a Fascinating Comeback to Win the League

At the end of the third game, Astralis managed to tie the score at 2-2. The last map was do or die for both teams. Astralis managed to bag 10 rounds while giving away only 4 till the first break. After the break, Na’ Vi put up a tough fight. However, the Danish giants stole the victory with a final score of 16-11.

With the final round, Astralis was crowned the European champions after beating Na’ Vi with a final score of  3-2. Additionally, along with the fame, the team will also take home the prize money of $99,000 while Na’ Vi will take home $54,000 for finishing second.

Even after having a round advantage and winning the first round, Na’ Vi couldn’t keep Astralis down. Not only did Astralis make a comeback after losing the first round but also won 3 straight maps after being two down, to prove they were the better team last night.