If there are any Astralis doubters out there, they are certainly in no mood to talk after IEM Global Challenge 2020. The Danish machine won its second title in the last three tournaments and placed a strong bid for being the best CS:GO team around for a third year straight .
Astralis went through some weird months in the summer even by 2020 standards. Losing key members, going to a six and seven-man rosters, then trying to regain top form was exactly the roller coaster you'd expect. Just in time for the holidays, Astralis overcame the obstacles and left no doubt in our minds that they are still the team to beat going into 2021.
ACE, SET, MATCH, TWO-FOR-ONE! By our very own @dev1ce #IEM pic.twitter.com/b6Rrqjv2cV
— Astralis Counter-Strike (@AstralisCS) December 20, 2020
Astralis Are IEM Global Challenge Champions
The IEM Global Challenge was professional CS:GO's final stop for 2020. Astralis won and lost a final in the two weeks prior and were among the favorites for another deep run here. Fate has played an interesting trick on the Danes' draw these last pair of tournaments. They played the team they beat in the DreamHack Masters Winter final - mousesports, in a win or go home group stage match the very next event. Now the exact same scenario played out with Team Vitality - the squad that denied Astralis in the BLAST Premier Fall final. The common feature of both these group deciders was the winner.
Once out of the group, the eventual champions revisited another matchup from last week. Natus Vincere handed Astralis their other defeat at BLAST Premier Fall. The playoff rematch then did not work out for Na'Vi and neither did the IEM Global Challenge semifinal.
While our eyes were glued to the favorites knocking each other out, Team Liquid were making unexpected noise. The North American team lost all from in 2020 and them reaching a final at such a prestigious event could pass as one of the bigger upsets if the year.
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Their opponent in the final was a different breed to the BIG squad they faced in the semis. For Astralis, the difficult parts of the IEM Global Challenge were in the past. The Bo5 final finished faster than most of the Bo3s they played earlier and while Russel "Twistzz" van Dulken would have probably accepted a run to the final before the tournament began, he probably wanted a bit more to come of his last Liquid game.
Oh yeah, he's gone.
BREAKING from @Twistzz, he will stop playing for @TeamLiquidCS Best of luck in whatever comes next! #IEM pic.twitter.com/85k3DpVKYB
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) December 20, 2020
IEM Global Challenge Final
Astralis - Team Liquid
- 16:11 (Inferno)
- 16:11 (Overpass)
- 16:10 (Dust2)
Astralis now have $200,000 more to spend on Christmas gifts.
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