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CS:GO's 15th Major saw more history being made as 24 of the world's best teams fought for the game's most prestigious trophy at Berlin. With everything done and dusted, Astralis ended up lifting their 3rd consecutive Major title after beating Avangar 2-0 in the Grand Finals. With this victory, Astralis is now the only team in CS:GO history to win 4 Majors.
Following their first-ever Major win at ELeague Major 2017, Astralis dipped in form and after a string of poor results Kjaerbye (who was the MVP at ELeague 2017 Major) left the team for Danish rivals North. Astralis would pick up Magisk, who was a free agent and the rest is history. Astralis regained their form in early 2018 and won the FaceIt 2018 Major. They continued their dominance as they won 2019's first Major in IEM Katowice.
However, after their victory at Katowice, Astralis skipped several top-level tournaments and lost to lower-ranked teams in the ones they did play. This caused their North American rivals, Team Liquid to claim the #1 spot after over a year of Astralis' dominance. However, their dominance was far from over as come StarLadder Berlin, they regained their form and swept aside their rivals to win their 3rd Major in a row.
Becoming the only team to win 4 Majors in CS:GO history makes it very clear that Astralis are the greatest team to ever play any iteration of Counter-Strike.
The Grand Finals: Astralis vs Avangar
Astralis came into the Grand Finals with an 8-0 record in Major playoffs. Not only did they have an 8-0 record, but they also had a 16-0 map record winning every playoff game 2-0.
Avangar came into the Grand Finals as huge underdogs from the CIS Region. Out of 5 players, 4 of them were playing their first-ever Major playoffs.
The Map-Veto began with Avangar removing Nuke and Astralis removing Mirage. Astralis picked Inferno and Avangar picked Dust 2 with Overpass being left as the decider.
The first game on Inferno began with Astralis winning the first 8 rounds in dominating fashion outplaying Avangar in every aspect. Avangar took a tactical timeout and came back into the game-winning 2 rounds in a row, but Astralis quickly shut down the comeback ending the half at 12-3. The second half pistol round was won by Avangar and they quickly won the next 2 rounds to make it 12-6. But that was all that Astralis would allow as they won 4 rounds in a row to close out the map 16-6.
Dust 2 began the same way with Astralis winning the pistol round and the round after it. But Avangar prevented a streak by winning the 3rd. Astralis won the next 5 rounds in a row before trading rounds with Avangar, ending the half at 11-4 for the Danes. Avangar won the pistol round of the second half but that would be their last win of the game as Astralis won the next 5 rounds closing the map 16-5.
Nicolai 'Device' Reedtz was announced as the MVP of the Major.
Once again, congratulations to Astralis on winning their 3rd Major in a row and 4th overall.
