ESL Pro League Season 8 FinalsAstralis overcome HellRaisers 2-1; Renegades eliminate ViCi in Odense
After losing the opening map, Astralis bounced back to claim the series over HellRaisers (8-16 Mirage, 16-13 Dust2, 16-4 Inferno) and secured a place in the playoffs, while Renegades eliminated ViCi in two maps (16-12 Inferno, 16-9 Mirage).
HellRaisers opened up the match against Astralis on the right foot, grabbing the 5-0 lead on the CT side of Mirage after Bence "DeadFox" Böröcz struck down three on the B site defense. Just when it looked that HellRaisers would run away with the first half, Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander stepped up with back-to-back clutches, a 1v3 on B and a 1v2 on A, to bring things back in control for Astralis.
The half ended 9-6 in HellRaisers' favor, with the crucial second pistol going the way of Kyrylo "ANGE1" Karasiow's men as well, as they held off the A retake in a 4v5. In their first gun round, the Danes were convincing, winning it with only one casualty, but Özgür "woxic" Eker's quad kill in the followup, which included a 1v2 clutch, put his side in the position to close out the game. As the score was 14-8, Abay "HObbit" Khassenov found two openings on B which allowed his team to close out the map shortly, 16-8.
Dust2 kicked off with a lot of back-and-forths, Emil "Magisk" Reif locked in the pistol for his side with a triple, ANGE1 replied with a quad kill short hold in the first buy, and rounds were continuosly traded until the tie at 4-4. Then HellRaisers weren't able to hold off the B push, despite getting two kills on the entry, and Astralis took control of the momentum. After Astralis seized a 7-4 lead, HellRaisers started pulling things back, with DeadFox's B-site lockdown ace helping his side to an 8-7 advantage before the switch.
As CT, Astralis looked much more comfortable, with a 2v4 B site retake on the pistol starting their strong run. In a crucial round, at 13-10, DeadFox unlocked the Long defense with four kills, with the map winner up in the air until Astralis won a round with just one saved rifle (15-13), and closed it out in the followup to force Inferno.
HellRaisers grabbed the opening round of the final map, but a swift reset by the hands of Nicolai "device" Reedtz and Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen took all wind out of their opponent's sails. With rifles, the Danes dominated Banana and didn't allow HellRaisers to put down the bomb in six consecutive rounds, until ANGE1 and co. finally broke into A and held the afterplant. However, another swift economy reset followed as Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth's double secured the retake in the next round, and Astralis finished the half strongly, 12-3.
Any chance of HellRaisers making a comeback were out of the window when they lost the followup to their second-round force-buy win, which put them 14-4 down. Astralis cleaned up the force buys and closed out the map 16-4 to take the series and secure a place in the playoffs.
 HellRaisers |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48 - 46 | +2 | 70.4 | 67.1% | 1.02 | |
| 42 - 45 | -3 | 58.6 | 67.1% | 0.95 | |
| 40 - 49 | -9 | 67.5 | 67.1% | 0.94 | |
| 40 - 57 | -17 | 70.8 | 61.6% | 0.87 | |
| 40 - 48 | -8 | 59.1 | 60.3% | 0.87 |
 Astralis |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 59 - 43 | +16 | 82.1 | 76.7% | 1.24 | |
| 52 - 37 | +15 | 77.5 | 76.7% | 1.21 | |
| 51 - 45 | +6 | 73.5 | 71.2% | 1.07 | |
| 42 - 38 | +4 | 69.4 | 78.1% | 1.05 | |
| 40 - 47 | -7 | 72.9 | 74.0% | 1.02 |
Inferno was the first map to be played between Renegades and ViCi, with the Chinese side grabbing the 3-0 start on the T side. Sean "Gratisfaction" Kaiwai on the AWP helped his side turn things around, and they took the lead after round 11, making it 6-5. From that point onwards it was all about Renegades, who closed out the half 9-6, only losing the last round as ZhiHong "aumaN" Liu picked up a key double on the A site entry.
The Australian side was back on track from the T-side pistol round, as a double from Justin "jks" Savage and a kill from Jay "Liazz" Tregillgas started a five-round streak for Renegades. WingHei "Freeman" Cheung and aumaN then combined for ViCi's first in the second half (14-7), while WeiJie "zhokiNg" Zhong started causing problems for Renegades in middle, racking up kills with his aggressive positioning. That helped ViCi bring the score back to 15-12, but they weren't able to close it out in the end, as a B site push worked out for the Australians.
Renegades's pick, Mirage, which they lost earlier in the tournament to HellRaisers 16-5, didn't start well for the Australians this time either. By round eight, Liazz was without a kill, with his team unable to get on the board either. A fast-paced round then worked out for Aaron "AZR" Ward and co. and opened the floodgates. Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad spearheaded Renegades as they turned around the half, streaking together eight rounds to take the lead before switching to the CT side.
With the second pistol of the map going their way, Renegades quickly established themselves on the CT side, with an early reset of ViCi helping their cause. jkaem continued his strong play from the first half and was pivotal in the victory, 16-9 on Mirage, keeping Renegades alive at the tournament.
 Renegades |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 51 - 31 | +20 | 94.3 | 75.5% | 1.47 | |
| 50 - 34 | +16 | 91.7 | 75.5% | 1.39 | |
| 40 - 32 | +8 | 92.6 | 84.9% | 1.33 | |
| 44 - 32 | +12 | 83.1 | 77.4% | 1.27 | |
| 25 - 29 | -4 | 57.9 | 67.9% | 0.90 |
 ViCi |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 46 - 43 | +3 | 94.5 | 67.9% | 1.22 | |
| 36 - 42 | -6 | 71.8 | 64.2% | 0.87 | |
| 29 - 44 | -15 | 63.5 | 54.7% | 0.74 | |
| 25 - 41 | -16 | 54.8 | 56.6% | 0.71 | |
| 22 - 41 | -19 | 41.1 | 66.0% | 0.62 |
johnjay
| 
KevinGatesYo
| 
shaak!
| 
friendlykebab999393
| 
v1ctorex
nslima
razorVJ
Astronaut12
| 
| 
dozenx
Winst_on_church_hill
| 
| 
Smoonah
Lokomo
| 
Brayam7u7
| 
| 
NotNew
| 
Oh_Hyun_Jin
| 
| 
elskio
FOOTBALL_CLUB_MANAGER
| 
| 
FreakingPikachu
seized_the_goat
| 
| 
mikecool
