Astralis take down Liquid to win IEM Global Challenge

20-12-2020 20:25

The Danes clinched a quick 3-0 victory in the grand final to secure the last title of the year.

Astralis have handily defeated Liquid in the best-of-five grand final at IEM Global Challenge, stopping the North Americans' surprising run at the last event of 2020 to finish the year as a contender for the title of the best team in the world, clinching their second title in the last three tournaments.

The best-of-five series began with Astralis' controlled victory on Inferno as the Danes remained in the lead for the vast majority of the time, but the opener wasn't without bright moments from their adversaries.

device's big moments helped swing each map in Astralis' favor

After early forcebuy battles went Astralis' way, the North American side clinched the first few gunrounds on the back of a couple of key plays from Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic, but at the end of the half the Danish team was on top with a 9-6 lead on the offense, in large part thanks to Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz's quick flanking quad-kill in a 2v4 scenario.

Astralis kept up the momentum once on the CT side, with Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif, Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen, and Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth all putting in a big individual moment in defense of the A bombsite. Liquid tried to bring it back from a 6-14 deficit but eventually faltered five rounds later, conceding the first map 11-16.

CT side domination followed on Overpass from both teams. Astralis were the first to show off their defense, spearheaded by a red-hot double-D duo of dupreeh and device, who unleashed hell around middle as they put up 47 kills combined en route to a 13-2 half. Liquid answered in kind at first to mount another comeback attempt, but they were once again halted at the 11-round mark, with Astralis clinching series point.

The Danish powerhouse secured the title on Dust2 on the back of another strong showing on the CT side after a close first half. Liquid stayed in contention for the map until 8-12, when device stepped in with a collateral double and followed it up with an ace to help swing the map towards his team 16-10.

IEM Global Challenge 2020Best of 5

Astralis

Matchpage

20th December 2020

Liquid

Inferno

Overpass

Dust2

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Nicolai 'device' Reedtz device	77 - 46	+31	99.0	73.8%	1.50
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen dupreeh	61 - 49	+12	82.1	72.5%	1.27
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander gla1ve	49 - 52	-3	69.5	73.8%	1.06
Emil 'Magisk' Reif Magisk	45 - 47	-2	63.5	73.8%	1.02
Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth Xyp9x	34 - 37	-3	48.7	76.2%	0.94

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken Twistzz	55 - 49	+6	74.2	68.8%	1.02
Keith 'NAF' Markovic NAF	47 - 50	-3	65.9	77.5%	0.96
Michael 'Grim' Wince Grim	45 - 59	-14	71.7	71.2%	0.91
Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip Stewie2K	40 - 50	-10	55.2	66.2%	0.83
Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski EliGE	44 - 58	-14	60.1	60.0%	0.82

IEM Global Challenge final standings:

1. Astralis - $200,000
2. Liquid - $100,000
3-4. BIG - $50,000
3-4. Natus Vincere - $50,000
5-6. FURIA - $30,000
5-6. Vitality - $30,000
7-8. HEROIC - $20,000
7-8. Complexity - $20,000

LIQUID WON THIS MATCH, BY A LOT! RECOUNT THE ROUNDS!

2020-12-20 20:26

43 replies

xDDD

2020-12-20 20:27

4 replies

A S T R A L I S !!

2020-12-20 20:36

Device #1 He always delivers when it matters the most. He also delivers when others don't and carries Astralis through tournaments where sometimes other team m8s are struggling. Idc who is the most flashy player in CSGO, I care who leaves behind a legacy and a closet full of fkin' trophies.

2020-12-20 21:45

2 replies

I dont think device is the best individual player in terms of raw skill. So many games he misses easy shots or dies playing overconfident positions he cant always deliver on. However he can afford to do that with the calibre of his teammates and their team play and ability to synchronize is incredible. It takes a team playing their best to beat Astralis. Astralis playing normal beats all other teams if s1mple, zywoo, niko, etc aren't hard carrying. And as you say his biggest merit is that he plays good when he needs to and wins trophies. I love s1mple for his skill, and his understanding of the game that allows him to play so aggressive, but he is the messi of CS in the sense that when it counts he cant always do it, like messi at world cups

2020-12-20 22:42

1 reply

2020-12-21 14:18

Lol

6 replies

NA CS OMEGALUL

2020-12-20 20:37

5 replies

More relevant than Malta ever will be

2020-12-20 20:38

Malta is EU?

2020-12-20 20:47

Never said anything about EU? ? ?

2020-12-20 20:48

I think its what the man implied with his comment, also the US is way bigger than Malta so ofc the NA cs would be more relavant then Malta... but EU cs > NA cs ;)

2020-12-20 20:53

what next, hawaii cs?

2020-12-21 03:31

STOP THE GAME!

2020-12-20 20:35

You remind me of someone, hm I wonder who

2020-12-20 20:28

kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

+1 :D

2020-12-20 20:29

hahaha

2020-12-20 20:30

kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

2020-12-20 20:31

Lmao

2020-12-20 20:32

TEAM LIQUID STAP! ASTRALIS EZ WIN

Trump! is that you?

2020-12-20 20:34

:DDD lmao nice one bro

Bwahahahahaahahaha

You made my day, thanks.

perfect use of #1 comment

2020-12-20 20:43

Finally, yes!

2020-12-21 07:18

Will you go to the supreme court?

2020-12-20 20:44

Someone please.explain what this comment referring to

2020-12-20 21:02

twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/13250..

2020-12-20 21:16

Oh this dude. Of course ... Thanks

2020-12-20 21:25

Trump approves of this message! Liquid was winning (the first 2 rounds), then rounds start coming for Astralis, It's RIGGED! PS: How Trump got 65million votes remains the greatest mystery of 21st century. I guess the saying "Never underestimate stupid people in great numbers" rings true.

2020-12-20 21:13

3 replies

The truth is even more pathetic than you'd think. It's the same states voting a particular party over and over, regardless of the nominee. Americans aren't invested in actual politics, it's an "us vs them" type of thing.

2020-12-20 21:18

+1 the fact that it happens so much that they created the term 'swing state' to refer to states that DON'T do this makes it so much worse

2020-12-21 12:11

2020-12-21 07:19

xD Perfect comment bro

Best 1st ever? I are think that

2020-12-20 21:48

damn what a great comment :DD

2020-12-20 22:06

nice joke :D

2020-12-20 22:58

Loool

2020-12-21 07:17

LIQUID WON!

2020-12-30 09:48

NA MEME SCENE kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

28 replies

2020 team rankings #1 Astralis #2 Vitality #3 Navi Top 3 player rankings #1 Dev1ce #2 Zywoo #3 Simple

27 replies

LMAO

17 replies

huh? lmao what?

2020-12-20 20:39

16 replies

Bruh dev1ce number one are you not very smart?

2020-12-21 00:23

15 replies

he obviously is. simple and zywoo only get higher ratings because they bait more while device plays for the team and still top frags consistently winning the most tournaments this year over the 2. it's no brainer

2020-12-21 21:11

14 replies

2020-12-21 21:15

13 replies

"LMAO" glad u know u can't counter argue that. good

2020-12-21 21:49

12 replies

Bruh 1.29 hltv rating for s1mple but yeah the 1.17 rating is better. Did you fail like 5th grade math homie?

2020-12-22 01:44

11 replies

let me correct that bdw. u don't even know how to use filters for this year rankings lol (2020 ratings against top 20 teams) Simple and Zywoo both at 1.29 Dev1ce at 1.20 that's only just .09 difference if Device baits like SImple and Zywoo he would easily have higher rating. plus Device won more tournaments than them both this year which also adds to it. only silvers would say simple and zywoo is better

2020-12-22 14:47

10 replies

Bruh all top tier players and casters put the top two between s1mple and zywoo but yeah let me listen to a silver 2 who doesn’t understand what baiting means, gl trying to convince other silvers though.

2020-12-22 21:17

9 replies

you got proven wrong by your so called "ratings" you don't even know how to check it lmao. I provided you with facts and you can't even counter argue it. everyone knows simple and zywoo baits a lot for kills now you're accusing someone for being silver nice try keep crying lol

2020-12-23 08:41

8 replies

lmao man yes let me trust you over top tier players and casters. But yeah you definitely won this one! Nt cry more man!

2020-12-25 05:31

7 replies

you told me the rankings to make your point valid then u got proven wrong now you're using the so called "top tier players and casters" so you can make your argument relevant. how cute lol

2020-12-25 08:30

Saying "cute" when you know your wrong. Both simple and zywoos ratings are higher where is the wrong in this statement?

2020-12-26 20:35

you said Dev1ce rating is 1.17 when it is not just shows you're clueless at 2020 ratings lol

2020-12-26 23:20

Please answer my question above

2020-12-28 20:36

I already answered it kid. your rating is wrong that shows you don't know anything about 2020 ratings and rankings lol

2020-12-28 23:25

Bruh simple and zywoos rating is higher than dev1ces. There is NOTHING wrong about that statement. Just watch BOTH s1mple and zywoo will be ranked higher than dev1ce

2020-12-29 00:37

you said Dev1ce rating is 1.17 when it is not kid lol

2020-12-30 09:30

Agree

2020-12-20 20:52

2020-12-20 21:03

+1ing someone who's agreeing with you is like +1ing yourself lol

2020-12-21 11:55

didn't ask

2020-12-21 21:09

didn't have to

2020-12-21 22:38

don't care

2020-12-21 23:56

don't have to

2020-12-22 00:05

2020-12-22 01:04

2020-12-22 01:08

TRYLY THE BEST

Twistzz leaving Liquid. Godsent Twistzz time

ggez

EZ Astralis :)

damn

NA ERA 2 MAPS

Expected

wow

POG

Thanks Liquid for the Xmas present for 3 year in a row <3

easy game

ez for water team for 100K

Astralis Top 1

No 1 again. Thanks for making 2020 great at last <3

I would rather have Astralis number 1 than vitality. At least they get there as a team not as a hard carry

2020-12-20 22:44

Pretty boring final.

2018 is back again yayay

GG , expected more fight from TL in the final , NAF and Ellige werent on fire but it was against Astralis so kinda expected. That Device ace is easily Top 2 best play this year , graffiti worthy.

Do you have a clip? I missed the hole match

clips.twitch.tv/ResilientScaryOkapiAMPEn..

Bro.... that was fucking nuts

2020-12-20 20:56

It sure was!

2020-12-20 21:08

daaaaaaamn

2020-12-21 05:54

Totally unexpected. Astralis 3-0 omg ... Kekw

device is god

when astralis meet liquid in grand final its always 3-0 clean sweep lol

They will comeback stronger u will see..

come back for another Astralis spanking ;p

bruh lol

2020-12-20 23:35

still strong final showing for the year from liquid after a number of down months, good to see them win some series' in EU

Lulquid getting slapped before Xmas. Its gonna be tradition like watching home alone every year.

Cmon, Astralis dominance again? ffs

DEVVEK1NG #1 <3 DEVVEK1NG #1 <3 DEVVEK1NG #1 <3

2020-12-20 20:33

0/8

2020-12-20 20:57

you're obsessed with me lmao... inferiority complex?

2020-12-20 21:01

you’re the one with inferiority complex bro you shout “dev1ce number 1” all the time as if to prove a point but you know s1mple fans don’t need to say anything anybody sane know he is number 1 player.

2020-12-21 05:51

Except that he is not

2020-12-21 06:42

2020-12-21 10:03

fucking LOWquid helps Astralis to get number one again

I mean it's not Astralis didn't beat Vitality and Navi on this tournament lol. they deserved it

2020-12-20 23:41

Even though Liquid lost (which was pretty expected), they put up a good fight (getting 11, 11 and 10 rounds in 3 maps respectively is pretty good considering how bad they have looked for the majority of 2020). GGs to them. They have definitely improved and made progress (if you think about it they lost to teams like Triumph a few months ago...) which makes me believe that Liquid truly just needed to practice against European teams. Well played by Liquid, I hope we can see an even stronger Liquid next year.

gg liquid

DEV1CE #1 HLTV RANKINGS THIS YEAR graffiti on car dust2 needed

hahahaha calm down

name checks out = S0MPLE

Cool that Liquid made it to a europe final, but this actually couldnt be more expected. gg

unsurprising tbh I am very proud of the boys to make it to the finals though I thought that they were going to bomb out of groups for sure lol

groups were a joke thats why.. in group 1 they would have zero win

2020-12-20 21:04

tbf they beat the team that topped group 1, and they also had to beat Furia (who normally is good against them), and Heroic (top 4 team) also Chaos was supposed to be in group 1 instead of BIG, so like a month ago group 2 would've been harder

2020-12-20 21:06

yes true i forgot about Big but to me the groups were not great, group 1 had all the "best" teams except navi, liquid heroic furia are lower tier team

2020-12-20 21:09

Double D show

And device has another godlike perform in gf wow

ez <3

How many teamranking pts is 1st place worth?

This is a match fraud! Recount the rounds, there are many videos of dead people adding rounds to astrali!

Yes every time I saw 5 dead liquid players they added a round to Astralis!

2020-12-20 22:46

EZ CLAP

Not a surprising finish, but not bad all things considered, all three maps relatively close.

Nah they weren’t that close, sure liquid got double digits every map, but astralis were always ahead every map and you just got the feeling they were always gonna win

2020-12-20 22:41

2020-12-21 00:31

How many finals have Astralis beaten Liquid in? surely it's an uncontested record

twistz quitting liquid and NA for caro ! Adorable <3

Shit final

2020-12-20 20:40

At least maybe big, navi or vitality could have performed decent gg nt liquid

sad for twistzz and liquid

Welcome back to the King of 2020. Welcome back to the top #1 hltv team. Welcome back to the most consistent player.

2020-12-20 20:41

sadly it was expected, either it was a 3-0 or liquid would have played the game of their life and maybe won 3-2 but zero hope for them honestly. even with this win i think Vitality #1 of 2020, astralis clearly #2 and Navi #3

2020-12-20 20:42

4 titles 5 final > 2 titles 6 finals astralis #1 Vitality #2

2020-12-21 00:13

See you all next year!

Any1 know if this win brings Astralis to 1st place in team-ranking?

lol as expected astralis schooled TL

most overrated rivalry another final stomp

2020-12-20 20:49

The reason you are so negativ is that you are a loser, you have at negativ loser mind, you cant se any good things...are you russian ukraine romania polski uhmmm maby slovaki ?

No i'm not. I don't get why people call Astralis vs Lulquid el classico. When its always stomps in favor of Astralis

2020-12-20 21:11

+1 Real el classico is Astralis vs NaVi

2020-12-20 21:49

u see only navi fans say that the reason liquid vs astralis is el classico is because of how many times they faced in the past literally the majority of astralis vs navi happened this year, not far enough in history to be el classico, and before this year it was basically astralis winning every time aswell except they just didnt match up as many times navi fans are truly the worst liquid vs astralis will forever be el classico

2020-12-20 23:04

pretty normal when you have a loser life, that you are angry.

2020-12-20 21:10

nt fan of loser team Need bugs to win an online event.

2020-12-20 21:12

Heroic > Navi

2020-12-20 23:44

ggwp TL, great showing from the astralis boys

THE KINGS

2020-12-20 21:07

GG WP EZ4ASTRAGODS

TY ASTRALIS 4 WINNING MY WEEKLY LOSSES BACK IN 1 MAP

Liquid did better than Navi, Vitality, Big, and Heroic. This 2nd place is no joke

feelsbad for twistzz...he was such a pleasant guy..:((..hope he joins a good team

2020-12-20 22:27

ikr even in the liquid vlogs he always sounds nice

2020-12-21 04:20

All is Well in Daneland ! The Kings have reclaimed their rightful spot on top, Like the previous 2 years ... Even online, there are none to match their prowess ;-) Just be happy there were only one LAN event, because else Astralis probably Would have won even more ...

2020-12-20 21:15

Buzkji is like: hey I won a tournament and BO5 !!

2020-12-20 21:26

Easiest win of his life, he didn’t even have to play 😎

ez money XD

2020-12-21 00:15

can't believe big lost to this team :D

2020-12-20 22:03

Where is zgwhoo p0mple and NAAAAPI FANS?

2020-12-20 22:09

GGWP for Liquid, really showing promise in their game and let's hope 2021 FalleN can bring some more tactic to the firepower. But damn Astralis and especially Dev1ce stepping up when it's needed most, really looks like every time they have their backs against the wall they reinvent themselves and tear through the opposition. Nr.1 team this year for sure and Dev1ce top3 player after S1mple and ZywOo.

2020-12-20 22:14

So easy for Astralis, Liquid had no chance.

2020-12-20 22:26

imagine kick twitzz for two face toledo , twitzzz lan insane and you kick him because bad gameplay online . wait twitzz stomp liquid with new brand on LAN

I think twistzz wanted to leave. Ever since stew joined and he had to give up all his old spots he didn't look the same

2020-12-20 22:47

i dont think twitzz quit just like that , because the problem NA is full of snake .

2020-12-20 22:49

he probably wanted to move to EU because of his gf. im pretty sure we will see Twistzz in an EU team soon

2020-12-20 23:09

pretty easy, as i said previously, navi or vitality wouldve been a much more entertaining match, lulquid was lucky

2020-12-20 23:34

Astralis is looking great, I think they are no.1 again. Liquid looked really good tho, I think if they can find a good 5th they can be TOP 15.

2020-12-21 00:10

GG .. but Liquid did not play really well and now we know why

2020-12-21 01:18

Liquid did well putting up 10 round every map :)

2020-12-21 02:45

Ez for Tom Cruise

2020-12-21 05:24

This is all gla1ve effect...astralis gameplay changed drastically after he took igl role back

2020-12-21 06:03

Expected. What a trash seeding system.

2020-12-21 06:37

2020-12-21 07:12

most boring final ever

Congratulations Astralis! :D

2020-12-21 07:16

2020-12-21 09:59

The Danish gods are back on their perch. Excellent team performance all around with G1ave back to his shot calling best. Respect for Dupreeh who out with a champ of a performance when the chips were down against Vitality. 40 predominantly rifle kills in D2 with a lot of entries on the T side turned the tide over for me. Is there a more consistent player than Dev1ce? Shows up everytime and that D2 ace against Liquid deserves a grafitti. Couldn't have been more cinematic. GG Liquid who put up a solid fight and best wishes to Twistzz. Hope to see him in a top tier EU roster real soon. # ToTheStars

2020-12-21 11:44