Astralis were to face Team Liquid on their home soil in Brooklyn for the Semi-Finals of ESL One New York. As mouth-watering as it seemed Liquid had one thing in their minds going into the matchup, that is revenge for the debacle in Berlin Major earlier this month. The map pool included Vertigo and Dust 2 followed by Overpass.
MAP 1: Vertigo
Vertigo kicked off with 4k from Young John. The liquid looked supreme, having won the first 6 rounds before Astralis got their number on the board. Elige was certainly the best player for Liquid. NAF, Stewie, and Twistzz had their moments around the map, but an underwhelming performance from their skipper Nitr0. On the contrary Astralis skipper, Gla1ve was on the top of the scoreboard for the Danes. The first half ended with Liquid managing 9 rounds on the defence, just 3 ahead of the Danes who managed only 6, but upon switching sides the North Americans failed to get any point on the board as Astralis took every single round, taking Vertigo with a 16-9 scoreline.
MAP 2: Dust 2
Dust 2 was a tricky pick for Liquid but they are were tactically sound all throughout the game. The American side managed 11 rounds on the offence in the first half while Astralis only won 4. On switching sides, both teams won an equal number of rounds. The map witnessed another supreme performance from Elige. Liquid secured the same scoreline from MAP 1 but this time in their favour with a 16-9 scoreline. Overall a strong reply to Astralis’s Vertigo performance, showing how dominant they can exactly be on their map of choice.
MAP 3: Overpass
Both teams have faced each other on this map on several best of three series, and are certainly very deep into each other’s playbook in this map. The desire to win the series was evident from both teams trying extremely hard to bring the momentum on their side. Overpass has been definitely the closest map played on this series yet with the first half closing with a 7-8 scoreline in favour of the Danes. In the 2nd half of Overpass, much like the 1st half had a very close scoreline but Astralis seem to run away with it in the end with a 16-13 scoreline.
Astralis will face off against the winner of Evil Geniuses or G2 Esports later today.
