Finally, the new Evil Geniuses roster left their mark with an astonishing victory at ESL One New York. They received a direct invite to battle for the $200,000 prize pool with seven more teams.
In group B, EG clashed against FaZe and Astralis. EG won both of the sets, dominating the matches and not dropping a single map. The North Americans proved themselves to be extremely scary for every team in the event by qualifying into the playoffs, winning against both the teams 2-0 in two successive best-of-threes.
In the playoffs, EG came out on top with yet another victory in a Bo3 semi-final match against G2, scoring 16:8 on Dust2 and 16:7 on Nuke. This propelled them into the finals with a strong momentum in which they haven’t dropped a single map in the entire event and were looking absolutely unstoppable.
As fate would have it, EG would face off against Astralis for the second time at ESL One New York, but this time it would be in the grand finals.
The Danish powerhouse put up a strong fight against EG but fell short against them in the Bo5 finals. Three games were all it took for the Americans to close out the dances and bag the championship to their name.
Evil Geniuses vs Astralis Bo5 Recap
The vetoes can be found here:
Astralis removed Mirage- Evil Geniuses removed Overpass
Astralis picked Inferno- Evil Geniuses picked Dust2
Astralis picked Train- Evil Geniuses picked Nuke
- Vertigo was left over
Map 1 of the Bo5 grand finals was played on Inferno. Despite being one of the strongest maps for Astralis. EG was able to take the win, closing out the match with ease, scoring 16-3. Tarik “tarik” Celik played brilliantly, top fragging for his team with 16 kills.
Map 2 took both the teams to Dust2. Here Astralis showed promising play, winning the first half of the map on the CT side. From there Astralis continued their lead till 12-7, on the T side. This lead was, however short-lived, as EG quickly bounced back, taking the game back in their control and not losing a single point and converting the match into a win, scoring 16-12.
Map 3 was decided to be played on Train. EG continued showing their dominance and showed no signs of slowing down their momentum. The Americans took the first half of the map 8-7 on the CT side. Cvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov top fragged on Train, with 35 kills to his name. The Bulgarian player had some insane plays, he was pushed into many clutch situations but kept his calm. The map went all the way to a nail-biting double-overtime, it was anyone’s game at this point but Astralis manage to come out on top, scoring 22-20 and delivering EG their first map loss at the event.
Map 4 was decided by EG, they chose to take the game to Nuke. CeRq turned out to be a true asset for EG yet again on Nuke, landing very crucial AWP shots when it truly mattered. Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte’s aggressive plays helped EG claim victory over Astralis scoring 16-8, rounding out the set 3-1, taking the win.
History is said to repeat itself, Astralis has never won an ESL One Championship, it seems like the curse continues and New York will be no exception. The Danish powerhouse put up a strong fight against EG but fell short against them in the Bo5 finals. The boys in the blue will be taking home their first ESL One title.
ESL One New York Final Placements:
| Place | Prize Money | Team |
| 1 | $100,000 | Evil Geniuses |
| 2 | $40,000 | Astralis |
| 3/4 | $18,000 | Team Liquid |
| 3/4 | $18,000 | G2 Esports |
| 5/6 | $8,000 | ENCE |
| 5/6 | $8,000 | OpTic Gaming |
| 7/8 | $4,000 | eUnited |
| 7/8 | $4,000 | FaZe Clan |
Evil Geniuses and Astralis will be facing each other in the upcoming DreamHack Masters event in Malmo. It will be interesting to see how things play out then. Share your thoughts in the comments, who do you think will come out on top?
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