Astralis demolish G2 to win ESL One: Road to Rio 2020 Europe region

What does one expect in the finals of a competition where two of the world’s best teams come against each other? A long-drawn competitive affair, with overtimes, with ridiculous comebacks, some impossible clutches and some graffiti worthy plays right?

Well, we just witnessed the exact opposite of that in tonight’s final between Astralis and G2 Esports. Astralis just stomped, mauled, overwhemled G2 in every way possible to win 3:0 in a Bo5 series. It may have been the shortest Bo5 ever played.

And to witness such a series in the grand finals is such a sad thing after the epic encounters we had witnessed in the last week

The final was of a Bo5 series where Astralis had a one map advantage so there were only 4 maps left to be selected. Astralis started off by picking Nuke, G2 picked Vertigo, Astralis then picked Inferno and G2’s last pick was Dust II.

Well there isn’t to say much about the match much so we’ll try to give you some facts which won’t bode well for G2 fans. Nuke’s first half was the most competitive half in the series (I didn’t think I would be saying that) but such is life! Astralis won(ofcourse) 9:6 in the first half but G2 had to earn each and every kill in the half too! Second half lasted 7 rounds all of which Astralis won but G2 only had 7 kills in those rounds! That comes to 1 kill per round on average. Sad, isn’t it.

Now coming to Vertigo, G2 started on the more favorable T side, but it doesn’t matter what side you play on when Astralis are turned on! In the past 3 months, G2 losses on Vertigo averaged more than 30 rounds, this one ended in just 18 rounds. You guess the scoreline by that, no more information for you!

If you watched the game online, you must know how fast the game ended. As the commentators said, it seemed like Astralis had some plans for the day and wanted to finish the game asap.

Well, that’s enough for Astralis for now. Let us summarize the whole campaign now. Fnatic, Mousesports did not even qualify for the playoffs, NiP had multiple overtime heartbreaks, Faze lost their co-ordination at the most crucial juncture, Heretics and North showed there still is potential about them and usual as always Astralis reign supreme as always!

This is how the RMR points were divided after the final was played out:-

Standings	Team	RMR points	Prize money
1.	Astralis	1600	$33,000
2.	G2 Esports	1500	$21,500
3.	Faze Clan	1400	$14,000
4.	Team Vitality	1300	$10,000
5.*	Nip/ Team Heretics	1200	$7,500
6.*	NiP/ Team Heretics	1100	$6,500
7.	GODSENT	1000	$6,000
8.	North Capegemini	900	$5,000
9.	Ence	800	$3,250
10.	Copenhagen Flames	700	$2,500
11.	Movistar Riders	600	$2,250
12.	Fnatic	500	$1,500
13-14	compLexity Gaming, mouseports	350	$1,000
15-16	c0ntact Gaming, Dignitas	150	$0

*- The 5-6th match place between NIP and Team Heretics was still being played out when the article was published.

Note:- The Rio major was scheduled to take place in May 2020 but due to the ongoing pandemic the major was shifted to November 2020. The prize pool of first Major will be added to the November Major. ESL on its part have decided to host three qualification rounds in order for teams to remain at their peak. Each qualifying stage will have Regional Major Points(RMR) which will be added to determine the qualification order. Each qualifying stage will have a prize pool of $255,000 divided across the six regions. To read more about this, click here.

To read other e-sports news, click here.