Published , by Asif Khan
Published , by Asif Khan
The Intel Extreme Mastes in Katowice, Poland are wrapping up an exciting weekend. Astralis just won the IEM Katowice 2019 Grand Final with a 2-0 victory over ENCE. This is the third major win for Astralis, having won the ELEAGUE 2017 Major as well as the FACEIT Major: London 2018. Adding even more drama to today's victory, is the story of one Astralis playing with a very heavy heart. Peter "dupreeh" Rothmann's father passed away before this event and he overcame his grief to attend the event.
Astralis is one of the few esports teams that is partially owned by its own players and they have won back-to-back CSGO Majors. This team dominated ENCE in the second map, with a 16-4 victory on Inferno. The first round was a bit tighter on Train, with Astralis winning 16-11. Xyp9x was in rare form during IEM Katowice 2019.
We are certainly in the midst of the Astralis era in professional CSGO. Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz, Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth, Peter "dupreeh" Rothmann, Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander & Emil "Magisk" Reif have established Astralis as CS:GO force through outstanding skills and an amazing team spirit. It was a truly touching moment to see the team come together after the win to give a big hug to their teammate dupreeh who had recently lost his father.
IEM Katowice 2019 drew in over half a million viewers today on Twitch and over a million people tuned in during the peaks of Saturday's streams. CSGO is one of the best esports in the world and Astralis are fine stewards of the game. Their excellence in play, execution, and strategy lead them to a seemingly easy defeat of ENCE. They are one of the best electronic sports teams in the world and have now won back-to-back CSGO Majors. Talk about doing it for Shacknews!