Astralis vaporize Liquid, win ELEAGUE Premier 2018
After taking down Na`Vi in the semi-finals, Liquid looked to ready to take on Astralis, who had beaten Liquid twice before in the ECS S5 and EPL S7 grand finals. Alas, Liquid's first half on Inferno proved to be disasterous, as Emil "Magisk" Reif decimated Liquid on the CT side. After fourteen straight round wins by Astralis, Liquid finally found their break in the last round of the first half, taking the 15th round and going into halftime down 14-1.
Immediately taking the second pistol round, Astralis were now at match point. Liquid, on their second wind, managed to edge out four more rounds before Astralis finally closed the map 16-5.
Liquid picked up the pace on Astralis' map pick of Nuke, taking the first three rounds on the CT side. Both teams continued to trade rounds, with Astralis clutching multiple rounds off Liquid. Down 8-4, Astralis swiped the last three rounds of the half to nearly tie up the score 8-7.
Liquid's narrow advantage was equalized by Astralis, as Magisk tapped down four players to secure the pistol round. After two more clean rounds from Astralis, Liquid rebounded with three more rounds, briefly taking a lead at 11-10. Astralis shredded through Liquid in four more rounds, taking back control of the game at 14-11. After a denial from Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken, Astralis took the last two rounds to take the map 16-12 and wrap up the series 2-0.
AstralisLiquid| Astralis |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nicolai 'device' Reedtz |
45 - 24 | +21 | 102.6 | 67.3% | 1.57 |
| Emil 'Magisk' Reif |
41 - 25 | +16 | 81.6 | 77.6% | 1.38 |
| Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen |
33 - 28 | +5 | 78.4 | 73.5% | 1.11 |
| Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander |
34 - 30 | +4 | 78.8 | 65.3% | 1.09 |
| Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth |
26 - 26 | +0 | 58.4 | 73.5% | 1.00 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
29 - 39 | -10 | 74.0 | 59.2% | 0.91 |
 Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
29 - 35 | -6 | 57.2 | 63.3% | 0.84 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
28 - 38 | -10 | 63.4 | 57.1% | 0.83 |
| Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
25 - 36 | -11 | 64.4 | 61.2% | 0.78 |
 Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
21 - 33 | -12 | 46.5 | 55.1% | 0.64 |
Astralis take home the ELEAGUE Premier 2018 trophy, having lost zero maps in the entire event. Astralis also take home their second ELEAGUE title after winning the ELEAGUE Major 2017 last year in Atlanta. Liquid, on the other hand, go home with yet another second place finish, their third against Astralis this year. Liquid's second place finish is made all the more impressive by the absence of Wilton "zews" Prado at the event.
The full standings for the ELEAGUE Premier 2018 are:
- 1st. Astralis— $500,000
- 2nd.
Liquid — $200,000 - 3-4th.
mousesports — $80,000 - 3-4th.
Natus Vincere — $80,000 - 5-6th. MIBR — $40,000
- 5-6th.
fnatic — $40,000 - 7-8th. Cloud9 — $30,000
- 7-8th. FaZe — $30,000
