Aurora’s dream run continues as they reverse-sweep Astralis to book their place in the Grand Finals of ESL Pro League Season 23. Losing the first map only for the Turkish side to dominate in back-to-back maps resulted in them booking their first Grand Finals of the year, where they will face NAVI.
VETO
- Astralis removed Anubis
- Aurora removed Ancient
- Astralis picked Nuke
- Aurora picked Dust2
- Astralis removed Mirage
- Aurora removed Overpass
- Inferno was left over
Map 1: Nuke; Pick: Astralis; Winner: Astralis
Solid start for Aurora on the defense put them in the lead before the Astralis offense took charge of the game. Gun rounds onwards saw Astralis dominating the Turkish side with little to no effort as the half closed with a narrow lead favouring the Danes. Aurora recovered from their 7-5 deficit and managed to race up to a lead before Astralis offense started garnering rounds. Aurora swooped into a lead with the start of the second half before Astralis started building a round. Aurora managed to hit map point first before Astralis won the final two rounds to edge out a close win to kick off the series.
Map 2: Dust2; Pick: Aurora; Winner: Aurora
Following a tough loss on Map 1, Aurora managed to race up to a 7-0 lead before Astralis could see their first round. Domination across the first half saw Astralis only get two rounds by the end of the first half. With little hope for a comeback, Aurora bulldozed the Danes on the CT side as they failed to win a single round, as Dust2 saw the Turkish side dominate and take us to the final map of the series. With the entire squad delivering, 17 kills from their stalwart rifler XANTARES proved instrumental in forcing a 3rd map.
Map 3: Inferno; Pick: Decider; Winner: Aurora
Astralis hit the board with a force buy conversion after Aurora won the pistol. The Aurora defense raced into a massive lead before Astralis salvaged the half with a 7-5 scoreline, 5 in a row for Astralis saw them head into the lead before Aurora got going with their defense. 6 in a row from the Turkish closed the map dominantly as Astralis saw its dream run come to an end.
Astralis taking down Spirit shocked the community, and despite a solid performance today, they failed to make it past Aurora. The signs of improvement are clear, and unless their form has been a fluke, Astralis will be a deadly team to face in the coming events.
