Team Liquid Dethrone Astralis, Wins DreamHack Masters Dallas

Photo: HLTV

The mighty North-Americans have earned their second title for the year. Team Liquid have won DreamHack Masters: Dallas 2019 by taking down ENCE eSports 2-1 in the grand finale. They take home $100,000 along with personal trophies and beautiful rings. This victory gets them an edge over Astralis in the Intel Grand Slam titles. Team Liquid have earlier won IEM Sydney while Astralis had won the IEM Major: Katowice.

This victory also leads them to the throne as they will be officially ranked #1 on HLTV as the day proceeds. Astralis will drop down to second position after 406 days of dominance on the throne. On the other hand, Finns will hold onto the bronze position.

Team Liquid picked overpass while the Finns decided to play mirage. Inferno was set to be the decider.

  • Mirage: Liquid 16-8 ENCE
  • Overpass: Liquid 17-19 ENCE
  • Inferno: Liquid 16-13 ENCE

Mirage initially seemed a back and forth encounter as Team Liquid got a slight 8-7 edge over ENCE eSport on the offence. However, as the sides switched, Finns could merely grab a round on terrorist side. ENCE eSport got the bomb down only twice and their offence seemed lacklusterd. Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulke led from the front with an outstanding 1.58 rating and 1.12 kill/round ratio. ENCE eSport got an early advantage in 14 rounds but they could not covert those into wins.

Coming down to overpass, it was Team Liquid’s pick but they were hesitant as the end came closer. However, Liquid went off to an excellent start with 8-7 lead in the first half on terrorist side. Jere ‘sergej’ Salo, 17-year-old prodigy clutched the 24th round in 1vs2 post-plant scenario to secure14th round for his side. While Aleksi ‘allu’ Jalli secured map-point in the overtime with the incredible 1vs3 clutch as the clock was ticking down for Liquid. These clutches played a major role as they bagged the second map.

Team Liquid went ahead with an incredible opening on Inferno while they grabbed 9 out of the first ten rounds. However, ENCE eSport retaliated winning the last four rounds on defense in the first half. Team Liquid almost secured the pistol round but Sami ‘xseveN’ Laasanen charmed in with a crucial 1vs3 as Team Liquid overstepped and pushed through the smoke.

Since then, both teams traded a few rounds but the Americans came out on top. Jake ‘Stewie2K’ Yip’s triple kill in the final round is highly applaudable.

Photo: HLTV

Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski received the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for his outstanding performance in Dallas. This is the first MVP award for the 21-year-old American.

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