Photocredit: HLTV
Astralis managed to maintain their title as ECS champions continuing their victory from ECS season 5. ECS will also mark their 8th tournament win in 2018, as well as device’s 6th tournament MVP of 2018. They managed to edge out MiBr 2-0 in the grand finals and won Best of 3s against Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-1 and Mousesports 2-0. While the Danish squad has managed to maintain a nearly unbeatable form for the better part of 2018, cracks started show coming into the last few tournaments in 2018. They, however, didn’t go completely undefeated, Astralis lost 1-2 against MiBr in the group stage, and in the finals they only barely edged out a win against MiBr 16-14 on Inferno and 22-20 on Overpass. While their place as the #1 team in is solidified for 2018, more teams are becoming keen on their tactics and the opposition continues to improve. With the player break coming up, their rivals will be able to study and counter them, as they’ll face opposition from FaZe, Na’Vi, and Team Liquid, as well as the ever-improving MiBr and NiP.
Outside of Astralis, there were plenty of surprising upsets at ECS. Most notably, Team Liquid losing 16-12 to North and 2-0 to their North American rivals, NRG. Despite the upset, NRG failed to get out of group B, losing 1-2 against North. NiP and North instead went through, with NiP looking strong during the group stages. With group A, the future grand finalists topped the group, with Astralis faltering with their BO3 lost against MiBr. While Cloud9 was disappointing during the group stages, it’s wasn’t too surprising as they had their coach step in for the IGL. Mousesports lost the initial BO1 against MiBr, won convincingly against Cloud9, however, stood no chance against Astralis.
The event itself was fairly action-packed, delivering one of the best finals from recent tournaments and was a great opening for the newly opened Esports Stadium Arlington and will be the home of future ECS events in the foreseeable future.
