Astralis win the ELEAGUE 2017 Major against Virtus.pro with a 2-1 scoreline (12-16 Nuke, 16-14 Overpass, 16-14 Train)!

The map veto for the grand final of the ELEAGUE Atlanta Major 2017 between Virtus.pro and Astralis came down to Nuke (VP), Overpass (Astralis) and Train (decider).

Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz started the pistol round on Nuke with an aggressive outside push from the CT side, catching out Filip "⁠NEO⁠" Kubski who was setting up for smokes to supplement the A site execute. Being a man dawaown and, more importantly, lacking utility, Virtus.pro changed their plan and got control of the lower site through ramp, but weren't able to hold off the retake.

Despite the plant in the pistol round, Virtus.pro went for a force buy in round two and executed a push on the A site—this time successfully—and took the round with some Tec-9 headshots. The Poles powered through the Danish defenses in the following rounds, getting a 5-1 lead before Astralis managed to shut down their A site pushes.

Astralis tied the score at 6-6 thanks to some good plays by Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander and device, but weren't able to get in the lead thanks to Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski who held off the retake of B in a 1v3 situation.

Virtus.Pro had reasons to smile after Nuke

Virtus.pro finished the Terrorist half 9-6 up, Astralis tied the score by winning the second pistol round and the two following rounds by making it 9-9. The first buy round went Virtus.pro's way and put the Danes on an eco due to their costly anti-eco rounds, but Snax's aggression was punished by the pistols and lead to Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen clutching a 1v1 on the A site to tie the score again, this time at 10-10.

Unfortunately for Astralis, they were caught out by Virtus.pro's pistol-armor lobby push—and the trading of rounds continued. Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye was involved in two 2v2's that went the way of Astralis to make the score 12-12, however, the Danes were once again defeated by an ecoing Virtus.pro side. That round finally broke Astralis and allowed Virtus.pro to close out their map pick 16-12.

Astralis could've won VP's map pick

Paweł "⁠byali⁠" Bieliński and Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas secured an almost unwinabble 2v3 in the first pistol round on Overpass, retaking the A site and defusing the bomb in the last possible moment. Astralis replied with a force buy win thanks to dupreeh's quad kill on B and the Danes took the early lead on their map pick.

Virtus.pro struggled to deal with Astralis' slow, execute based style and gla1ve and co. got 6-2 up before Snax clutched a 1v2 on B to start the Poles' resurgence on Overpass. The score was 6-5 when Astralis kicked it in a high gear again and finished the Terrorist half with a 9-6 lead.

Astralis won the CT pistol, but another force buy win followed—NEO took off two heads with the Scout to open up the A site for his teammates, making it 10-7. Two anti eco rounds later, Astralis' mid aggression was shut down by the Poles, still, Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth secured the round for his team by winning a 1v3 situation.

Despite a few rounds in which he struggled to support his team, byali shined in rounds 23 and 24, picking up entry frags and multi-kills, making the score 11-13. The Poles continued the string of round by closing out a few anti-ecos and securing a 4v5 by executing on the A site, and took the lead for the first time in the map with a 14-13 scoreline.

Virtus.pro were on the brink of closing it out in the following round when Kjaerbye won a 1v1 against the clutch master Snax to keep his team in it—and allow Astralis to close out Overpass 16-14 and force the third map.

Xyp9x was the main man for Astralis on Overpass

Virtus.pro kicked off Train with a simple B rush, overwhelming the inner site defenses and set themselves up for a 3-0 start. In the first gun round, the Polish side faked B and then hit A that was defended only by dupreeh—taking the site and the round easily.

The Polish powerhouse pounced on the opportunity and won the first seven rounds in a row, capitalizing on Astralis' low economy. After that, the Danish team managed to avoid being reset by saving an AWP and started to mount their comeback. It was 8-5 when TaZ made a 1v3 into a 1v1 against Kjaerbye, but the 18-year-old Dane showed up with the clutch once again, defusing the bomb with 0.1 seconds to go.

Virtus.pro switched to the CT side with a 9-6 lead and extended the lead by winning the first three rounds of the second half, making it 12-6. Astralis clawed their way back into the first gun round from a two-man deficit only to be reset by a force by from the Poles in the next one.

Xyp9x's 1v1 win against Snax made the score 13-8 and allowed Astralis to start their comeback from the T side. With four rounds won in a row, gla1ve's team went for a B where they managed to overwhelm the inner site expert TaZ to get a round away from equaling the scoreline at 12-13.

Despite Astralis' anti-eco mishap in the ensuing round, the Danes recovered and closed out the final map 16-14!

ELEAGUE Major 2017Best of 3 AstralisMatchpage 2 1 29th January 2017 Virtus.pro 12Nuke 16 16Overpass 14 16Train 14

ELEAGUE Major 2017Best of 3 AstralisMatchpage 2 1 29th January 2017 Virtus.pro 12Nuke 16 16Overpass 14 16Train 14

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Markus 'Kjaerbye' KjærbyeKjaerbye	73 - 54	+19	95.2	1.38
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	61 - 64	-3	79.9	1.02
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussendupreeh	62 - 65	-3	78.5	1.01
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossandergla1ve	56 - 61	-5	69.4	0.95
Nicolai 'device' Reedtzdevice	48 - 55	-7	59.8	0.89

Virtus.pro	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Janusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiSnax	75 - 57	+18	82.1	1.24
Paweł 'byali' Bielińskibyali	68 - 59	+9	86.4	1.15
Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasTaZ	57 - 61	-4	73.4	1.04
Filip 'NEO' KubskiNEO	45 - 59	-14	75.2	0.95
Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskipashaBiceps	53 - 65	-12	67.2	0.87

ELEAGUE Atlanta Major 2017 final standings:

1. Astralis - $500,000
2. Virtus.pro - $150,000
3-4. SK - $70,000
3-4. fnatic - $70,000
5-8. Natus Vincere - $35,000
5-8. Gambit - $35,000
5-8. FaZe - $35,000
5-8. North - $35,000
9-11. Envy - $8,750
9-11. GODSENT - $8,750
9-11. Liquid - $8,750
12-14. MOUZ - $8,750
12-14. G2 - $8,750
12-14. OpTic - $8,750
15-16. HellRaisers - $8,750
15-16. FlipSid3 - $8,750 

Professeur writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter. 

HellRaisers #18 Kirill 'ANGE1' KarasiowVladyslav 'bondik' NechyporchukMartin 'STYKO' StykPatrik 'Zero' ŽúdelBence 'DeadFox' Böröcz Natus Vincere #9 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsDenis 'seized' KostinEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas Age: 30 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 1156 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.67 MOUZ #12 Tomáš 'oskar' ŠťastnýNikola 'NiKo' KovačChristian 'loWel' Garcia AntoranTimo 'Spiidi' RichterDenis 'denis' Howell Astralis #1 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzMarkus 'Kjaerbye' Kjærbye Liquid #17 Spencer 'Hiko' MartinJacob 'Pimp' WinnecheNick 'nitr0' CannellaJosh 'jdm64' MarzanoJonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski Filip 'NEO' Kubski Age: 29 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 1161 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.66 G2 #11 Richard 'shox' PapillonCédric 'RpK' GuipouyEdouard 'SmithZz' DubourdeauxAdil 'ScreaM' BenrlitomAlexandre 'bodyy' Pianaro Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen Age: 23 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 929 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.65 Envy #8 Christophe 'SIXER' XiaKenny 'kennyS' SchrubNathan 'NBK-' SchmittDan 'apEX' MadesclaireVincent 'Happy' Schopenhauer Gambit #16 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevDanylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoMihail 'Dosia' StolyarovRustem 'mou' TelepovAbay 'HObbit' Khassenov Nicolai 'device' Reedtz Age: 21 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.17 Maps played: 835 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.63 Paweł 'byali' Bieliński Age: 22 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 998 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.66 Markus 'Kjaerbye' Kjærbye Age: 18 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 691 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.65 FlipSid3 #19 Yegor 'markeloff' MarkelovAndrey 'B1ad3' GorodenskiyGeorgi 'WorldEdit' YaskinJan 'wayLander' RahkonenDenis 'electroNic' Sharipov FaZe #7 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenAleksi 'allu' JalliFabien 'kioShiMa' FieyPhilip 'aizy' AistrupHåvard 'rain' Nygaard North #6 Ruben 'RUBINO' VillarroelRené 'cajunb' BorgMathias 'MSL' LauridsenEmil 'Magisk' ReifKristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander Age: 21 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 653 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.67 GODSENT #14 Markus 'pronax' WallstenRobin 'flusha' RönnquistAndreas 'znajder' LindbergJesper 'JW' WecksellJonas 'Lekr0' Olofsson Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski Age: 23 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 975 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.65 Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth Age: 21 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 987 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.62 OpTic #2 William 'RUSH' WierzbaOscar 'mixwell' CañellasPeter 'stanislaw' JarguzKeith 'NAF' MarkovicTarik 'tarik' Celik SK #3 Ricardo 'fox' PachecoGabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de Melo Virtus.pro #4 Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasFilip 'NEO' KubskiJarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskiJanusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiPaweł 'byali' Bieliński fnatic #20 Olof 'olofmeister' KajbjerDennis 'dennis' EdmanSimon 'twist' EliassonFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonJoakim 'disco doplan' Gidetun