Astralis Defeat Natus Vincere in ESL Pro League 12 Grand Finals

Despite having a 1-map advantage, Natus Vincere have lost to Astralis (3-2) in the grand finals of ESL Pro League Season 12: Europe. The MVP status however was awarded to Na`Vi’s player Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev, who finished the event with a 1.35 K/D rating (672/445) and 89.9 average damage per round.

Both Astralis and Na`Vi finished the group stage as the leaders of their groups, advancing to the upper bracket. The CIS team managed to make it all the way through the upper bracket, defeating mousesports (2-1), Complexity (2-0), and Heroic on their way to the grand finals and thus securing a 1-map advantage.

Meanwhile Astralis lost to their compatriots from Heroic in the very first UB round. Later in the lower bracket they managed to outplay Team Spirit (2-0), Complexity (2-0), mousesports (2-1) and avenge Heroic (2-0). In the grand finals, Na`Vi won their pick Dust II (16:12), however Astralis managed to outplay them at Nuke (16:14), Train (22:19) and Overpass (16:11).

Playoffs Bracket:

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Astralis, who currently have six active members, played this event with Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander, who returned to competing in September after a 5-months break, and Patrick "es3tag" Hansen, who despite the announcment in May joined the team this July and earlier played with them only at ESL One Cologne 2020, where they placed 5-8th. For Es3tag, this is the biggest victory in his entire career in terms of prize money.

ESL Pro League Season 12: Europe was played from September 1st – October 4th, featuring 16 teams competing for a $450,000 prize pool, as well as points for ESL Pro Tour and BLAST Premier. The winners received $99,000, while the runner-ups were awarded $54,000.