Astralis dominated the CS:GO Intel Extreme Masters Season XIV, beating seven other teams. Held in Beijing, Astralis gets to take home $125,000 along with an automatic seed in the Intel Extreme Masters Season XIV - World Championship next year in Katowice.
The tournament's roster featured a lot of good teams which, along with Astralis, included ENCE, FaZe Clan, Evil Geniuses, Team Vitality, 100 Thieves, ViCi Gaming, and TYLOO.
In the Group Stage, Astralis dominated, beating out VG 2-0 in the opening matches and then 100T, also 2-0, at the Winner's Match. This guaranteed Astralis a Semi-Finals berth.
In the Semi-Finals, Astralis faced off against FaZe. The first map was played on fan favorite Dust 2. To say that Astralis dominated is to undercut what happened as they destroyed FaZe. Playing as the Counterterrorists on the first round, Astralis took a 15-0 lead. Yup, you read that right. Astralis even secured one more victory in the second round to end the first match at 16-0.
The second match was played on the Nuke map. FaZe managed to score two victories, but that's about it. Astralis went on a path of destruction to end the Semi-Finals with a 16-2 win. This led to a Grand Finals match with 100T
The first match was played on Vertigo. Unlike FaZe, 100T put up a fight, eventually getting a 14-14 score by the second round. However, it appeared that Astralis still had just enough to close out the match at 16-14. After that it was smooth sailing for Astralis. The second match was on Nuke once again, and Astralis showed just how good they were with this map. The first round ended at 11-4. In the second round, Astralis only gave away one loss and won at 16-5. The third match was on Train and try as they may, 100T couldn't really hold a candle to Astralis as the championship came to a close with a final score of 16-3, for a 3-0 sweep.
With the win, Astralis joins Fnatic as the second team to be part of the World Championship. Astralis also joins Team Liquid, EG, and Fnatic as the teams who have a shot at the $1 million Intel Grand Slam.
