Astralis triumph once again with convincing IEM Beijing win

The reign of one of CS:GO's greatest teams Astralis is not yet over in 2019 as the Danes added yet another trophy to their collection courtesy of 100 Thieves. 

Controversy surrounding a rule added to the IEM rulebook forbidding 'suicide' was removed during the initial days of the event but Astralis gave no chances for their opponents to do so in their games.

Astralis had an incredible run, not losing a single map in China and only allowing FaZe Clan two rounds over two maps in the semifinal, with both coming on CT side Nuke as Astralis 16-0'd the superstar lineup on DustII.

100 Thieves had a solid performance in Beijing, but were unable to match the might of Astralis led by Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander. The in-game leader was awarded his first ever MVP medal for his performance.

After a stumble at BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen for the second year in a row saw them finish fourth, Astralis have shown that it will take a lot more than a single poor result to keep them down.

While 2018 saw their total dominance, Astralis have racked up more trophies than they know what to do with at this point as seen in a video posted by Emilia Hult on Snapchat. The players are using the IEM Beijing trophy as a substitute table tennis paddle.

The race for the top spot in the rankings is now heating up, with Astralis, Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid looking like the likely trio of contenders for number one as 2019 draws to a close.

ECS Season 8 Finals and ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals will see all three teams in attendence, while Astralis and Team Liquid are two of four teams going to Bahrain for the BLAST Pro Series Global Final.

EPICENTER 2019 will see only EG attend out of the three and the results for the next two months will determine whether that may be the stage on which they snatch the crown from the Danish kings and their domestic rival.