Team Liquid have won the ESL Pro League Season 9 finals, after a convincing grand final victory against G2 Esports, where despite a valiant effort from the French side, the Americans cemented their place as the best team in the world on current form.
Culminating months of intense competition, the top teams from the four regions (Americas, EU, Oceania and Asia) descended on Montpellier, France for the $600,000 finals.
Some big hitters dropped out early, including Astralis who were first upset by NRG, and then eliminated by eventual finalists Team Liquid.
Liquid actually got off on the wrong foot, with a surprise defeat to North sending them to the lower bracket immediately, but there troubles ended there, as they mowed down their competition from then on.
Mousesports and NRG came out victorious from the upper bracket, securing their spot in the semi finals, with the former knocking down FaZe to do so.
Mouz then faced a Liquid side coming hot off their victory over Astralis, and despite a potential play-of-the-tournament clutch from w0xic, it wasn’t enough to stave off the top NA team.
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G2 and Liquid face off in grand final
G2 started the better of the two sides in the grand final, with a 7-1 lead early on, but after some incredible frags from Stewie2k and ELiGE, Liquid fought their way back to win a tight 19-16 overtime win on Dust2.
Despite winning the early rounds on Overpass, map 2, G2 couldn’t capitalize and were steamrolled by Liquid on their map pick, a convincing 16-3. Nuke was a closer affair, and despite an early deficit, G2 were not going to lie down and be swept, and some big individual plays in crucial rounds (helped by an underwhelming performance for Stewie2K) earned them a 16-12 win to force a fourth map.
A power outage at the venue put things on hold temporarily before Inferno began. G2 was able to make things very competitive, forcing triple overtime.
Despite the resistance from G2 on Inferno, Team Liquid was able to hold on and secure a victory against a much tougher than expected opponent.
ESL Pro League Season 9 finals – Final Placements
| Place | Team | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Team Liquid | $250,000 |
| 2 | G2 Esports | $80,000 |
| 3-4 | NRG | $40,000 |
| 3-4 | Mousesports | $40,000 |
| 5-6 | FaZe Clan | $20,000 |
| 5-6 | Astralis | $20,000 |
| 7-8 | Heroic | $17,000 |
| 7-8 | MiBR | $17,000 |
| 9-12 | Fnatic | $15,000 |
| 9-12 | Cloud9 | $15,000 |
| 9-12 | Hellraisers | $15,000 |
| 9-12 | North | $15,000 |
| 13-16 | Grayhound | $14,000 |
| 13-16 | Detona | $14,000 |
| 13-16 | TyLoo | $14,000 |
| 13-16 | Luminosity | $14,000 |