<
>

OpTic Gaming stuns Astralis in ELeague finals

OpTic Gaming won Season 2 of ELeague and looks like a heavy favorite coming into the ECS Finals. Raymond Mccrea Jones/Turner Sports

After earning dominating wins over their opposition in the semifinals, both Astralis and OpTic Gaming entered the Grand Finals of ELeague Season 2 looking to score a major win. Despite a back-and-forth battle, it was OpTic Gaming that would ultimately walk away with the championship. With the 2-1 series win, OpTic Gaming walks away with $400,000 and heads into January's ELeague Major as the defending Season 2 champions.

The first map of the best-of-three series started on Train, and immediately Astralis jumped out to a torrid 11-4 lead at the half. Although OpTic managed to make up some of the difference in the second half, Astralis silenced the North American team away, scoring a 16-9 win to open up the series.

Astralis should have entered Map 2 with all the confidence in the world; however, it was OpTic Gaming that jumped out to a blazing start on Cobblestone. Thanks to superb performances by Tarik "tarik" Celik and Will "RUSH" Wierzba -- who had a combined 44/21 KD and 208.1 ADR in the second game -- the Green Wall was able to parlay a 11-4 lead at the break into a convincing 16-6 win, pushing the series to a deciding third game.

With the intensity at a near-fever pitch, Astralis and OpTic Gaming took to Overpass to decide which team would become the ELeague Season 2 champions. Both teams have benefited from Overpass, as Astralis took the map away from SK Gaming in its semifinal match to advance, while OpTic Gaming was 3-0 on the map in previous matches.

OpTic started off well on the offensive side, holding a firm 7-1 score, but Astralis wasn't done just yet. The Danes then came back to win six straight to tie late in the first half, with OpTic winning the final round of the first half to take a 8-7 lead. OpTic took over on the favored defensive side in the second half and the Green Wall stood strong, working their way to map point before Astralis capitalized on a few errors, winning four consecutive rounds to pull close. However, Astralis wasn't able to hold the momentum as OpTic's Keith "NAF" Markovic had a huge second half to close out the third map 16-11, earning a massive 113.3 ADR.