[hkes_show_google_ad] Astralis are the ELEAGUE Major 2017 champions as they defeated Virtus.pro 2-1 in a thrilling Grand Finals match on Sunday. This is the first Major victory for the Danish squad, as well as their first Grand Final appearance at a Major. The opening map of the series was VP’s choice of Nuke. VP started on the less favored T-side but they dominated the half with a 9-6 scoreline. snax was a nuisance and stole a key round as he denied a defuse against three swarming Astralis players. Astralis found momentum on their T-side after they won the second pistol round and a handful of rounds after that, but they gave up too much in the first half and VP ended up taking the map 16-12. Next up was Overpass, with Astralis starting out on the T-side. VP took strong hold of their bombsites but they were losing in the duels and gave up a 9-6 half. VP’s T-side was a similar story though, as they had control of the map and forced a 14-14 scoreline. VP also built a strong economy in the half, but Astralis miraculously pushed through two of their full-buys to end the map 16-14. The start of the deciding map, Train, was a nightmare scenario for Astralis. VP took the first seven rounds of the map and Astralis only had eight kills to their name before finally winning a round. They did manage to recover and were only down 9-6 at the half. VP won the second pistol round and had the momentum to take the map to a 13-7 scoreline, but Astralis pulled off the comeback of a lifetime and took five straight rounds off the Polish squad. VP did take another round to put the game at a 14-12 scoreline, but Astralis stormed back to take four straight rounds to take the map and the series. Kjaerbye was Astralis’ best player, as he averaged a 1.22 HLTV player rating across the series. However, VP’s snax managed to score the series’ highest HLTV rating at 1.24. Meanwhile Astralis’ star player, dev1ce, surprisingly had the lowest rating of the match at 0.84. It turned out to be the ultimate “caster’s curse” as Astralis came back from a deficit to win the tournament and its $500,000 grand prize. [hkes_show_google_ad]