As Team Liquid and Astralis square off in the ECS Season 8 Grand Finals in Texas, here's what you need to know, including live stream information, latest betting odds and predictions
Astralis vs Liquid is due to start at 9pm GMT / 10pm CET / 4pm ET / 1pm PT on Sunday, December 1st, 2019.
Astralis vs Team Liquid at ECS Season 8 Finals live stream
Road to the Grand Final
Astralis topped Evil Geniuses in Saturday's first semi-final. A strong 16-8 win on Inferno found the Danes in the driver's seat for the remainder of the BO3, but EG were able to grind out a 16-13 win on Nuke in map 2.
People starting believing in the possibility of an all NA final, myself included, but Overpass was all Astralis. A convincing 16-6 win saw the world number ones through to the grand final.
Like their NA brethren, Team Liquid also struggled on Overpass. They watched helplessly as Fnatic jumped out to a 9-0 lead as Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin's unstoppable aggression picked their offense apart.
Picture: Copyright ESL / Stephanie Lieske
They would not relinquish that lead for even a single round, as the Swedes cleaned up the map quickly 16-6. Team Liquid came to play on their turf though, completing the reverse sweep with a 16-6 win of their own on Inferno, then a 16-10 win on the decider, Mirage.
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Who to watch
My key player for Team Liquid is Keith "NAF" Markovic. When he's hot, Liquid are hot, and it's that simple. NAF wasn't effective on Overpass for Liquid against Fnatic, and they struggled.
But when he was an active threat on Inferno and Mirage, it forced Fnatic to divide their attention around the map, allowing Liquid to conquer the pieces.
Team Liquid did a good job of keeping Jesper "JW" Wecksell in check throughout the BO3, so I'm going to take the focus off of the AWP matchup and look to Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander as the difference maker for Astralis.
He topped the server with 61 kills, more than doubling the tally of his opposing counterpart Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz. If he pops of for Astralis, no amount of home field advantage will save Liquid.
Astralis vs Team Liquid predictions
I'm expecting a punish pick from Astralis in the form of Overpass. They've played it well, Team Liquid have not. It's only logical. I could see Liquid taking Inferno or Dust II, and this is a series that could have Vertigo as the decider.
I'm hopeful that we'll get three full games of great CS:GO, but this could just as easily be a sweep for either team depending on the form they bring into the server.
Astralis vs Liquid predictions for each map are below.
Astralis and Team Liquid are committed to their permabans. The only map that I don't think would be close would be Overpass, Astralis should run away with that map in particular. I think Astralis take this in a close one.
I wouldn't be surprised to see overtime on at least one map, nor would I be surprised to see that third map be necessary.
Nuke: 16-11 Astralis
Dust II: 16-13 Team Liquid
Inferno: 16-11 Team Liquid
Vertigo: 19-16 Astralis
Mirage: Astralis Permaban
Train: Team Liquid Permaban
Overpass: 16-9 Astralis
Don't forget, you can find the full ECS Season 8 Finals schedule updated throughout the tournament.
