Fansided

ELEAGUE Clash for Cash: Astralis wins the one-sided rematch

By Brittany Frederick

ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 29: Andreas 'Xyp9x' H¿jsleth of Astralis competes during the ELEAGUE: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship finals at Fox Theater on January 29, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 29: Andreas 'Xyp9x' H¿jsleth of Astralis competes during the ELEAGUE: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship finals at Fox Theater on January 29, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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The ELEAGUE Clash for Cash proved to be history repeating itself and then some as Astralis took a fairly one-sided victory over Virtus.pro.

Friday’s ELEAGUE Clash for Cash was a rematch of one of the best games in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive history. The second time around, though, it was largely a case of deja vu as Astralia beat Virtus.pro again to claim $250,000 and renewed bragging rights.

The best-of-three matchup was almost an exact replay of January’s ELEAGUE Major. The first two maps, Nuke and Overpass, were the same as the previous matchup; only the third, Mirage, hadn’t been played five months earlier.

And the results were largely the same, too. Virtus.pro put on an impressive performance on Nuke, once again taking the opening map and making it look fairly easy. They seemed poised to continue that momentum on Overpass, too, winning the first three rounds.

Then the wheels fell off the “Virtus Plow” as a series of mistakes by the Polish team and shockingly good plays from the Danish roster combined to swing the favor to Astralis and it never came back.

Whether it was Virtus.pro committing errors like peeking too early or failing to check an angle, or Astralis finding rounds when they needed them such as multiple clutches by Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth, everything combined to work against Virtus.pro.

Even the map veto was suspect, as the desk pointed out that VP had allowed Overpass through—a map on which Astralis had not lost on LAN since December and on which they remain undefeated.

Astralis captured the quarter-million dollar purse and further established their current reputation as one of the top teams in the CSGO world. Virtus.pro’s loss continued a skid for the veteran team that has included being relegated out of the ESL Pro League.

The longest-tenured roster in the game is clearly struggling. Virtus.pro will now turn their attention to trying to rebound at ESL One Cologne, where the biggest plus going into the German tournament is that Astralis won’t be participating as they prepare for the next Major.

For more insight into Friday’s matchup, you can check out FanSided’s interview with Clash for Cash caster and ELEAGUE analyst Jason “Moses” O’Toole here.

You can watch the complete ELEAGUE Clash for Cash in the video below:

Next: Four games that didn't make it to E3 2017

ELEAGUE returns to Counter-Strike on Sept. 1 with the CSGO Premier. Until then, the next event to look forward to for CSGO fans is ESL One Cologne from July 7 to July 9.