Astralis beat Team Liquid 3-1 on Sunday to defend their ESL Pro League title and collect the $250,000 top prize at the $750,000 Season 8 Finals at Odense, Denmark. The win also secured for Astralis the Intel Grand Slam title and the $1 million prize.
The best-of-five series kicked off on Train, which Liquid won 16-8. But Astralis came roaring back with three straight wins on Mirage (16-11), Inferno (16-11) and Dust2 (16-10), negating any need to play the final map (Overpass).
Sunday was a rematch of sorts for Liquid and Astralis, who each swept their semifinal matches Saturday to reach the final. The two teams met in Thursday's Group A winner's bracket final, with Astralis sweeping Liquid in the best-of-three format -- 16-12 on Inferno and 16-8 on Nuke -- to jump straight to the semifinals.
The Intel Grand Slam, which was created in June 2017, awards $1 million to the first team that wins four premier events organized by ESL or DreamHack Masters in a span of 10 consecutive events. It took Astralis nine IGS-eligible events to capture the prize.
In addition to the $1 million, Intel will reward each Astralis player and coach Danny "zonic" Sorensen with a gold bar with his name on it and the events that the team won during the season.
ESL has yet to announce details about Season 2 of the Intel Grand Slam, but it is expected to start at IEM Katowice, Feb. 28-March 3 in Poland, which would make it the first major eligible for the prize.