How Astralis spoiled Liquid Twistzz’s final farewell at IEM Global Challenge
The stage was set for Team Liquid to shine and give Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken a fairytale send-off fit for a Grand Slam champ. But it wasn’t to be, as Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander and co. stepped up to sweep the North Americans aside in three maps.
Astralis ended the year on a high after winning IEM’s Global Challenge — taking home the best part of $500,000 and earning the top spot in Counter-Strike’s world rankings for the fourth consecutive year. They inadvertently managed to spoil the party for CS:GO’s one-tap wonder though.
The Grand Final ended up being incredibly one-sided, seeing Astralis nab a 3-0 win, dominating the once #1 ranking Team Liquid of yesteryear. Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen and Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz’s insane control led the team straight to the prize. On Liquid, though, only Twistzz seemed to hold up against their opponents at all, with the other members falling quickly by the wayside.
His performance hasn’t been great, though, with a career-low rating of 0.97 in the past three months, with a peak in 2020 of 1.09. The announcement of his move to EU is going to truly disappoint many NA Liquid fans out there, and the huge announcement was unfortunately eclipsed by Astralis’ breeze of a win. Only time will tell whether the player’s move will work out to get this star player back on track.
