Credit: FACEIT

FACEIT Major London 2018: The start of the Astralis era

In this series we look back at all of the previous 17 Majors in CS:GO.

2022-10-27 | @undefined

Countdown to the Major!

We are now less than one week away from the start of the much-awaited IEM Rio Major in Brazil. To ease the waiting time, we have created a countdown series, where we dive into the history of all 17 Majors. Today we have reached the FACEIT Major: London 2018.

ELEAGUE Major Boston 2018: The peak of North American CS:GO?

FACEIT Major: London 2018

Date: 12/9-23/9 - 2018

Number of teams: 24

Prize Pool: $1.000.000

Winner: Astralis (gla1ve, Xyp9x, dupreeh, Magisk, device)

MVP: Nicolai "device" Reedtz

Map pool: Cache, Dust II, Inferno, Mirage, Nuke, Overpass, Train

The hosting of the 13th Major Championship in CS:GO history ended up in the hands of the always bullied CS:GO scene: United Kingdom. The massive $1 Million tournament was set to be played in London at Twickenham Stadium and SSE Arena, Wembley.

The FACEIT Major: London 2018 was the first CS:GO major to be organized by FACEIT.

Na'Vi's great start

Coming into the FACEIT major the CIS-based organization was one of the heavy favorites to take home the trophy. A lot of their success was attributed to superstars Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev and Denis "electronic" Sharipov, but also the legendary IGL Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko.

The first match of the tournament for Na'Vi took them to Inferno where Astralis were lying in wait. The preview of what would also become the grand final saw Astralis just barely taking the win in a thrilling 16-14. From there on Na'Vi did not skip a beat.
They went undefeated on the next seven maps and looked almost unbeatable.

Another team that looked really sharp was Astralis. Just like Na'Vi they only lost a single map before arriving in the grand final. Team Liquid were the only ones to take down the Danes, on a map that was forced into overtime before the North Americans finally finished it 19-15.
Not pleased with the result, a newborn Astralis appeared on Dust II the following day, where MIBR were taken out in a swift 16-0.

The Grand Final

Both Astralis and Na'Vi had looked extremely convincing up till now, crushing almost everyone who dared try and stop them. Na'Vi powered by their superstars and Astralis by their phenomenal teamplay now had to give everything they had to get first across the finish line.

Astralis convincingly won their own map pick of Nuke at 16-6, in a game that had Na'Vi looking stumped. The CIS squad could look forward to their own map pick of Overpass next up though. Unexpectedly Na'Vi, who had looked utterly dominating, did not perform on Overpass either and Astralis took the map at 16-9, and thereby the grand final at 2-0. A grand final where they managed to keep the world's #1 Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev to a rating of 0.81 over two maps.

Tournament result:

1. Astralis - $500.000

2. Natus Vincere - $150.000

3-4. MIBR - $70.000

3-4. Team Liquid - $70.000

5-8. FaZe Clan - $35.000

5-8. HellRaisers - $35,000

5-8. BIG - $35.000

5-8. compLexity Gaming - $35.000

9-11. NIP - $8.750

9-11. Fnatic - $8.750

9-11. G2 - $8.750