The grand final of DreamHack Masters Stockholm went all three maps, with North defeating Astralis 2-1 (16-1 Dust2, 6-16 Train, 16-11 Overpass) to lift the trophy and secure a $100,000 prize pool.

North started the grand final furiously, grabbing a 6-0 T-side lead on Dust2, Astralis' map pick, without much resistance being put up by their opponents. After a tactical timeout from Astralis, Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen's team went for a swift B-split which resulted in Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye catching Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif off-guard, and the rest of his team overwhelming the site.

As the match continued, Astralis struggled to hold off the fast map control attempts from North, winning only two opening duels as they went 10-0 down to their Danish rivals. With kills from Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander and Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth, Astralis finally managed to open up the round in a positive manner, and got themselves on the board. However, MSL secured all three kills in a 2v3 afterplant and Kjaerbye salvaged the ensuing anti-force, breaking Astralis' bank (12-1).

Following a 14-1 first half, Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup had a massive performance in the second pistol and single-handedly secured the round for his side, picking off three Astralis members with the USP-S as they tried to cross from long towards A. North closed out the game right away, 16-1, moving on to Train.

North smashed Astralis 16-1 on Dust2

A fast B approach from Astralis fell flat in the opening of Train, with North using that to grab a 3-0 lead as CTs on their map pick. Despite losing the first buy, gla1ve's team could muster another rifle round and got on the board with it, breaking North's economy soon to tie the score at 3-3.

With a strong economy, Astralis started dictating the pace of the game and picking apart their opponents' defences, going up 8-4 shortly. Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz shone as North struggled to hold against the A-splits that kept coming round after round, but finally added another round to their tally when Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså got a quad-kill, locking down B (10-5).

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After switching to the CT side, Astralis managed tight B site retakes in both the pistol and the following force-buy to advance their lead, getting to the brink of the map win. Kjaerbye's quick entry on B won North the first Terrorist rifle round, but Astralis managed to save three guns and strike right back with a three-man B halls aggression strategy (14-6). By shutting down two limited buys from North, Astralis finished off the map 16-6.

Astralis struck back with a great display on Train, but couldn't close it out

Magisk's triple with the Glock was pivotal to Astralis winning the T pistol on Overpass and saw them kick-off the decider on the right foot. The approach to both sites was shut down by North in the first rifle round, Kjaerbye's aggressive position was hard for Astralis to deal with in the follow-up, and shortly, the score was tied at 3-3.

After a B-site execute worked out for Astralis, they focused on the site for a couple of rounds in a row, finding success each time, with frags from Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen proving crucial (8-3). A mid-round adaptation and a hat-trick of kills from MSL with the AWP stopped the bleeding for North, they made the game competitive, but Xyp9x still clutched out the last round of the half to give his side a comfortable three-round lead.

It didn't take long for North to get back to business, though, as North won the pistol and the followups to tie the score at 9-9 before taking the lead with a very fast A Long push, which caught device out of position. The score was 12-9 for North when Astralis started scraping together some tight rounds, but North then broke through the B site defences, took the round, and broke Astralis' economy, closing the map out shortly 16-11.

DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018Best of 3 AstralisMatchpage 1 2 2nd September 2018 North 1Dust2 16 16Train 6 11Overpass 16

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussendupreeh	44 - 40	+4	70.5	1.06
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	44 - 46	-2	86.0	1.02
Nicolai 'device' Reedtzdevice	36 - 40	-4	65.6	0.98
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossandergla1ve	37 - 48	-11	66.6	0.96
Emil 'Magisk' ReifMagisk	42 - 45	-3	65.1	0.86

North	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Mathias 'MSL' LauridsenMSL	51 - 42	+9	84.2	1.20
Philip 'aizy' Aistrupaizy	43 - 38	+5	81.7	1.17
Valdemar 'valde' Bjørn Vangsåvalde	42 - 38	+4	74.9	1.06
Markus 'Kjaerbye' KjærbyeKjaerbye	46 - 43	+3	75.5	1.05
Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensenniko	37 - 42	-5	63.8	0.94

Final standings:

1. North - $100,000
2. Astralis - $50,000
3-4. Ninjas in Pyjamas - $22,000
3-4. MOUZ - $22,000
5-8. FaZe - $10,000
5-8. Natus Vincere - $10,000
5-8. HEROIC - $10,000
5-8. MIBR - $10,000
9-12. TYLOO - $2,000
9-12. HellRaisers - $2,000
9-12. Ghost - $2,000
9-12. OpTic - $2,000
13-16. NRG - $2,000
13-16. fnatic - $2,000
13-16. Grayhound - $2,000
13-16. Gambit - $2,000

Gambit #18 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevMihail 'Dosia' StolyarovRustem 'mou' TelepovAbay 'HObbit' KhassenovNikolay 'mir' Bityukov Grayhound #44 Christopher 'dexter' NongSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiErdenetsogt 'erkaSt' GantulgaLiam 'malta' SchembriOllie 'DickStacy' Tierney MOUZ #5 Tomáš 'oskar' ŠťastnýJanusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiChris 'chrisJ' de JongMiikka 'suNny' KemppiRobin 'ropz' Kool FaZe #4 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenOlof 'olofmeister' KajbjerLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen Age: 25 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 1272 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.65 North #10 Mathias 'MSL' LauridsenPhilip 'aizy' AistrupMarkus 'Kjaerbye' KjærbyeValdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåNikolaj 'niko' Kristensen Valdemar 'valde' Bjørn Vangså Age: 23 Team: North Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 617 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.66 Nicolai 'device' Reedtz Age: 22 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.16 Maps played: 1152 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.63 Emil 'Magisk' Reif Age: 20 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 732 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.64 Astralis #1 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif fnatic #8 Richard 'Xizt' LandströmRobin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonWilliam 'draken' Sundin Markus 'Kjaerbye' Kjærbye Age: 20 Team: North Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 1077 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.66 Natus Vincere #2 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievDanylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' Sharipov MIBR #7 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoTarik 'tarik' CelikFernando 'fer' AlvarengaJake 'Stewie2K' YipMarcelo 'coldzera' David Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander Age: 23 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 995 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.66 Mathias 'MSL' Lauridsen Age: 23 Team: North Rating 1.0: 0.91 Maps played: 1355 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.72 OpTic #20 Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferRené 'cajunb' BorgJakob 'JUGi' HansenNicklas 'gade' GadeKristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke Ghost #33 Kevin 'kRYSTAL' AmendJoshua 'steel' NissanKenneth 'koosta' SuenYassine 'Subroza' TaoufikMatthew 'WARDELL' Yu Ninjas in Pyjamas #14 Patrik 'f0rest' LindbergChristopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundDennis 'dennis' EdmanJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonFredrik 'REZ' Sterner Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth Age: 22 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 1329 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.62 NRG #9 Damian 'daps' SteeleJacob 'FugLy' MedinaVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov HellRaisers #16 Kirill 'ANGE1' KarasiowVladyslav 'bondik' NechyporchukÖzgür 'woxic' EkerBence 'DeadFox' BöröczIssa 'ISSAA' Murad HEROIC #34 Andreas 'MODDII' FridhAdam 'friberg' FribergAsger 'AcilioN' LarsenPatrick 'es3tag' HansenDaniel 'mertz' Mertz TYLOO #12 Ke 'captainMo' LiuHui 'DD' WuHansel 'BnTeT' FerdinandHaoWen 'somebody' XuKevin 'xccurate' Susanto Philip 'aizy' Aistrup Age: 22 Team: North Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 1062 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.67