The best moments from the BLAST Pro Series 2019 Global Final

The BLAST Pro Series’ 2019 campaign came to an end this weekend, when Astralis lifted the trophy in Bahrain and were officially declared the first BLAST Pro Series CS:GO World Champion.

It was a long, exciting, action packed, road to that point. Here are the greatest moments from a wild weekend in Bahrain:

twist clutches the round through the smoke

Ninjas in Pyjamas entered the second map of their semi-final match up against FaZe Clan having won the first map after a dominant second phase as the Counter Terrorists. Another dominant Counter-Terrorist phase on the second map gave them a huge early lead, but they still had some work to do entering the Terrorist rounds.

As they closed in on the sweep, Simon "twist" Eliasson, the newest member of the teams roster, showed his new fanbase what he could do when the odds were stacked against him. He was faced with a 1v2 with FaZe’s Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer defusing the bomb within the cover of smoke.

twist quickly dispatched of Nikola "NiKo" Kovač but still had to act quickly with olofmeister on top of the bomb. He bravely whipped his knife out and dove into the darkness, catching the FaZe player with his knife just before he could defuse the bomb and clinching the round.

A few rounds later, NiP would clinch the map and book their spot in the Upper Bracket Finals.

dupreeh pops off for a triple kill

Astralis’ surprise run to the finals dominated the weekend, as the Danish team who had not earned a point in the series for months came out of nowhere and upset the field. They faced off with NiP in the Upper Bracket semifinals after sweeping Team Liquid in the opening round.

They were dominating the second map after a comfortable win in the first map. Only a few rounds away from the sweep, Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen popped off for a statement triple kill to win his team what was a fairly even round up to that point.

He quickly does away with Nicolas "Plopski" Gonzalez Zamora, then whips to his right and catches Fredrik "REZ" Sterner flanking him from the side. His attention then turns back to Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson, who has appeared right in front of where he killed Plopski. dupreeh evaporates Lekr0’s health, and his opponent seems so shocked that he freezes.

He has time to switch to his USP as his clip runs out and finishes off a crouching Lekr0 for an amazing triple kill which showed his amazing map awareness and quick reaction time.

Astralis would finish off the sweep in the following round, earning themselves a spot in the Grand Finals.

Twistzz wins a 1v2 before FaZe could even see him coming

Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken has erupted onto the scene as one of CS:GO’s youngest stars in recent years. The 20-year old is younger than the Counter-Strike series itself, but that has not stopped him from showing total mastery over the game.

The young rifler was stuck in a 1v2 as a Counter-Terrorist. The two remaining FaZe members were camping the point with the bomb on hand, trying to bait him in. Twistzz managed to sneak up on them as they waited for him to arrive. He worked his way around their site lines and quickly killed Marcelo "coldzera" David with a headshot.

Twistzz shifted to his right and killed olofmeister with a headshot only seconds later, before the last living FaZe member could even react to watching his teammate get downed.

Liquid would tie the map up at eight after winning the round. They would eventually win the opening map, and eventually won the series by a score of two maps to one. Liquid kept their tournament alive and eliminated one of the favorites in FaZe.

EliGE wipes out NiP

Team Liquid only needed to win one more map to book their ticket to the Grand Final. They held a slight lead about half way through the second map, and needed to start making some big plays to avoid a winner take all third map.

That is when Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski made his mark.

NiP had a man advantage and were surrounding the bomb. The remaining Liquid players would have to make a move fast to win the round and avoiding losing by time out. EliGE snuck up on the NiP players who were surrounding the point, and quickly dispatched of Twist before he could even react.

He then quickly spotted REZ and Plopski on a rooftop across from him and made work of them in quick succession, winning the round and extending Liquid’s marginal lead.

This play would prove to be important in the long run as Liquid pulled off a slim 16-14 win in the second map to complete the sweep and earn a chance to play in the Grand Final.

Astralis clinches the championship without a second to spare

Astralis’ surprise run to the finals would end with them winning the ultimate prize. They defeated Liquid in a 2-0 sweep, but the final round of the contest came right down to the wire.

The Danish team was on the Counter-Terrorist side, and after had to close in on Point A after Liquid planted the bomb. Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth got to the bomb, but Liquid’s Keith "NAF" Markovic was closing in on him from behind after killing Nicolai "device" Reedtz and leaving the teams 1 v 1.

It takes five seconds for a CT to defuse a planted bomb, and NAF needed 5.1 seconds to make the play. He cautiously crept around the containers between himself and Astralis’ Xyp9x, fearing that the Astralis player may have been trying to bait him into running in and getting easily killed.

Once he realized the defusal was on, he began to unload into the CT’s back. Xyp9x ended up defusing the bomb with just a sliver of health left, though. Clinching the round, the map, and the Blast Pro Series Global Final.

Minutes later, Astralis would lift the trophy, celebrating a huge win for the team - and they needed every pixel of health to earn it.