The European mixed team beat a total of three teams on the Intel Grand Slam scoreboard with a 2-0 against Evil Geniuses in the first round of playoffs and a 2-1 against Astralis in the semi final.

Ever since Team Liquid won the second Intel Grand Slam no team has managed to win two Masters level tournaments. Liquid won Intel Extreme Masters Chicago, EG won ESL One New York, FNATIC won DreamHack Masters Malmoe and Astralis won IEM Beijing. All of the above teams are still in contention for the $1,000,000 prize.

A team needs to win four Masters level tournaments if one of them was a Championship ESL Pro Tour event. Otherwise a team needs to win six Masters tournaments to complete the Intel Grand Slam.

Team Liquid have the most narrow window to complete their Intel Grand Slam as they have five tournaments left. If they win IEM Katowice (a Masters Championship) in March 2020, they will need a further two Masters titles to do it.

The rule update is designed to keep the Intel Grand Slam in the spirit of the award’s original design: to be an achievement to crown the greatest team in a specific period of time.  Intel Extreme Masters Katowice and ESL One Cologne powered by Intel are the most difficult events in the ESL calendar and winning at one of these two events will be a requirement to completing the Intel Grand Slam with four victories.

Winning the Intel Grand Slam outside of IEM Katowice and ESL One Cologne will be possible, but teams will need to win six championships inside a run of ten tournaments overall to accomplish this. 

The new rule is as follows:

The Intel Grand Slam in Season 3 can be completed by the first team to complete either of the two conditions below:

1.       Winning four Masters level CSGO tournaments including one (or more) designated Masters level CSGO tournament inside a span of ten consecutive tournaments.

2.       Winning six Masters level CSGO tournaments inside a span of ten consecutive events.

Masters level CSGO events are currently Intel Extreme Masters, ESL One, ESL Pro League and DreamHack Masters. Designated Masters level CSGO tournaments for 2020 are Intel Extreme Masters Katowice and ESL One Cologne.  Any potential CSGO Major by ESL or DreamHack in the future would also be considered as having that status.

The list of eligible IGS Masters level events & championship level events is available on the Intel Grand Slam website.

The full rules can be found on the <rules page>.

It is important to us that the Intel Grand Slam is an achievement that can serve to compare teams and their eras across time.  Under the Season 3 rules both Astralis and Liquid would have completed the Intel Grand Slam as both have managed to win IEM Katowice and ESL One Cologne inside their allotted completion time frames.

Team Liquid won the tournament completing the Intel® Grand Slam and taking the lion’s share of the $300.000 prize money with their victory at ESL One Cologne on July 7.  The North American team accomplished it with an unprecedented four consecutive tournament championships inside sixty-three days.

This puts Astralis’ achievement of winning the first Intel Grand Slam in a completely different perspective. It took the Danes 323 days to do so, with four victories inside a total of seven attempts. Liquid’s run to the $1,000,000 check was 169 shorter, which is an achievement that might never be improved on.

Liquid’s trophy haul was:

• Win No. 1: Intel® Extreme Masters Sydney (May 2019), edging out Fnatic 3-2. 
• Win No. 2: DreamHack Masters Dallas (June 2019), beating ENCE 2-1. 
• Win No. 3: ESL Pro League Season 9 (June 2019), defeating G2 Esports 3-1. 
• Win No. 4: ESL One Cologne (July 2019), overcoming Vitality 3-1.

Congratulations to Team Liquid.

Since the introduction of the Intel Grand Slam, no team has managed to win three eligible tournaments in a row. Liquid are on uncharted territory after winning three trophies in the last two months: Intel Extreme Masters Sydney, DreamHack Masters Dallas and how the ESL Pro League Occitanie.

The grand final was tightly contested by the French team G2 Esports, but ended 3-1 in favor of the North Americans. Liquid also defeated Astralis 2-1 in the first round of playoffs in a match which was significant in that it showed in a direct head to head comparison who the #1 team in the world are.

The next events on the Intel Grand Slam calendar are ESL One Cologne, IEM Chicago and ESL One New York. It could be a very hot summer for Liquid.

The North American lineup defeated Fnatic in a long, drawn out grand final in Australia, beating the Swedes 3-2. In spite of being ranked #2 for months, Liquid have not won a big trophy with their current team, securing a number of second places in 2018.

The IEM Sydney champions are now looking to make use of Astralis’ absence from a number of announced events to go ahead of the Danes in the race. The next eligible championship will be DreamHack Masters Dallas in June, Astralis won’t be in attendance.

If Liquid win on their home soil in Dallas, Astralis will be a trophy behind at the ESL Pro League finals in France. The race is starting to heat up.

Across the tournament in Poland, the Danes beat compLexity, Cloud9, Renegades, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Made in Brazil before outclassing the Finnish underdogs.

In the current form Astralis is in, the question seems not if but when they complete their second Intel Grand Slam.

No true contender seems to be out there looking like they could challenge Astralis in the race. FaZe Clan have not improved after replacing Finn “Karrigan” Andersen. TeamLiquid were supposed to be the team to do challenge, but in Katowice they lost to ENCE in the first round of the playoffs. Natus Vincere remain dangerous with Sasha “s1mple” Kostyliev, but not nearly consistent enough. Both of those teams were knocked out by ENCE.

Looking at Katowice results, only Made in Brazil showed signs of progress. With the same core lineup that brought them their previous peak, the Brazilians might be the first team to try to dethrone Astralis, but still not many would bet on it today.

After winning in Katowice, the Danes have nine more events to win their second, third and four eligible title. The earliest it could happen would be on July 7th, 2019, if the Danes win IEM Sydney, DreamHack Masters Dallas and ESL One Cologne.

The next stop is Intel Extreme Masters Sydney on May 3-5, 2019. Don’t miss it!