Luminosity Gaming have booked their place in the grand final of DreamHack Open Leipzig after defeating Astralis 2-0 (16-8 on de_train and 16-12 on de_overpass).

The playoffs at DreamHack Open Leipzig opened with a mouth-watering contest between Luminosity Gaming, fresh off a convincing 2-0 victory over FaZe, and Astralis, who had acquitted themselves really well during the group stage, in which they beat dignitas and mousesports.

The first map in the series was Train, and it began with Luminosity getting the pistol round after a no-nonsense B push. Astralis hit back right after, however, thanks to Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen, who picked up three kills with the Desert Eagle before finishing the job with an AK-47.

Astralis controlled the tempo of the match and got out to a 5-2 lead, but then they were caught off-guard by Luminosity's Tec-9 strategy. Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga went huge in the following round with four kills during a B hold, with Luminosity using that momentum to bring the scoreline to 7-5 in their favor. The remaining rounds of the half were extremely close, though, with Luminosity taking a narrow 8-7 lead into the second half.

The second half started with Luminosity winning the pistol round and the following anti-ecos, and even though Astralis still managed to pull back one round after buying up, the Brazilians remained in the driving seat, cruising to a 16-8 victory.

Luminosity move on in Leipzig 

Map number two was de_overpass, where Luminosity once again came out the brighter, winning the pistol round thanks to a triple kill from Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo. After losing both ecos, Astralis picked up their first round of the map, courtesy of a triple AWP kill from Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen, but Luminosity hit back right and forced a double eco from the Danes, who then went on a fantastic run despite Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz looking way off the pace.

Astralis got within touching distance of their opponents at 4-5, but then Luminosity ran riot, picking up five of the next six rounds to take a 9-6 halftime lead.

The first rounds of the second half were extremely highly contested as the teams traded literally round for round. Once again, Astralis were able to reduce the deficit to just one round, only to see Luminosity run away with the lead. The Danish team still tried to play for overtime, but the Brazilians held strong and closed out the game 16-12.

DreamHack ZOWIE Open Leipzig 2016Best of 3 AstralisMatchpage 0 2 23rd January 2016 Luminosity 8Train 16 12Overpass 16

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Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo Age: 20 Team: Luminosity Rating 1.0: 0.94 Maps played: 95 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.68 Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga Age: 24 Team: Luminosity Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 234 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.68 Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen Age: 22 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 683 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.65 Nicolai 'device' Reedtz Age: 20 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.15 Maps played: 592 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.64 Finn 'karrigan' Andersen Age: 25 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 646 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.69