Aurora moved into the grand final of ESL Pro League Season 23 after a 2-1 semifinal win over Astralis, overturning an opening-map defeat to take the next two maps and the series. The series began on Astralis’ pick, Nuke, where Aurora answered an early dualies quad kill from Ali “Wicadia” Haydar Yalçın but still fell short in a tight finish, losing the map 11-13. Astralis seized a late round with upgraded pistols that swung the economy and closed out their choice.
Aurora responded emphatically on Dust2. Led by captain Engin “MAJ3R” Küpeli, the Turkish side ran a dominant Terrorist half, reached a 10-2 lead on their offense and converted the map 13-2 after winning their fourth pistol round of the match. Inferno provided the decider. Aurora took the first pistol but dropped the subsequent force buy, then recovered and built a 7-5 lead before switching to defense. Astralis regained momentum on the T side and opened a 10-7 advantage, but Aurora’s rifling and larger team plays, including key contributions from Wicadia and Özgür “woxic” Eker, pushed them back into the lead and they closed the map 13-10.
The victory clinched Aurora’s first semi-final appearance of 2026 into a grand final scheduled for 15 March 2026, where they will face Natus Vincere in a best-of-five. Astralis will drop to the third-place decider against FUT later the same day. Aurora had not reached a semifinal in 2026 before this event, and Astralis’ path to the playoffs included an earlier win to lock their place in the Stage.
The match produced several highlight clips from the series:
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Counter-Strike 2
Developed by Valve
For over two decades, Counter-Strike has offered an elite competitive experience, one shaped by millions of players from across the globe. And now the next chapter in the CS story is about to begin. This is Counter-Strike 2.
A free upgrade to CS:GO, Counter-Strike 2 marks the largest technical leap in Counter-Strike’s history. Built on the Source 2 engine, Counter-Strike 2 is modernized with realistic physically-based rendering, state of the art networking, and upgraded Community Workshop tools.
- Genre: Shooter, Tactical
- Platforms: Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows)
- Modes: Single player, Multiplayer
- Release: 2023-09-27
- Publisher: Valve
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Age Rating:
GRAC 19+ / PEGI 18 / USK 18 / CERO Z / ESRB M / CLASS_IND 18 / ACB R 18+
- IGDB Rating: 67.3/100
