Astralis Advance to the Playoffs of EPL S19

After just two matches played at ESL Pro League S19, Astralis have already made it clear that their IEM Chengdu result was not a fluke.

Dev1ce seems determined to turn his team into one of the world’s best. He knows what it’s like to be the best in the world because his many trophies including numerous Major titles, were won while competing for Astralis during the 2017 – 2019 era. Back then, the Danes were winning almost every important competition in Counter-Strike.

However, a lot has happened since then and we haven’t seen dev1ce winning a big trophy in nearly three and a half years. That’s a very long time for someone of his caliber. But there’s a good chance that the drought will end soon. Perhaps not at EPL S19, but certainly this year.

Astralis’ Results in Group A

Keeping up the strong form with another impressive performance from the boys 🔥💪

We clinched our revenge with a decisive win and are geared up for the playoff spot.

Catch all the highlights 👇https://t.co/iA68PiZlD5

— Astralis Counter-Strike (@AstralisCS) April 24, 2024

Astralis started group A of ESL Pro League S19 with a relatively easy victory against Eternal Fire. The first half of each map was a struggle: 5 – 7 on Vertigo and 6 – 6 on Overpass. But the Danes managed to triumph in the end. This gave them access to the upper bracket semifinals, where they faced FaZe Clan.

FaZe won IEM Chengdu and finished 2^nd at PGL Major Copenhagen. Astralis had faced them at IEM Chengdu twice. They won the first match, in the group stage, but lost the second one, in the semifinals.

This time, dev1ce and his crew played just a bit better and won both maps despite the comeback attempts made by their opponents. On Ancient, after winning the first half 3 – 9, Astralis struggled to win the remaining rounds and the final score was 11 – 13. On Nuke, after a 6 – 6 first half, Astralis had a dominant second half and won 9 – 13.

This victory was a beautiful team effort in which the Astralis players were separated by very few kills. Br0 had 28 while the best member of the team had 36. The battle was won thanks to superior tactics, which probably had a lot to do with dev1ce’s input.

Thanks to this result, Astralis will face 3DMAX in the upper bracket Final. Both teams will advance to the playoffs but the winner goes directly to the quarterfinals, skipping the first two rounds and needing just three more victories to claim the trophy.

Given that 3DMAX are nowhere near Astralis in the global rankings, it’s probably safe to say that the Danes have at least an 80% chance of success.

Header: Astralis