Astralis beat Spirit to survive another day Paris Major RMR

Astralis defeated Team Spirit in a close best-of-three series to earn their first victory at European RMR B and uphold their chances of competing in the BLAST.tv Paris Major.

Astralis were in danger of being eliminated going into their match against Team Spirit after having a dismal start to the competition with defeats to Vitality and Eternal Fire. The Danes got off to a bad start against Team Spirit as well, losing on Mirage as a result of subpar performance on the CT side.

The Danes soon bounced back and swept the CIS team, winning handily on Ancient and Overpass. Astralis now needs two more victories to secure a spot in Paris Major, or at least one victory to stay in the game and guarantee a spot in the last-chance qualifier. The fourth round of play will pit Astralis against Ninjas in Pyjamas.

Match Summary – Mirage

The best-of-three series got off to a strong start for Team Spirit, who sprinted to an early 4-1 lead before Astralis stopped the slaughter and clawed back into the match with a four-round streak. The instant the Danes lost their momentum, Spirit took control of the game and went up 10-5. Benjamin “blameF” Bremer and company put on a decent showing in the second half but it wasn’t enough to stop Spirit from closing the map with a 16-10 victory.

Ancient

Being one down, blameF took the matter in his hand on the second map and smashed Spirit’s defense inside out. The Danish rifler put on an exceptional fragging show in the first half, which helped him rack up 18 kills, while also boosting Astralis to a strong 10-4 lead. The team kept on dominating Spirit in the second half, only allowing them one more round before closing the map 16-5. BlameF stood out for Astralis on Ancient, having racked up 24 kills and an impressive 1.81 HLTV rating to take the series to the decider.

Overpass

Astralis kept the momentum going into the third map, putting on a commanding performance that pushed Spirit to the brink and drove them to make more blunders. After remaining silent on Mirage and putting up a respectable performance on Ancient, Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz came alive in the series finale.

After helping Astralis secure a 12-3 lead, the Danish rifler went all-out vicious in the second half, leading the team’s comeback attempt to a fruitful conclusion with his fragging prowess and composed playstyle. Despite the Russian team’s best efforts, Astralis won the last map 16-10 and completed an incredible reverse sweep to win the series 2-1.

Header: ESL