Astralis stay afloat, to face G2
One of the final two games of the day in the first round of the Swiss group was to be between Astralis and Liquid, both hot off new roster changes. The maps in the best of three series were to be Mirage and Inferno with Train as a decider.
Despite Astralis killing all five Liquid players, the North American side still took the pistol round on Mirage. Astralis answered back in round two, and managed to go up 3-1 as a result. The first full gun round ended up going to Liquid after Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski had an enormous quadruple entry into mid. Emil "Magisk" Reif kept Astralis on top however, as a triple kill by the new addition reset the Liquid side.
The Danish top dogs ran away with the rest of the half, with Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth pulling off some big plays along the way. The final round ended with a ninja defuse by Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander to make a 12-3 scoreline.
Astralis also took the pistol round in the second half, and with their immense momentum acquired match point. The end result was, and after just a single round going to Liquid, Astralis won out and took Mirage 16-4.
Astralis kept up their good pistol play, starting off Inferno with a lead, even though EliGE secured three kills for himself. The Danish side played with immense confidence, and took six rounds in a row before Liquid could take their first. The NA side got a small foothold by taking two additional rounds, and after a back and forth end to the half led by Keith "NAF" Markovic, Liquid secured a 6-9 score.
Liquid gave themselves a way back into the game by winning the pistol round and the following two rounds. The North American side eventually took the lead but Astralis kept it close. NAF took the 1 on 1 win to put Liquid on map point, but Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken was unable to plant in time despite four kills and extended the game a bit longer. Lucas "steel" Lopes then closed out the map for Liquid 16-13 and forced Train.
Train kicked off quite well for Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen, picking up nine kills in the first three rounds. The first gun round went to Liquid though, off of some nice play by steel. In the next round, Xyp9x pulled off a signature clutch, and put Liquid into a weird spot economically. Astralis only managed three rounds before responded back with three of their own and put the Danes onto a save.
gla1ve allowed Astralis to barely keep their lead with a clutch win against NAF and a triple kill. Xyp9x then won yet another 1 on 1 and Astralis led the game 9-6 at the half.
The second half began with a win for Astralis as well as Nicolai "device" Reedtz started to show up to the map. Other than a single round win for Liquid, Astralis dominated the CT side, with the Danish side emerging victorious 16-7 on Train and the series 2-1.
AstralisLiquid| Astralis |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen |
64 - 48 | +16 | 93.0 | 72.2% | 1.31 |
| Nicolai 'device' Reedtz |
55 - 42 | +13 | 83.0 | 65.3% | 1.16 |
| Emil 'Magisk' Reif |
47 - 42 | +5 | 75.8 | 70.8% | 1.11 |
| Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth |
49 - 41 | +8 | 64.6 | 81.9% | 1.10 |
| Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander |
42 - 41 | +1 | 73.9 | 70.8% | 1.08 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
55 - 48 | +7 | 85.4 | 65.3% | 1.14 |
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
42 - 56 | -14 | 71.0 | 69.4% | 0.93 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
40 - 52 | -12 | 67.4 | 72.2% | 0.90 |
 Lucas 'steel' Lopes |
41 - 49 | -8 | 70.3 | 63.9% | 0.88 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
36 - 52 | -16 | 53.0 | 65.3% | 0.76 |
Astralis move on to the 1-0 group and will face G2 tomorrow while Liquid fall to the 0-1 group and will play against Renegades.
