Astralis battle past Liquid; to Katowice semifinals
Two familiar foes were set to battle for a semifinal spot, with Liquid taking on Astralis. The two teams had playoff spots secured, but were looking for a quicker route to the final. The maps were set to be Inferno, Nuke and Overpass.
Inferno began with Astralis taking the pistol round on their CT-side, but Liquid used the power of the CZ to instantly flip the tables on the Danes. They secured the following round before Astralis won an eco round to get back on top. Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken then secured an ace for his team off the back of a CZ, but Astralis were firmly in control from that point onwards.
Nicolai "device" Reedtz and co. were firmly ahead of the game, only dropping one further round before the end of the half. Emil "Magisk" Reif was key in certain rounds, taking three kills in the final round for a 10-5 lead.
The second half began with Liquid securing the pistol and anti-eco rounds on their CT-side, before securing the first full buy round. Astralis picked up the next, but Keith "NAF" Markovic and co. were on top, resetting the Danes with the following round.
The North American team were on top throughout the second half. An incredibly strong CT-side forced them ahead, swiftly racing off to map point. From there NAF secured the final round in a 1vs1 against device, for a 16-12 win.
Nuke was up next, where Liquid secured the pistol round on their CT-side. But, in shades of the first map, Astralis came in to even up the game on an eco. From there the Danes pushed on to take the next couple rounds against Liquid's own ecos. The first buy round was won by Liquid, but from there Lukas "g1ave" Rossander and co. were pushing themselves ahead.
Although Liquid picked up two rounds in the half, it was a Danish flavor on display. Round after round went the way of Astralis' T-side, Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen was on fire to force his team's way through to an 11-4 lead at the end of the half.
The second half began with Astralis pushing on with their advantage by securing the pistol round and two anti-ecos, placing them on 14 rounds. Liquid secured the first full buy round, but four from device placed his side on map point. Four kills from Magisk swiftly ended Nuke for a 16-5 win.
The decider was Overpass, where Liquid opened up the game on their T-side. Much like the previous maps, however, Astralis used a set of CZ's to get straight into the game to claim the lead by securing the next two eco-rounds. From there Liquid secured the first fully bought up round, and the one following, to even the game up once again.
But the Danes were looking to secure a route directly to the semifinals, going on a tear as Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth was securing key rounds to keep his team on top. Round after round they secured their lead before Liquid secured the next two rounds. With Liquid looking likely to get back into the game, Astralis halted that by narrowly securingi a ninth round before device secured four kills to give his team a 10-5 half time lead.
The second half started with Astralis claiming the pistol and anti-eco rounds, before moving on to take the first full buy round. From there the Danish side comfortably pushed onto match point, before comfortably taking the game 16-5.
AstralisLiquid| Astralis |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nicolai 'device' Reedtz |
61 - 36 | +25 | 88.2 | 77.1% | 1.41 |
| Emil 'Magisk' Reif |
61 - 39 | +22 | 82.3 | 81.4% | 1.30 |
| Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen |
49 - 42 | +7 | 82.5 | 78.6% | 1.22 |
| Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander |
52 - 43 | +9 | 84.7 | 80.0% | 1.19 |
| Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth |
42 - 41 | +1 | 72.9 | 71.4% | 1.08 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
51 - 50 | +1 | 81.3 | 65.7% | 1.05 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
44 - 49 | -5 | 66.8 | 67.1% | 0.94 |
 Lucas 'steel' Lopes |
38 - 53 | -15 | 66.3 | 62.9% | 0.81 |
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
42 - 57 | -15 | 58.8 | 60.0% | 0.80 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
26 - 58 | -32 | 51.0 | 55.7% | 0.64 |
This result puts Astralis straight to the semifinals on Saturday, and Liquid head to a Quarterfinal matchup tomorrow. Cloud9 and SK are currently battling to secure a playoffs spot, with a current 1-1 scoreline.
