The new Astralis play their first playoff match with siuhy and cmtry on Friday, against an MIBR side that has not beaten them since January 2025. Former coach zonic says the move away from a Danish core is sad, but necessary for the club.
Astralis take on MIBR in the quarter-finals of Stake Pulse Beat III in Stockholm at 16:00 CEST. It is the first knockout match for the lineup with siuhy and cmtry, who replaced HooXi and jabbi last week.
Astralis won Group C on Wednesday, beating Sashi 2-0 and HOTU 2-1, with ryu the best player on the server in both series. We covered the debut here.
zonic: “I would rather see Astralis alive”
The rebuild means Astralis no longer have a Danish core, with Staehr the only Dane left in the lineup. zonic, who won four Majors as Astralis coach, told HLTV in Malta that he understands the decision.
I know some of the guys who own Astralis, and I know it’s obviously a business and they have to do whatever is best for Astralis, and sometimes the decision can be to move away from a Danish core. On a personal level, of course, it’s sad. This is the Danish flagship.
The Falcons coach pointed to how close the club came to collapse. “I think it was around one year ago where they were, I don’t know, hours away from maybe going bankrupt, and I would rather see Astralis alive, and hopefully they can rebuild something around this new team,” he said. “Astralis is still very close to my heart, and it’s sad that it’s not Danish, but it doesn’t matter as long as they find success.”
A rumour about HooXi
Why HooXi and jabbi left is still not fully clear. On the HLTV Confirmed podcast, caster SPUNJ shared a rumour: he had heard “murmurs” that players in Astralis did not want to play with HooXi. SPUNJ stressed that he did not know whether it was true.
MIBR’s long wait
MIBR come into the match on a run of six straight defeats against Astralis, according to Dust2 Brasil. Their last win in the fixture came in January 2025, and they have taken only one map in the six meetings since. Both teams have changed their lineups since they last met: MIBR replaced brnz4n with tomaszin, who has played alongside insani, venomzera, nqz and LNZ in Stockholm.
MIBR needed three series to get out of Group D. They lost their opener 1-2 to BC.Game, knocked out Envy 2-0, and then beat BC.Game 2-1 in the decider. insani was their best player in both series against BC.Game, with ratings of 1.40 and 1.41.
The quarter-finals
All times are CEST.
Ninjas in Pyjamasvs
Liquid10:00
fnaticvs
HEROIC13:00
Astralisvs
MIBR16:00
Sangalvs
100 Thieves19:00The winner of Astralis vs MIBR meets Sangal or 100 Thieves in Saturday’s semi-finals. The final is also on Saturday, with $30,000 for the winner of the $80,000 prize pool.
For Astralis, the result matters less for the Major than for preparation: their place in Singapore is close to secured through the Valve Regional Standings.
