Astralis lost their chance of making it to the Major in Rio after having suffered their third loss at the EU RMR tournament in Malta.
This time it was the Russian team from forZe that took out the Danes. The loss was extra tough for the Danes after they had actually started the match well. On their opponent’s map pick of Mirage the four-time Major winners were 13-4 up, but then lost it all. Again it was the T side, that was the issue underlined by Andreas ‘Xyp9x‘ Højsleth, who went 1-14 during the second half. forZe claimed their map pick 16-14.
The match continued on Nuke. Here Astralis won six rounds on their T-side in the first half, which was decent all things considered. The Danes even took the lead at 13-12, but then dropped it all again. A crunch time the Danes were simply not sharp enough, and let their opponents run them over without having any answers. A huge disappointment for the legendary Organization, which ended up losing 16-14. Astralis will miss a major for the first time since their debut in Counter-Strike in 2016. The question remains what will happen now at the Astralis camp with rumors of the return of their former AWP’er Nicolai “device” Reedtz.
forZe secured themselves a shot at qualifying for the Rio Major tomorrow.
forZe – Astralis 2-0 | IEM Road to Rio RMR (Group A)
16-14 (Mirage) | {cflag:RU} shalfey – 1.44 Rating / 26–14 K-D / 86.8 ADR
16-14 (Nuke) | {cflag:RU} shalfey – 1.30 Rating / 26–16 K-D / 85.6 ADR
Player of the match: {cflag:RU} Aleksandr “shalfey” Marenov
