After the opening round defeat to FURIA, the pressure was on the Danes to perform. In their first match in the lower bracket against ENCE, the former number one team in the world again struggled. Despite making an excellent comeback on the first map of Mirage, it still ended with a defeat in overtime. The AWP of Olek ‘hades’ Miskiewicz gave the Danes big problems throughout the map, where the Polish sniper managed to make 26 kills with the AWP in comparison to Philip “Lucky” Ewald’s ten.
Astralis picked Overpass as the next map to visit. A fine T side gave them a small 8-7 lead. In a nailbiter of a second half, it was Benjamin “blameF” Bremer, who stepped up big time for the Danes. The Astralis strongman turned the match in favor of the Danes with ten rounds of 2+ kills! Astralis won 16-12 on Overpass.
Ancient was left as the decider. Seen from the outside, that was an advantage for Astralis with ENCE already having lost twice on the map at this event. On their CT side, Astralis managed to get a good headstart winning 9-6 before the second half. Here it was all tied at 11-11 giving the match the finish it deserved.
But here Astralis finally showed some of the old tenacity, that the team has been known for. The Danes won 16-13 on Ancient and are now ready to play the loser of FaZe vs Fnatic in the next round in the lower bracket, while ENCE is out.
ENCE – Astralis 1-2 | IEM Katowice
16-8 (Mirage) | {cflag:PL} hades – 1.33 Rating / 32-20 K-D / 83.9 ADR
12-16 (Overpass) | {cflag:DK} blameF- – 1.68 Rating / 30-15 K-D / 112.0 ADR
13-16 (Ancient) | {cflag:DK} k0nfig– – 1.60 Rating / 34-19 K-D / 113.1 ADR
MVP: {cflag:DK} Benjamin “blameF” Bremer – 1.42 Rating / 83-50 K-D / 95.8 ADR
