Credit: Astralis Group

Astralis avoid elimination with 2-0 victory against paiN

The Danish giants stay alive in the major with a huge comeback on Ancient

2021-10-28 | @BakSophus

We have now reached the more dire rounds of the Swiss Round system. Teams are now securing their place within the Legends Stage as well as the teams that have been already eliminated from the Major event. Within the fourth round of matches, Astralis and paiN both had to fight for their lives at the PGL Major 2021 in Stockholm. Both teams faced elimination as they began the Bo3 brawl against one and another. Whilst many questions about the recent form of Astralis have been raised by the Counter-Strike community, today, however, they proved that they are not ready to leave the Major just yet. With a confident victory on Nuke followed by a crazy comeback on Ancient, the Danes could walk away with a 2-0 victory, avoiding elimination for now.

The first map was the choice of Astralis and saw the Bo3-series start on Nuke. Whilst the Danes are not nearly as dominant on Nuke as they once were, it is still undoubtedly one of their best maps within the official map pool. With a win rate of 71% in the last three months, Astralis were the heavy favorites to take home Nuke. Starting on the T-side of Nuke the Danes posted a dominating performance against the Brazilians of paiN. Leaving their enemies confused at all times it was Astralis to secure a halftime lead at the scoreline of 9-6. As we all know the CT-side of Nuke is often a very difficult one to break down as T’s. Once again this was the case as paiN struggled against the defense of Astralis. At the scoreline of 16-8, it was the Danish giants to take home Nuke.

The second map of the series was to be played on Ancient and was, of course, picked by paiN. Previously Astralis have opted to ban Ancient, however, this time they chose to leave it as an option for the Brazilians to pick. Whether this was an indicator of something new from Astralis on the map or perhaps them trying to throw a curveball at their opponents is unsure, however, Astralis on Ancient is not something that has happened many times before. It was also paiN to start the strongest on Ancient.

Due to an impressive T-sided performance, they managed to secure a 10-5 lead going into halftime. The second half saw an Astralis roster under pressure. paiN quickly strung together rounds and found themselves with 6 match points at the scoreline of 15-8. Things looked impossible for Astralis on Ancient, however, due to their experience in pressured situations and a godlike clutch from “Lucky” they managed to pull it back, force overtime, and ultimately take home Ancient at the scoreline of 19-16.

Highlight of the BO3-series