Revitalized Astralis bests Vitality in style at BLAST Spring Groups

A long era of subpar results from Astralis could finally be over for the many fans of the most-winning team in CS history. Since the breakup of the 4x Major winning core in 2021, Astralis has been a shadow of themselves with several different lineups that were all doomed to fail. Now, however, things are starting to look interesting again. The addition of Martin "stavn" Lund and Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard has elevated the team back into relevance on the top-tier scene of Counter-Strike.

At BLAST Premier Spring Groups Astralis took out Falcons in the opening round without difficulties. A result that easily could be shrugged off with the fact, that Falcons are a brand-new team without much practice under its belt. But yesterday the opponent was none other than the best team in world with the best player in the world on the server. Vitality took the lead on Mirage with Dan "apEX" Madesclaire in his usual taunting style calling out blameF for being too passive in a round.

But that quickly changed. Astralis took control of the match on their CT-side utilizing the firepower from Martin 'stavn' Lund. The Danes won Mirage 13-10 and silenced apEX.

Despite losing Vertigo 13-6, Astralis were not outplayed in the heights of Vitality’s map pick. Nicolai 'device' Reedtz used the map to get back into shape after a quiet start to the tournament, and from here on “Mr. Consistent” drove his team to a huge 13-4 win on Overpass to win the match. Astralis is now ready for the Group Final, where they will face the winner of Vitality vs Falcons. The winner of the Group Final will qualify for the Spring Finals in London, while the loser will face the second-placed team from Group D.

Astralis has not won anything yet, but you can’t deny, that this iteration of Astralis looks promising, or as in-game leader Benjamin "blameF" Bremer said in an interview with Pley.gg before the tournament.

- I can finally say that we now have a roster that can compete for the biggest titles in the world.

blameF: I can finally say we now have a roster that can compete for the biggest titles

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For Vitality, the loss came at the perhaps perfect time. Dan "apEX" Madesclaire’s men can still qualify for the Spring Finals in London and have now gotten the memo, that a win is not guaranteed.

Results of Day 2 of BLAST Premier Spring Groups:

Group A:

Vitality – Astralis 1-2
OG – Falcons 0-2 (OG eliminated)

Group C:

G2 – NAVI 1-2
NIP – Complexity 2-0 (Complexity eliminated)

Today’s schedule: (CET)

Group B:

12.00: FaZe – GamerLegion
14.30: Spirit – Team Liquid

Group D:

17.00: Virtus.pro – BIG
19.30: Cloud9 - Heroic