Astralis defeated Complexity to win their opening fixture in a 3 map affair, will play Fnatic on 25th April. (16-3 on Veritgo, 13-16 on Nuke, 16-11 on Train).
The match between Astralis and Complexity started on Veritgo with a decisive A site defense by the Danes, who took the lead from the gate. Starting out on the CT side, Astralis showed why they were the favorites from the start, not giving Complexity a chance since the first gun round from where they did take a marching lead of 7-0. For a large portion of the match, it did look like Astralis won’t be showing any mercy towards the struggling side of Benjamin ‘blameF’ Bremer and his men, but a combined effort from Owen ‘oBo’ Schlatter and William ‘RUSH’ Wierzba did make the Danes concede a round. Nicolai “Device” Reedtzput put in yet another vintage performance and Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander also at times proved to be a key contributor. On switch we saw the Danes securing yet another pistol round on their attack. With Complexity’s troops looking destitute, Astralis picked up the map win after Andreas “xpy9x” Højsleth clutching out the final round with a 3k post plant.
Despite a 4-0 start on the T side of Nuke thanks to device’s post-plant gambles, Astralis didn’t have a great first half in the series against Complexity. Benjamin ‘blameF’ Bremer’s triple in the rifle round set up his team for a strong CT side on their opponent’s map pick. Coming from the switch with a scoreline of 8-7 in the favor of Complexity, the Danish side continued their perfect pistol round record in the series by securing the one on their CT side but were yet cleaned by Complexity in a force buy attempt. Things began to entangle for the Danes as Kristian ‘k0nfig’ Wienecke and his heroics did put coL in the driver’s seat where the latter notched up a mammoth KD of 34K-16D. With both of the teams grappling for control, that’s when insanity began. Nerves took over Astralis’s players, who did let Complexity concede a plethora of rounds to enable them to reach map point. The honors were done by RUSH who wide opened the B site for business with a triple kill and thus helping coL to pick up the map win.
The series finale kicked off on Train, where coL got off to a slow T-side start. A plethora of gun rounds including a quad kill from oBo in the 6th round saw no follow-up, allowing the Danish squad to assume an early lead. While the initial stretch was difficult, domination in the latter stages made for a solid 11-4 lead for Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander and his men. Complexity recreated early dominance in the latter half of the map; Astralis’s offensive strategies were stopped dead in its tracks by coL’s fired up CT side. The duo of Benjamin ‘blameF’ Bremer and Kristian ‘k0nfig’ Wienecke did showcase a yet another stellar performance but only to go in vain after gla1ve pulled opened up the A site for business with a valiant 4K to his team back in the driver’s seat. With Complexity’s back against the ropes and despite its men coming back from a 4-11 deficit, Astralis clinched the map win and won the series 2-1.
