Astralis top Group A after edging past Vitality

Astralis have won Group A and slightly spoiled Vitality‘s debut event with Lotan “⁠Spinx⁠” Giladi, beating the international composition 19-17 on Mirage after completing a comeback from 8-13 down.

The result means that Astralis have secured their place in the third round of the knockout stage, now needing just one series victory to advance to the BLAST Premier Fall Final. Vitality finish the group in second, and will therefore skip just one round of the knockout stage due to their seeding.

Astralis won the first pistol round but were unable to build a large lead, with Vitality striking back almost immediately. Peter “⁠dupreeh⁠” Rasmussen‘s 1v1 clutch tied up the scoreline, and in turn set his team up for a streak of rounds that ended with them in a 5-3 lead. Astralis fought back to equalize the score, only for dupreeh to step up again, armed with just a P250 to deliver Vitality the lead once again. That completely turned the momentum, with Vitality ending the half 10-5 in front.

The second half pistol round going to Vitality meant the win looked to be in the bag, but Andreas “⁠Xyp9x⁠” Højsleth delivered a multi-kill on the force buy to give Astralis a fighting chance. That meant the beginning of force-buy wars, with Astralis coming out better on the other side. The Danes continued their fight back, eventually taking the lead at 15-14 before Vitality managed to force overtime.

Vitality were able to find more success on the CT side during the extra set of rounds, winning two out of three in the first half. Astralis went one better though, winning all three rounds and closing out the game, with Asger “⁠Farlig⁠” Jensen in particular showing up in the final rounds of the game.