Astralis went to ESL Pro League S20 with high hopes and ambitions. But unfortunately for them, their first two matches in group C turned out to be much harder than they anticipated.
Fnatic defeated them 2 – 1 in the upper bracket and to add salt to injury, Benjamin “blameF” Bremer was the best player on the server.
In the mid bracket, the team led by Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz should have won against Complexity, especially after the excellent start: 3 – 9 in the first half of Vertigo. But after a long and grueling fight, the NA squad won 2 – 0: 19 – 17 on Vertigo, 16 – 14 on Inferno. Things looked pretty bad for the Danes.
Fortunately for them, however, EPL S20 uses a very forgiving competitive format, with three brackets instead of two. So they were not eliminated after the second defeat. But their spirit was almost certainly crushed.
Rooster vs. Astralis: 0 – 2
Rooster is an Australian team that’s currently ranked 102nd. Needless to say, Astralis were expected to beat this opponent 2 – 0, and without struggling at all, which is exactly what happened.
The scores speak for themselves: 2 – 13 on Mirage, 5 – 13 on Inferno. Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard finished the match with a personal score of 39 – 15 / 105.0 / 1.82. Everyone else on the team had a positive KD ratio.
What’s Next For Astralis
Astralis need to win two more matches if they want to qualify for the playoffs of ESL Pro League S20. Their opponents could be BIG or Complexity in the first match, and then Fnatic or MOUZ in the second match.
All of these teams pose a serious threat and could easily beat them in their current form. Fnatic have already done it once at this tournament. But if dev1ce and his team manage to find their true form in the coming days, the odds are on their side.
