Astralis progress to the semi finals ESL One: Road to Rio 2020 – Europe

Astralis faced G2 Esports in the super series yesterday to book a semi final appearance with Faze Clan.

Astralis were buoyed after signing Jakob “JUGi” Hansen to complete a 7 man roster and were again looking to cement their place in yet another semi final. G2 however were coming after losing to North who had their coach playing for them and were looking to make their wrongs right.

G2 picked Vertigo, Astralis picked Overpass and Dust II was left as the decider, if required. The vetoes were a bit strange from G2 though who did not ban Overpass as their primary choice and let Astralis pick it. Overpass was G2’s insta ban in the 12 out of 13 series they played recently. They picked the map once against Copenhagen Flames whom they thrashed and won but letting Astralis pick one of their most seasoned maps was a strange choice.

The analysts on the desk felt it strange too and predicted that the series would be 2-0 in Astralis’s favor if G2 could not win Vertigo.

G2 hoped they could convert Vertigo given their recent performances on the map but they were met by an ever hungry Astralis who it seems like don’t know how to lose. Some strange economic desicions by G2 in the first half put them on the back foot and lat Astralis take early control. “kennyS” was only able to bring the AWP in the 9th round after which G2 strung some rounds together. The first half ended with a scoreline of 8-7 in Astralis favor.

By winning the less favored side Astralis never let G2 take control on their CT side and chipped away with rounds of their own. They won 16-13 to a 1-0 lead. Clutch minister “Xy9x” was the top fragger with 26 kills while “nexa” and “hunter” were tied for the most kills on the G2 side.

Overpass as many predicted was rather easy for the Danes who hit G2 with some very clean executes. Luck was also on the Danish squad as they avoided a 3 man A long setup from G2 3 rounds in a row to hit B where there was a solitary man defending.

With Astralis continuing to damage the economy every round, G2 did not a solid base to play out aggresivley. The first half ended 10-5 in Astralis favor. The second half was a routine closure for the Danish squad as G2 didn’t have enough precision in their attacks.G2 lost 7-16 and now move to face Team Heretics today. A thing to note is that the Danes only managed to win a 1 out of the 4 pistol rounds and still won without taking much stress.

Note:- The Rio major was scheduled to take place in May 2020 but due to the ongoing pandemic the major was shifted to November 2020. The prize pool of first Major will be added to the November Major. ESL on its part have decided to host three qualification rounds in order for teams to remain at their peak. Each qualifying stage will have Regional Major Points(RMR) which will be added to determine the qualification order. Each qualifying stage will have a prize pool of $255,000 divided across the six regions. To read more about this, click here.