With Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz back on the server, the Danes began the year by participating in the first iteration of BLAST Bounty 2025. The main squad out-matched Wildcard 2-0 but suffered a 0-2 defeat versus Natus Vincere in the second stage.
The new tournament format at BLAST Bounty found that the 16 teams in the lower half, seeding-wise, all picked an opponent from the top 16 teams. If the lower-ranked team won, a bounty would be claimed, moving on to the next stage. Wildcard chose to play against Casper "cadiaN" Møller & Co. in the opening game.
A return to the server meant a return to form for dev1ce, who dominated the first map, Inferno. The AWP'er reached a 27-10 K/D and a massive 1.94 rating. He even achieved a 1.30 average damage per round, cementing his comeback. Despite a tight 6-6 half, the Danes won the first map comfortably 13-8.
The Danish quintet chose to play Mirage, a playground for most riflers. Even though everyone chimed in, Victor "Staehr" Staehr and Martin "stavn" Lund were the hard hitters. Staehr topped the scoreboard with a 19-11 K/D and a 1.78 rating. stavn was right behind him and achieved a rating of 1.75. They helped secure the map 13-5 and the match 2-0.
At the second stage, it was the Danes' turn to pick an opponent. Because of the seeding, they were among the last ones to choose, meaning it was a choice between Natus Vincere or Team Spirit.
The main team chose NAVI and went neck-and-neck with the third-highest-ranked team in the world on the first map, Inferno. dev1ce was, once again, on fire and top-fragged across the whole server with 29 frags and a 1.81 rating. It seemed like a comeback was upon us when the Danes won five consecutive rounds to come back from a 6-11 score to 11-11. Unfortunately, NAVI snagged the remaining two rounds and barely won the map 11-13.
After a close first map, the Danes were hungry for more rounds, which they gained at the beginning of Ancient. The first four rounds went the way of Astralis, but then NAVI began to find their rhythm, meaning the half was tied 6-6. NAVI, and especially Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy, cracked the Astralis code in the second half and ran with the remaining rounds, resulting in a 6-13 defeat for the Danes.
Despite mixed results, there were plenty of positives to withdraw from the first tournament of the year. The next showing is on January 29 at the IEM Katowice 2025 Play-in, where Brazilian MIBR is the first opponent.
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