With a significant improvement from Saturday's battle against SAW, our main team managed to bounce back in the do-or-die match Sunday afternoon against the top-10 ranked team, ENCE.
To make it into the playoffs at the $333,000 online tournament Brazy Party 2023, the squad had to conquer a powerful opponent in the Group C decider match, but with a massive effort from the players and especially an excellent performance from Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz and the young newcomer Alexander "Altekz" Givskov, they took down ENCE with an impressive 2-0 scoreline.
Unlike the bitter loss against SAW, our guys capitalized on their strong beginning Sunday. They put together a solid T side in the first map, Overpass, starting with a six-round streak and finishing with a 12-3 lead in the first half before switching to CT. Ultimately Lukas "Gla1ve" Rossander and the rest of the squad won the first map in dominating fashion, our team's own pick, with a 16-6 scoreline, and after a nailbiting finish in the second map, Mirage, they secured the overall victory with a 16-14 win.
Get all the highlights from the match right here.
Astralis Coach Peter "casle" Ardenskjold is pleased with his squad's performance:
- Our goal was to qualify for the playoffs, and we are thrilled to say we achieved it. We are pleased about this accomplishment. Much of what we have been working on did work, and we performed well on several maps.
- Altekz has gone straight into this team and shown what we already know he can do and what we were expecting. There is still a lot to work with, but the game against ENCE was an excellent match for everyone on this team. Nobody there fell through, which is precisely what we want with this team: Everyone takes responsibility and dares to be decisive.
- We were hurt after failing to qualify for the major, but we can't use that irritation for anything useful, and we still have three essential tournaments this summer. The first one is already going well, which we can use to push onward. I'm very proud of the boys.
Monday, May 1st, the playoff awaits in the Brazy Party 2023, where the squad battle against Apeks at 20:00 CEST.
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