After a tough, entertaining, and closely contested match against Vitality, our Main team concluded its participation in the ESL Pro League S19 LAN tournament in Malta, reaching the semi-finals.
Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut and his team secured a hard-fought 2-1 series victory, initially losing 13-9 on their map pick, Mirage, before clinching a 16-13 win on Vertigo and then sealing their spot in the grand final with a 13-8 victory on the decider, Inferno.
Despite the loss, Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz and Co. can be proud of their run at the ESL Pro League, marking another playoff appearance in the past two months.
Our team remained undefeated until facing the French team, and so far, we are the only lineup to have won a map against ZywOo and his teammates at the Pro League event.
Making it to the semi-finals earned our squad a prize of $45,000 and a 3-4th place finish at ESL Pro League S19.
This is the first time this iteration of Astralis plays an official on Mirage, and it went differently than planned. Vitality quickly got a five-round lead on the T-side. Like the quarter-final against Team Liquid, our players were slow starters, but an insane 3K spraydown from Victor "Staehr" Staehr changed the pace of the game, and they managed to recalibrate and get a 5-7 half.
The second half began with a formidable 2v1 clutch by Alexander "br0" Bro. Afterward, the teams traded rounds, and then the Danes turned up the heat and came back by gaining a 9-8 lead after consistently hitting the A site.
The Danes' performance in the latter part of the match was founded on teamwork, demonstrated in Round 20 to gain map point.
A crucial 3K from Martin "stavn" Lund in round 4 to tie the game 2-2. Another collaborative performance came in round 8 as the Danes clutched an eco round to, once again, tie the game 4-4.
ZywOo and his troops then finished the first half with a 5-7 lead.
It looked like Vitality was on track to take the game to a third map, as they were ahead 7-10, but the Danes are specialists at crawling back into the game, and they bounced back 10-10. The opponents reached map point, but the Danes forced overtime thanks to a fantastic 3v4 retake.
A flawless T-side from the international roster in overtime put them in front 12-15, and shortly after, they took the map 13-16.
Surprisingly, the Danes got a fantastic start on Inferno, grabbing six consecutive rounds. Vitality then responded with six of their own on the CT side.
In the latter half, the French team continued their dominance, only allowing our squad to win two rounds on the defensive side. From the 7th round, Vitality went on a 13-2 tear to close out the Inferno map and secure the series with a 2-1 win, booking their spot in the ESL Pro League S19 grand final.
An impressive 1v2 clutch from William "mezii" Merriman in a post-plant situation, taking down br0 and stavn, was crucial, making it 10-8 and serving as the devastating turning point for our team.
Despite our guys getting off to a blistering start in the decider, they couldn't keep up with their opponents and ultimately faced defeat in the semi-final.
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