The Danes from Astralis have advanced to the quarter-finals of IEM Cologne 2023 after beating Natus Vincere 2-1.
The energy from the team throughout the tournament has been at an all-time high, which was once again shown at the start of Ancient after a pistol round win.
NAVI responded with nine rounds in a row, making the score 3-9. Luckily, the Danish squad returned to the game by ending the first half 6-9. The teams switched between winning consecutive rounds, which ultimately resulted in overtime.
Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz created a show in the first OT with a stylish frag with the Deagle through the smoke. It wasn't until the third overtime, where Johannes "b0RUP" Borup found a quad-kill, that the Danes could claim the first map of the series, 25-23. The B-squad consisting of b0RUP, Benjamin "blameF" Bremer, and Christian "Buzz" Andersen were pivotal on Ancient as they all reached +30 frags
A slow start on Nuke resulted in a 4-8 score, but our players managed to make the first half close by almost tying up the score 7-8. On the CT side, NAVI were too comfortable and too strong, so they won the map 9-16.
Eight first-kills, 31 frags, 120.8 ADR and a 2.02 rating. That was Buzz's final statistics on Overpass as dominated NAVI. It was mainly towards the B-site as T's, where he won the opening duel every single time. That helped us take an 11-4 lead at half-time.
On the CT side, Buzz had cooled off a bit, while NAVI began to claim some rounds. A round here and there from the Danes was enough, winning the map 16-12 and the series 2-1. You can watch Buzz and Co. in action again on Friday, August 4th, at 19:00 CEST, where Heroic is the next opponent.
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