The Astralis main team travelled to IEM Dallas 2023 with a CCT title in the bag and continued the winning streak with a 19-17 victory against Team Liquid in their opening match.
The veto was great for Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander and company as Overpass became the chosen battleground, where the team has an 84,6% win rate during the last three months.
Team Liquid showed teeth in the first six rounds, taking a 0-6 lead on the CT side. While crawling back into the game, Alexander "Altekz" Givskov showed why he belonged on the main team by earning 15 frags in the first half, which we won 8-7.
The youngster didn't calm down on the CT side as he gained several multi-frags towards Monster, denying their entrance to the B-site. The rounds bounced back and forth, and it took a 1v2 clutch from Benjamin "blameF" Bremer to secure round 12.
Despite having the opportunity to close the match in regular time, Liquid fought back and brought it to overtime. After some intense rounds in the dying rounds, the danish quintet won the game 19-17 and advanced to the upper-bracket semi-finals.
Altekz became match MVP with 29 frags and a 1.30 rating in his tier-1 LAN debut.
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