The Danes got an incredible start to ESL Pro League S19 with a convincing 2-0 against the Turkish squad, Eternal Fire, in their opening match of Group A.
The Turkish Major quarter-finalists have been in impressive form, but so has the newest iteration of Astralis, as they secured a Semi-Final spot at the highly competitive IEM Chengdu 2024.
The veto went the way of Astralis, as Vertigo, Overpass, and Nuke are Danish favorites.
It was a swift start for the Danes, with a pistol round win, four players alive, and denying the opponents a bomb plant. At a 3-1 lead, Victor "Staehr" Staehr had already gotten seven kills and was yet to die. Eternal Fire bounced back in the first half, but Staehr struck in Round 9, bringing an incredible 4K to gain the lead 5-4.
Another pistol round win with Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz as IGL was secured to start the second half. The entire squad chimed in during the second half to win Eternal Fire's best map dominantly 13-5.
br0 relaxed on Vertigo but kickstarted Overpass with a 1v3 clutch on the A-site. Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard's entries were marvelous throughout the first half to get an early man advantage. Despite getting an early 6-2 lead, the Turkish squad responded with four to end the half tied, 6-6.
Even though the Danes seemed comfortable on the CT side, Eternal Fire clinched several crucial rounds to make it interesting. They were about to do it again in round 21 as br0 stuck the defuse in the smoke and survived with a single point of health to get to the map and match point. Shortly after, the map was claimed 13-9 by the Danish quintet.
By claiming our first victory in Group A, we're facing either FaZe or Imperial tomorrow, Wednesday, April 24, at 19:30 CET in the Upper semi-finals of the Group.
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