Astralis to playoffs over dignitas

Astralis, who used Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen as a stand-in because Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen underwent a surgery, faced their fellow Danes Dignitas in the first decider match at ESL One Cologne.

The first map of the best-of-three series was Cobblestone and Astralis, who started on the CT-side, picked up the pistol round after Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's triple kill. Dignitas replied right afterwards, winning the force buy.

After Dignitas made it 4-1, Astralis took control with pistols and Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth's continuous double and triple kills brought the score 9-5 in favor of Astralis. karrigan's quad AWP kill gave Astralis their tenth round as they had a big lead going into the second half.

karrigan & company grabbed the first three rounds of the second half but Dignitas responded with three of their own, making it 13-8. Astralis came alive after losing another three rounds and extended their lead to 14-11.

Just when Astralis were about to get 4 match points, Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke clutched a 1vs4, keeping his team alive and Dignitas later tied the map at 14-14. Dignitas captured the match point but couldn't win against four Tec-9s and an AK-47 as the match went to overtime.

Dignitas finished the first overtime half 17-16 ahead. Jesper "⁠TENZKI⁠" Plougmann's triple kill in the first round of the second overtime made it 18-16 and they closed it out 19-16.

The series continued on Mirage where the CT-sided Dignitas picked up the pistol round but couldn't stop Astralis in the following one. Dignitas could not find any answer to Astralis and called for a timeout when they were trailing 1-7.

The timeout wasn't helpful as Dignitas got only four kills in the subsequent three rounds, extending Astralis'lead to 11-1. Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz & Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander almost clutched a 2vs5 but Dignitas finally got a round thanks to Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen's 1vs1 victory but it was a pyrrhic one as Astralis led 13-2 at halftime.

karrigan & company faced a similar situation in the second half on Mirage as they did on Cobblestone but this time they prevailed and managed to close the game 16-10, preventing Dignitas' comeback.

The Danish teams went to Cache to decide it all and TENZKI's 1vs3 clutch sealed the deal in the pistol round as he gave his team the 1-0 lead. MSL & co. also secured the first weapon round but failed to make it 6-0 as karrigan's two insane AWP shots saved the round for Astralis in which they had a 2vs4 disadvantage (5-1).

Xyp9x's 1vs2 clutch made it 5-3 and Astralis took control of the half by winning close rounds and led 9-6 at halftime.

Ruben "⁠RUBINO⁠" Villarroel did not get bored of clutching and won another one as he gifted his team the second half pistol round (9-7). Astralis gave up the lead to MSL's team but took it right back, making it 11-10. Astralis won the match 16-14 and the series 2-1 despite all the hardships and advanced to the quarter-finals. Dignitas, on the other hand, got eliminated in the group stage.

ESL One Cologne 2016Best of 3

Astralis

Matchpage

2

1

7th July 2016

Dignitas

16

Cobblestone

19

16

Mirage

10

16

Cache

14

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	83 - 54	+29	101.3	74.7%	1.42
Finn 'karrigan' Andersenkarrigan	79 - 58	+21	85.9	72.5%	1.32
Nicolai 'device' Reedtzdevice	69 - 56	+13	82.6	78.0%	1.24
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossandergla1ve	63 - 61	+2	78.2	68.1%	1.10
Danny 'zonic' Sørensenzonic	37 - 60	-23	48.2	68.1%	0.76

Dignitas	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
René 'cajunb' Borgcajunb	69 - 67	+2	77.4	62.6%	1.07
Kristian 'k0nfig' Wieneckek0nfig	61 - 64	-3	78.2	65.9%	1.03
Ruben 'RUBINO' VillarroelRUBINO	61 - 67	-6	77.0	71.4%	1.00
Jesper 'TENZKI' PlougmannTENZKI	53 - 63	-10	59.5	69.2%	0.86
Mathias 'MSL' LauridsenMSL	44 - 70	-26	63.8	58.2%	0.73

Group B decider match between Ninjas in Pyjamas and FlipSid3 will be next in Cologne. You can find streams for this best-of-three on our match page.

Follow HLTV.org writer BenjaCS on twitter.