Astralis defeat SK in Krakow; to semi-final

21-7-2017 19:33

Astralis are the second semi-finalists at PGL Major Krakow after defeating SK 2-0 (16-12 on Cache and 16-6 on Overpass).

The second quarter-final of the day started on Cache, SK's map pick, with a back and forth pistol round that Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David almost clutched in a 1v3 situation. With a force-buy and an A execution, the Brazilians hit back immediately and equalised the score.

Astralis also managed to win their force-buy and eventually secured a 3-1 lead before losing yet another round against pistols. Fuelled by that round, SK won four of the next five rounds, but then a quad-kill from Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz brought halted the Brazilians' momentum and inspired Astralis to pick up a narrow 8-7 half-time lead.

Astralis came from the break the livelier of the two sides and won five rounds without response to increase their lead to 13-7. Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo then stepped up with an important triple-kill, but SK could not follow it up, allowing the Danes to hit 14 rounds.

SK refused to throw in the towel and reduced the deficit to 14-12 following some close rounds, but then Astralis picked up back-to-back rounds to close out the map.

gla1ve clutched important rounds in both maps

Starting as Counter-Terrorists on Overpass, Astralis' map choice, SK picked up their first pistol round of the series. After winning the following anti-ecos, the Brazilians could not hold back their opponents in the first gun round.

SK still won one more before the Danes began racking up round after round, much thanks to crucial 1v2 clutches from Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth and Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander in the seventh and ninth round, respectively. The Brazilian squad would only reply with a last-second defuse in the 12th round, but they could not handle Astralis' T-side and got to half-time with a 5-10 scoreline in favour of the Danish fivemen.

Double-kills from both Xyp9x and Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye in the second pistol round got Astralis up for a 12-5 lead, forcing SK to call for a tactical pause. Still, there was little the Brazilians could do as they could not counter Astralis' defense. With a nearly-flawless CT-side, device and co. finished off the map, 16-6, and the series, 2-0, to secure their place in the PGL Major Krakow semi-final, where they will face off against Gambit.

PGL Major Krakow 2017Best of 3

Astralis

Matchpage

21st July 2017

Cache

Overpass

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Nicolai 'device' Reedtz device	53 - 30	+23	99.6	74.0%	1.62
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen dupreeh	33 - 34	-1	79.2	76.0%	1.19
Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth Xyp9x	32 - 34	-2	85.1	80.0%	1.11
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander gla1ve	33 - 28	+5	70.8	78.0%	1.11
Markus 'Kjaerbye' Kjærbye Kjaerbye	35 - 33	+2	73.7	74.0%	1.09

SK	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga fer	41 - 38	+3	88.9	64.0%	1.05
Marcelo 'coldzera' David coldzera	37 - 33	+4	77.8	66.0%	1.04
Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo FalleN	28 - 38	-10	63.7	64.0%	0.84
João 'felps' Vasconcellos felps	29 - 37	-8	65.4	60.0%	0.82
Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo TACO	23 - 40	-17	55.2	62.0%	0.69

This is how you defeat SK - work well as a team and hit your shots. Like Astralis today. Like G2 not so long ago. Like even Space Soldiers on cache. Like BIG, although they used the crouchjump bug several times. I'm really happy for Astralis. But! I feel like if anything goes wrong, Astralis can easily lose to Gambit, BIG, Virtus.Pro and might be even to North. Hopefully it will not happen, because otherwise this major will be the biggest joke in CS history. Gratz device, gratz gla1ve, gratz zonic. P.S. We smart, we lo... wait a minute!

2017-07-21 19:33

52 replies

SK REALLY BAD TEAM XAXAXAX DISBAND PLZ

43 replies

Ez gambit will 2-1 astralis final bois

2017-07-21 19:35

21 replies

The most boring major ever. All know that the final will be VP VS GAMBIT, and obviously will win Virtus.Throw

19 replies

LOL CRY IS FREE

10 replies

RIP pickem and skins FeelsBadMan... I might not even get silver trophy

9 replies

Just like me.... at least i changed fnatic to gambit at the last seconds and it secured me bronze Its funny how dazed got all correct till now in the quarters

2017-07-21 19:42

4 replies

G U T P R E D I C T I O N

2017-07-21 20:03

3 replies

LUL

2017-07-21 22:48

2 replies

When Fallen AWPs against Device, we see the real meaning of his gamertag. He's fallen and he can't get up! When you watch his POV his playermodel does more fallen than the Niagra! Tell him to buy some Viagra before next major, he might actually get up!

2017-07-22 02:05

1 reply

This boi +1

2017-07-22 12:34

i'm not even gonna get the bronze one

2017-07-21 19:43

I was going to say unless everything goes perfect now I won't have bronze

2017-07-21 22:43

if Immortals and North don't win I don't even have bronze trophy xd

2017-07-21 21:31

Looking bad for both i would say

2017-07-21 22:45

Ibuypower fan Greek No scene, no real team P A T H E T I C

2017-07-21 19:39

Totally irrelevant ur comment. Oh and sorry for u but neither kennys nor astralis are going to win this major :)

2017-07-21 19:46

Uhhhhmmm thats Uruguay not Greece...

2017-07-21 23:32

So you want a major where SK wins all the time? That would be boring, now its really an interesting one. Every Team that gets to the semis can actually win the major

It's much more boring to know who the winner is before the tournament starts (As will be VP) Come back here when they win the tournament.

2017-07-21 19:49

VP is literally the worst team left, lol.

2017-07-21 20:47

North Vs Astralis Papa

Ma boy

2017-07-21 20:26

Gambit to win major

2017-07-21 19:34

Fallen played so bad, literally losing every duel against Device, gg wp to Astralis tho.

15 replies

Did fallen play bad or was Device just better today?

2017-07-21 19:38

12 replies

Fallen played bad imo, he was missing shots even while he had the angle on device. but Device also did a good fuckin job he knew every position that fallen could be holding at overpass

I think it's fair to say that Astralis is the best team in the world on Overpass. Part of the reason they play so well on this map is Device AWPs so well on it.

ye SK fucked up, they should have gone for Inferno isnted of Cache since they already had beaten Astralis on inferno i think like the past 3 times that they faced them there, meanwhile Cache they lost to Space Soldiers and before that they lost to Immortals. i didn't think that SK could win overpass against Astralis but i was sure that they were goin to pick inferno.

2017-07-21 19:45

I completely agree. If you go back to the ECS finals last month when these two faced off, they played Overpass, Mirage, and Inferno. Astralis took Overpass while SK took the other two maps, obviously. Each map was close but SK should have already known that they could be Astralis on Inferno since they have done it quite often recently.

2017-07-21 19:54

+1 the closest anyone came to beating them was VP in eleague. Do they have an unbeaten record since eleague S2 where the lost to optic?

2017-07-21 23:53

Fallen played bad, and TACO was horrendous.

but people expect taco to play bad, meanwhile Fallen is one of the most important players in the team since when he has an AWP usually either he gets the first kill or dies, and today he was just dying to Device.

2017-07-21 19:40

On overpass their awp duels were 4-0 in favor of dev1ce I even counted it.

2017-07-21 19:41

So does that mean the Device was just better today? Is Device just better than Fallen on Overpass you think?

I think he was preety good on both maps and fallen wasn't on his level on both maps. So he was good and fallen wasn't really :-)

2017-07-21 20:27

One key takeaway from this match was that Astralis cannot be played on Overpass right now. You might as well give them a free map right off the start. I knew SK lost as soon as they lost on Cache.

2017-07-21 20:31

Device always number 1.

2017-07-21 20:44

device played good, not the other way

FalleN missed shots even when he shot first, that was Fallen playing bad too.

gambit - big final

Disband with 3 out of 4 titles? NO THANKS

They love to choke against underdogs *remember dh cluj against NiP *

gyazo.com/4f2e47748a010f47cd36e90963ad63.. UPS

SK won with the huge luck. )) No luck, no win ))

2017-07-21 21:02

Device outplayed SK and gla1ve was mastermind in terms of strats, very deserved. Rematch AST x VP ?

Disband

Yeah its great but one problem big only used the bug once

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

2017-07-21 19:36

We smart, We send death threats on Twitter, We Brazilian

2017-07-21 19:50

ez pick'em

2017-07-21 20:11

How is a major a joke if a certain team loses? Just because the favorite doesn't win isn't the fault of the event, the blame falls at the feet of the team itself.

Yes they saved everybody from Brazilians But reckt also my pickem rip bronze

weird to see sk get rekt like on overpass

But astralis has been the best overpass team since december

Even during their slump with karrigan they were top 2 on overpass

2017-07-22 09:20

i wish that period wasnt a deadzone in my knowledge

2017-07-22 09:21

Overpass is Astralis's map. They win it in BO3 matchups like 90% of the time it feels like. In fact, at ECS finals they beat SK on it.

GG ASTRALIS WELL PLAYED!!!

RIP skins and pickem... I might not even get silver

ez 4 astralis

ez for astralis.. dev1ce on point

tell me about an SK ERA, George

What an absolute epic game. Some of the best team play i have seen in a long long time. Gla1ve is one of the hottest pieces of property in the business right now. Most likely the best ingame leader in the entire game while fragging and clutching. He is so damn clever.. Device winning every single duel against fallen over two maps, and hes only picked up the awp the past season or two. I could not have dreamt about a better performance by the danish powerhouse. This weekend could not have started better. Lets go on to defend the major champions title.

rip pick em

This weekend is over! what are you talking about..

HOW ARE YOU SO FASt WtF CHEATS VACTISTUTA

This. But, hell, sorry to say, I can see a little choke of Astralis against Gambit. Like 2:1.

ye he will be best IGL this year for sure. probably breakthrough player of the year also. from tier 2 player to standing at the helm of an established org and leading them to higher glory

2017-07-21 19:37

idk if north get more success from the rest of the year then Magisk went from a tier 3 SK Gaming to a most successful team, which I'd argue is debatable between crap team - > success and ok team -> dominance gla1ve has been great these few games though

2017-07-22 02:56

Agreed. He's so underrated. By far the best IGL. I'm looking forward to the Danish final.

2017-07-21 19:56

How was it epic, it wasnt even a 3 map match let alone only 1 map was close

2017-07-21 20:00

It was epic if you're a hardcore astralis fanboy like him :D

2017-07-22 07:18

Hell no cry will be free when my bois vp will hold that sexy trophy my d00d

2017-07-21 21:58

Agree :) lets go astralis

2017-07-22 08:00

ASTRALIS

XAXXAAXXAXAXA

ROFL

EZPICKEM

CRY IS FREE But honestly got to give credit to device for winning every single AWP duel although he isn't a dedicated AWPer unlike FalleN. Gotta give some to gla1ve too as he was super smart in game leading and led SK in with his fakes. Great job overall by Astralis, and although I thought cold and fer was playing pretty well today they lost lmao.

GJ winning major astralis

EZ #1

HUHEUEHEUHEUEHUEHUEHEU

KKKKKKKKKKKKKK

GG EZ

EZZZZ

Congratz

easy match as fuck

device : the FalleN killer

R E K T

GOOD JOB DENMARK

ezzz

YAHOOOOOOOOOOO

BYEBYE

expectedz

hahahahahahhaahhhhahahhahahahaha

Device though. What a beast.

GODEVICE OMG

God device GG

sk flop so hard. damn it. nice play by astralis

Device play very well. GG Astralis!

OMFG

Astralis is going to win another major #ToTheStars

Thank Mr Astralis

fallen got rekt so many times by device, not even funny

Holy shit.

Where are the brazilians?

if imm lose to BIG today, HLTV will be saved until september

here, Device played super well they deserved to win

GG Astralis, good job taking SK down. good to see that sk's cheats can't always help them.

So great to see device performing amazingly in a big, important match!

performance of the year, really.

For real, that was a masterclass in awping!

One for the history! Timing or cheat? Astralis never needed to out aim SK it was always timing/smoke kills and shaky locks lmao SAD day for Counter-Strike!

Get off HLTV.org plz.

You need to have the game sense to know when and where to shoot through the smoke. Besides SK were the ones cheating lmfao.

Lmaoo yes SK was cheating ur right, they would shut their cheats off for this game! Astralis is nothing without smoke kills and those "lucky" timings!

Weird way to spell luck

2017-07-21 20:02

Too bad that on 2nd map Fallen and Taco didn't help a lot in terms of number of kills ... So it was kind of playing like 5v4 or 5v3 for danes...

That was device and astralis overwhelming fallen

2017-07-22 01:05

Absolutely dominated.

-BOTACO +F N X GOD

Astralis played like a beast, device onfire today. GGWP

WOTAFAK??????????????? HOW????????????????? SK????????????????????? WTF?????????????????????????????????????? HOW ?????????????????

It's simple. Wrong bulba, bro. )))

2017-07-21 21:11

ahaha)) true)

2017-07-21 21:18

gg astralis...bad game for sk

FalleN played fucking bad this time, gg

DId you watch the fucking game idiot? He was probably doing the best on the team.

5 replies

he give a 4x5 every round to astralis, felps unnecessary rushs too, plus Taco playing bad too.

2017-07-21 19:44

what? how was Fallen probably the best? he literally would die for Device every single round and make the round a 4v5 from the start, then SK players would try to do pushs to even things out and die too. Fallen lost all AWP duels to Device on overpass, on CT side and T side too.

2017-07-21 19:52

just because someone else is playing well it doesnt mean he's playing bad. he was doing fine. just getting shutdown from device in different areas.

2017-07-21 19:53

dude did you read the part where i said that fallen was missing shots and dying even when he shot first?? how is that not playing bad, there were a bunch of rounds throghout the series where FalleN would see device first shot miss the shot and die. if that is not playing bad then idk what is.

2017-07-21 19:57

Lol , it happend only once on overpass when FalleN was at toilets , rest of them device read him like a book , what are you talking ?

2017-07-21 20:17

He wasn't playing bad, Device just played better.

he was playing bad, he was missing shots even when he had the angle on device and shot first.

i arent think that

I guess we didn't watch the same game.

2017-07-21 20:56

"I like to discredit a ridiculously amazing performance of the MOTM because FalleN is Brazilian and I'm also Brazilian." FTFY.

2017-07-21 21:00

lmao, even the fuckin casters said that they never saw FalleN losing so many awp duels and missing so many opening shots.

2017-07-21 22:12

QUE OTA

wow 2-0 gj astralis.

Wp Astralis , crushed SK Gaming

Astralis has shown incredible growth in the championship, ggwp deserved to win

Fucked up bracket

NO fnx NO win

+fnx +fox ez major for sk

no fox only fnx

trust me ,im am not a professional

HLTV news in 1-2 weeks: coldzera to undergo handsurgery

The calm and humble man delivered. SK and Astra are unquestionable TOP two teams this year. The rest arejust contenders. The way Astra outplayed SK on Overpass is just ...scary.

Well Played Astralis, you deserved the win.

Dat rekt on overpass lol. Astralis so strong :(

WOW

Exitzera back at it, boosting his stats.

I,m sad =( GG

Device is my daddy

DEVICE CARRY ASTRALIS LUL

NO FNX NO MAJOR

agreed, fnx would've won all those clutches

yeh if only he wasnt such a dipshit of a person

2017-07-21 19:47

you know him? do you believe everything that is on the internet? TACO said they are good friends so idk

2017-07-21 19:48

he got kicked off of SK then immortals. It's pretty much a fact at this point from all the evidence that he did in sleep with fer's girlfriend. so yes

2017-07-21 20:39

wowo

Nice choke Sk, tho device destroyed them

Astralis played like a GODS.. WTF I wasn't expecting that AT ALL!

twitter.com/Thooorin/status/888449060620..

HAHAHAH HA HA

oh shit that's fucking hilarious.

w0w for some reason they didnt played the esl one cologne right?

dev1ce on fire

Monkeys rekt

Why FalleN was still playing AWP after he failed so many shots with AWP?

Rip SK.. Rip Chester Bennington :-((

"we loyal" but where all the sk fans???? CRY IS FREE

cry brazilians cry . hahaha . sk balloon is buum :D . astralis destroyed

So 1 sided.... Now lame SK fans will start spamming , bring FNX back...roster changes bla bla bla Loyal indeed.

Mini finals my horse

ez bronze kappa ... :(

GG Astralis

this is what happens when coldzera doesn't carry you. hahahahha. cry is free.

Ecozera at its best , i think u meant this is what happens when WalleN dont win important rounds with 3-4k right ?

2017-07-21 20:21

GODVICE sent favelas home #LetsGoAstralis

Device played really well, could have been anyone's game.

Astralis looked strong. SK looked lost.

OMFG DEV1CE IS GODDDDD

good luck to this cheecky fuckers

adren was right

GG cache... congratz SK!

BURROS, ESCOLHERAM CACHE EM VEZ DE ESCOLHER INFERNO........

RIP dream

Easy for the danish overlords

2017-07-21 19:51

LETS GO ASTRALIS SwiftRage

very good match ;D

Astralis played really well, nice teamwork! I just feel sad cuz this game was in quarter-final, but is always good to see this level of CS. SK stil legends but Astralis better today. This is the best major, I hope Astralis gets out too... Would be nice if wee see gambit and vp in finals, and SK, Astralis and FaZe falls ;)

Hey Brazilians why so quiet?

RiP SK Gaming :/

RIP predictions XD

2017-07-21 19:55

At least astralis made it yoy

wp astralis kick bot taco please

TACO is trash, he's been the carried for centuries, change him plz. Astralis played good, congrats.

2017-07-21 19:59

-taco 0.69 lose match :(

it doesn't matter... fallen is the one to blame.

2017-07-21 20:04

twitter.com/FalleNCS/status/888456711530..

Hats of to Fallen. These guys really do make the difference in the scene. If u follow football, hockey, or almost any other sport excluding F1 u see them flaming each other doing whatever it takes to grab a win for their respective teams but after the match is over they go and congratulate the opposition and thats how it should go in CS too as CS is now recognized as a "sport."

2017-07-22 10:26

CRY IS FREE THANKS MR ASTRALIS

GG boys super well played from all. Device is a monster

2017-07-21 20:08

People crying that this is the worst major ever, because their favorite teams got eliminated so quick. Maybe its the time for the underdogs, but remember, why did nobody cry when every semifinal was Vp vs fnatic which was always better than the final itself?

2017-07-21 20:09

GG Astralis :D

2017-07-21 20:10

device monster

2017-07-21 20:15

device rekt SK

2017-07-21 20:14

Gambit win major

"SK TOP 1" LUL not getting to double digits in Overpass strating CT LUL

Called it

2017-07-21 20:18

dev1ce not choking :OOOO Astralis unstoppable now

The problem for Astralis is they dont play Cobblestone. In Final vs VP they have to ban Cobble which means VP can pick Nuke and already have 1:0 lead, just like last major final, last clash for cash. Maybe this time VP will win after leading 1:0 in the series.

2017-07-21 20:33

Omg dev1ce is a beast

TACO kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

2017-07-21 20:36

-taco +elemeNt only true veterans would understand the reference.

2017-07-21 20:37

Thank god I don't have to watch SK win another fucking tourney in a row

ggwp Astralis

2017-07-21 20:45

Where are the Brazilian? :D get rekt and they disappeared :D

I'm right here supporting IMMT! Only country with 2 "pure" teams in the major (and also legends).

2017-07-21 20:49

lul North and Astralis are from Denmark, so there is another country with 2 "pure" teams and legends. Also FUCKING EASY GAME EZ FOR ASTRALIS SK OVERRATED

2017-07-21 20:57

Astralis and North xDDD

2017-07-21 22:21

Hah

2017-07-21 22:35

Ez for Astralis

I cant believe what Im seeing, people were so frustrated with "we smart we brazil" 12 yo fankids. Now they are throwing away their hate so hard that it only seems like most of them are mad kids with 0 intelligence, please just gg wp stop being SK haters because of SK 12 yo fans (not normal fans)

2017-07-21 21:20

Astralis better win the major now.

2017-07-21 21:21

GG, ast outplayed SK in everyway,, device was amazing, congratz

2017-07-21 21:39

+respect u are a real man not a little whiny bitch.

2017-07-22 00:30

Reminds me MLG Columbus when Astralis beat the favourite just to get knocked in the semi by a CIS team

2017-07-21 21:56

Im like 90% sure that wont happen again , glaive mid round calls are beyond anyone , at this point i think astralis will wipe out the floor with gambit.

2017-07-21 22:19

Nah fam trust in Gambit

2017-07-21 22:27

trust in Gambit... you heard it from this cat right here... major champs

2017-07-24 20:12

ye boi

2017-07-24 20:30

to be honest, not taking the merits of Astralis, they did an outstanding game, but this was one of the worst game series i saw from SK in ages, even worse than after they picked up felps last year, they were shitty individually, lack of timing was ridiculous, positioning was bad aswell. Hope they dont change lineup and fix the problems so we see them at the next major. To Astralis, i hope they stop on Gambit, so the scene get's funnier, but anything can happen.

2017-07-21 22:20

WHERE'S THE BR HAHAHAH

2017-07-21 22:51

This is why i hate the way the new pickem system sucks, u cant change anything :( alot of people went with SK lol, but owell ...luck of the draw

2017-07-21 23:17

For those who didn't believe on device, here is another proof that he's a beast.

2017-07-22 00:24

ok device put in some work pls

2017-07-22 01:06

SK looked bad in this game because Astralis played so well. Device made my jaw drop on quite a few occasions. He was spectacular....and I was an SK supporter too.

2017-07-22 04:26

nice

2017-07-22 05:06

Good game... thouhg i like SK, Astralis realy played well and showed us no team is unbeatable... we're going home T.T

2017-07-22 07:01

The problem is that entire SK squad is setup in a way to enable coldzera, but he didnt really show up, and fallen also was getting denied any chance into the game by astralis with a shit ton of utility so that made it pretty hard for SK to get the ball rolling

2017-07-22 08:18