Astralis see off mousesports to book final spot

The second semi-final in Sydney kicked off on Dust2, with spectators quickly realising that this would most likely be a very quick game. MOUZ, who started out on the Terrorist side, struggled to break through Astralis' defence during the early stages and kept losing all aim duels, reaching the seventh round with a combined six kills.

It was only then that MOUZ finally got a round on the board, with Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk following that up with a 1v2 clutch to prevent an economic reset. MOUZ would be able to add a third to their tally, but the rest of the half was all about Astralis' double-AWP setup, which helped the Danes to pick up a commanding 12-3 lead.

More misery was to come for the StarSeries champions as Astralis secured the pistol round in convincing fashion, thus quashing any glimmer of hope that their opponents had. The Danish team would not take their foot off the gas, winning three more rounds without response to seal a comprehensive victory.

Astralis took the series with two clean map wins

Carrying their momentum into Inferno, the next map, Astralis got out to a 3-0 lead after punishing MOUZ' aggression in banana in the pistol round. But once MOUZ got money in the bank, the landscape of the game changed dramatically. Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný's men won eight of the next nine rounds to put Astralis in danger of getting blown out, but the Danes upped the pace and secured the final three rounds of the half to bring the deficit to just one round.

The second half began with MOUZ taking the pistol round thanks to a trio of kills from oskar in an A execution. The European mixture picked up the subsequent anti-ecos, bringing the scoreline to 11-7, but then Astralis set up a very strong defence, winning six of the following seven rounds to reclaim the lead for the first time since the start of the game.

MOUZ then picked up back-to-back rounds, leaving Astralis' players in a dire economic situation. Luckily for them, Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif came up huge, securing two kills in a risky 3v3 retake on B before securing a trio of kills in the following round. With Astralis on match point, STYKO came to MOUZ' rescue as he won a decisive 1v1 to send the game to overtime - in which they would come out victorious with a flawless CT side.

mousesports looked off the pace for most of the series

It all came down to Cache, where Astralis took a 3-0 lead after winning the pistol round with a trio of kills from Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz. MOUZ hit back in the next round, courtesy of a quad-kill from Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi, but it would not take long for the Danes to regain control of proceedings.

Astralis did not give their opponents any room to manoeuvre, with the scoreline blooming to a 9-2 advantage for the Danes. A 1v3 clutch from Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong still gave MOUZ fans some hope, but the CTs quickly bounced back and won the remaining rounds of the half.

In the second half, MOUZ found a lifeline as they won a force-buy after losing the pistol round, but it was simply too little, too late, as the Danes would go on to string three rounds together to put the match to bed and seal passage to Sunday's title match,against FaZe.

IEM Sydney 2018Best of 3

Astralis

Matchpage

2

1

5th May 2018

MOUZ

16

Dust2

3

17

Inferno

19

16

Cache

5

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Emil 'Magisk' ReifMagisk	68 - 40	+28	94.2	81.6%	1.47
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussendupreeh	63 - 39	+24	81.9	80.3%	1.42
Nicolai 'device' Reedtzdevice	65 - 43	+22	86.6	82.9%	1.35
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossandergla1ve	53 - 35	+18	71.5	84.2%	1.25
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	46 - 40	+6	74.9	77.6%	1.13

MOUZ	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Martin 'STYKO' StykSTYKO	47 - 56	-9	64.0	64.5%	0.88
Miikka 'suNny' KemppisuNny	41 - 59	-18	61.8	59.2%	0.75
Tomáš 'oskar' Šťastnýoskar	39 - 58	-19	56.6	55.3%	0.74
Robin 'ropz' Koolropz	40 - 59	-19	58.6	51.3%	0.74
Chris 'chrisJ' de JongchrisJ	29 - 64	-35	55.4	55.3%	0.63