Astralis dominate Optic; SK beat NiP at EPL Finals

Astralis go through in the upper bracket with a convincing win against OpTic on Nuke, while SK had to edge out a victory against NiP on Inferno to do the same.

In the pistol round, Astralis had a free path toward the B site with no-one from OpTic holding ramp. René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg did his best to bring the round back with three kills, but Astralis closed it out anyway.

OpTic nearly took the second round with Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke showing his prowess with the Deagle. But again, Astralis closed it out and also took the next one to make it 3-0 in spite of a valiant OpTic effort to break Astralis' advantage from the pistol round.

From there, Astralis made quick work of their compatriots despite being on the unfavored T-side, making it to 10-0 without much of a response.

The 11th round saw Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz and k0nfig in an intense 1v1, with the latter finally putting OpTic on the board. Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif and the rest of Astralis put any hope of an OpTic comeback to rest, though, securing a 13-2 half-time lead.

OpTic won the ensuing pistol round on the T side but wasted the advantage in the next round, which featured an odd scout headshot from device. The standout play from Astralis continued in the 18th round, where Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth pulled off an ace in a clutch situation. It would not take long for the DreamHack Masters Marseille champions to secure the victory in this one-sided Danish derby.

SK and Ninjas in Pyjamas battled it out in a much closer match on Inferno, with Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David turning into the hero in the pistol round with a quad kill against the Swedish invasion on A.

Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman matched his feat in the next round, managing 4 kills with the CZ-75 that led to a diffuse, making the score even. Ninjas in Pyjamas made it to 3-1 with Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg getting another quad kill, the third one in only 4 rounds.

The two teams wrestled for control all the way to the end of the first half, which ended with a 8-7 scoreline in favour of SK.

The Brazilians won the pistol round after moving to the CT side and took the match to 12-8. dennis answered back in the next round with three kills, which Ninjas in Pyjamas capitalized on, bringing the deficit to a solitary round.

SK tightened up their defence and hit match point at 15-12, but could not deal the finishing blow, letting the lead slip as the North Americans went on a three-round streak to take the game to overtime.

coldzera's side won the first two rounds of overtime after retaking the A site, and were looking confident and happy until Ninjas in Pyjamas took a round. The Brazilians ended up fending off another comeback attempt from the Swedes and in the end won the match, 19-16.