Astralis defeat Liquid to book ELEAGUE Premier playoff spot

Astralis are the first team to seal passage to the ELEAGUE Premier 2018 playoffs with a 2-0 victory over Liquid (16-12 on Nuke, 16-7 on Mirage).

The Group A winners' match kicked off on Astralis' map pick, Nuke. The Danes began the series with a fast outside rush that turned into a chaotic pistol, in which Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's men prevailed to take control of proceedings as Terrorists.

Astralis refused to slow things down, constantly rushing their way through the defence, including in the first gun round with a perfect A split. It was only in the sixth round that Liquid nearly pulled off their first round, but Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif denied Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken from clutching a 1v3.

In the eighth round, Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella found a rare opener for his team, inspiring Liquid to close out the round and finally get on the board. Moreover, the North Americans went on a massive run from that point, continuously shutting down the offence to turn the half around and switch sides with a narrow lead.

In the second half, the Danish side did not back down and lost only one of the first seven rounds to go up 13-9. A great ace from Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic in a 2v5 situation then marked the start of a three-round winning streak from Liquid, but Astralis tightened up their defence to seal the deal at 16-12.

Liquid started off their map pick, Mirage, on the right foot, winning their T-side pistol and the subsequent anti-ecos. With a triple-kill from Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz in a 3v4 retake, Astralis won the first gun round, which they followed up with another successful post-plant situation, this time around in a 5v5.

Although Liquid shattered their opponents' economy after picking up two rounds in a row, 5-2, Astralis countered them thanks to Deagle double-kills from Magisk and Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen. From that moment, the Danes conceded just one more round to bag a 9-6 half-time lead.

Astralis picked up their third pistol of the series on the back of a double and a triple-kill from dupreeh and gla1ve, respectively. After building up their economy, Liquid still won the first gun round, but that was the best they could get from the second half as Astralis went on to finish things off at 16-7.