Astralis dominate Grayhound; Ghost upset Na`Vi at DreamHack Masters

Kicking things off at DreamHack Masters Stockholm, Astralis easily took down Grayhound on Mirage, while Ghost shockingly edged out Natus Vincere in overtime on Dust2.

In the first game of Group A, massive favorites Astralis took on Grayhound on Mirage. In spite of a valiant 3k-effort on the CT side in the first pistol round from Liam "⁠malta⁠" Schembri, Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth was too much of a task for him in the 1v1 post-plant situation.

Astralis easily took the two following anti ecos and started stringing together rounds in dominant fashion. The Danes made it the all the way to 9-0 as terrorists before Grayhound answered back. Christopher "⁠dexter⁠" Nong and his troops managed two rounds before Astralis took back control. They only gave away one more round before the switch, finishing off as Ts with a 12-3 lead.

Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's men didn't falter as they won the pistol round by defusing the bomb with few seconds to spare. From there, it was smooth sailing for Astralis as they closed out an expected win over Grayhound on Mirage.

All the while, Natus Vincere went head-to-head with Ghost on Dust2, a map that’s recently been a problem for the CIS superteam. And while they did take the first pistol round, Joshua "⁠steel⁠" Nissan’s men quickly answered back in the second round on the back of a scout buy from Matthew "⁠WARDELL⁠" Yu.

The North Americans won the following anti ecos, the captain himself managing a 4k in the second one to bring them to 3-1. Then, Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko’s men started to show their true strength, taking two to make it even and then two more to put them ahead 5-3. What followed was a series of close bouts until Ghost evened things out at 6-6. Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev and co. then managed a small spurt to make it 9-6 in their favour at the break.

Ghost came out on top in the second pistol round as terrorists and won the ensuing anti-ecos to tie things up once more at 9-9, with a comical knife-attempt from WARDELL ending in failure as s1mple managed to turn around in time to take him out.

Natus Vincere then turned on the heat and pulled ahead, determined to make the second half less close than the first. They only made it to 12-9, though, before Ghost fired back and the two teams started trading rounds again. The North Americans tightened their grip, bringing things back a third time to a 13-13 tie. The upset in their sights, Ghost gave it their all and eventually made it match point.

Zeus' men were intent on denying that upset and won two to reach overtime. In the extra rounds, the teams once again traded rounds, each taking two to make it 17-17. Finally, Ghost mustered the strength to finish Dust2 off, reaching the 19-17 upset.