Astralis, North secure wins in Group A

Astralis and North have advanced in the upper bracket of Group A after beating MVP PK (16-8 on Nuke) and NRG (16-10 on Cache), respectively, in the opening round.

MVP PK decided to challenge Astralis's 20-0 record on Nuke and it was the Danes who got off to the better start on the CT side, picking up a 2-0 lead on the back of doubles from Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz and Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth in the pistol round.

The match then went back and forth until it was 4-3, when Astralis ran away with four rounds in a row, breaking the Korean side twice. Heroics from Min-Seok "⁠zeff⁠" Park helped MVP PK climb back into contention, however, as they grabbed a four-round streak of their own to secure a respectable seven rounds on the offense.

Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen, who had already played a great match up until that point, clutched a 1v2 to keep Astralis in the lead after the second pistol round. MVP PK secured the first gunround, but a force from the Danes saw the momentum shift back in their favor. The favorites had little to no trouble closing out the match despite the initial scare, running away with the match at 16-8.

In another Group A opening match, North took on the recent cs_summit 3 champions, NRG, on Cache. The North American squad were the ones to get ahead early on with a pistol going their way, as well as the second gunround to break their opponents.

That allowed Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele's team to go 7-1 before the Danish side found the key to the defense. Suddenly, NRG had issues with entering either bombsite and rarely even got the bomb down while North made it 7-7, before Jacob "⁠FugLy⁠" Medina's 1v2 closed out the half.

After conceding the first two rounds of the second half, Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller's roster picked up where they left off towards the end of the first, equalizing it at 10-10. NRG didn't seem to have an answer to North's Terrorist side and the Danes went on to grab their first win at the tournament at 16-10.