Astralis through to playoffs after dominating North; NRG eliminate MVP PK

Astralis made quick work of North, beating them 2-0 (16-5 Inferno, 16-4 Nuke) to secure a spot in the playoffs, while NRG took down MVP PK after three maps, 2-1 (11-16 Dust2, 16-9 Train, 16-8 Inferno).

In the match between Danish rivals, Astralis and North, the former took the early lead on the first map, Inferno, by claiming the pistol and then locking down the B bombsite in the first buy round. As the score was 5-0 for Astralis, they decided to gamble stack B in a 4v5 disadvantage, but despite North attacking the site with only one defender, Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz stood strong, claimed two kills and bought time for the retake to come in.

With Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye struggling to have impact against his former team, North went down 9-0 before they could get on the board by punishing device's mid aggression. They managed to add a second right after, thanks to Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså clutching a 1v1 against Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth, but their economy was in a bad state and Astralis broke it by winning one round, and rolled on for the rest of the half.

After finishing the first half 13-2 down and losing the CT pistol, Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller's troops didn't have a big chance to come back on their map pick, Astralis quickly closing it out 16-5.

After an abysmal first map, North started Nuke 3-0 up and following Astralis's three-round win streak, managed to take back the lead, 4-3. However, Astralis' kept getting to the lower bombsite and making the retakes uncomfortable for their countrymen, taking a 7-4 lead. In the following round, North was on just pistols, but were looking good to win it before Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif found four with his AK-47 to continue Astralis' streak.

North was unable to stop Astralis's offenses for the rest of the half as Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander and co. switched up the avenues of attack, ending the half 11-4. Any hopes of a comeback were killed off early in the second half as gla1ve and Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen locked down the A site in the pistol and a similar story repeated in the first rifle round, 14-4. Xyp9x then clutched a 1v1 against valde, giving Astralis match point, before converting on it by himself, ninja defusing the bomb on B in a 1v5 situation to make the final score on Nuke 16-4.

On Dust2, the map pick of MVP PK, NRG claimed the pistol but was quickly returned on by the Korean side, who force bought and had Keun-Chul "⁠solo⁠" Kang's AK-47 find two kills. Off the back of that, MVP PK went on to claim five consecutive rounds, with NRG only getting back into the game after Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov secured key kills to close out rounds. The North American side reached a 6-5 lead, lost one round, and then struck back to reset MVP PK and finish the T side with a decent, 9-6 scoreline.

After the switch, NRG once again won the pistol but lost to the force-buy, which allowed MVP PK to get a great start on the defensive side. solo and co. were 11-10 up when CeRq got an AWP pick to open up the round and give his team their first buy round as T, but Min-Soo "⁠glow⁠" Kim stepped up in the 2v2 that followed and put NRG in a tough economic situation. With weak buys, NRG wasn't able to challenge MVP PK and they claimed the first map, 16-11.

The start of Train was a different story to Dust2, as NRG ran up a 7-1 lead on the Terrorist side before a back-and-forth round was clutched by solo on B. MVP PK then survived a couple of rounds on a limited buy and, after chaining four rounds together, broke their opponents bank. (7-5)

The half ended with NRG sitting on a 9-6 lead, and it seemed like they were going to extend their advantage; CeRq landed four headshots to lock down Ivy in the pistol, but Seon-Ho "⁠xeta⁠" Son fired back and clutched the 1v5 with a P250. Still, that wasn't enough as, when the rifles came into play, NRG's defenses held strong and they took the win straight out, 16-9.

Inferno was the map to decide which team would stay alive and which would be going home after just one day of competition in Chicago, and North Americans took the early lead, despite MVP PK stealing away a round thanks to a xeta 4K. NRG then pushed mid in two consecutive rounds, with Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte finding multikills in both rounds to keep the Koreans at bay. (7-1)

Two big rounds from Hyun-Pyo "⁠XigN⁠" Lee were converted into wins before the end of the half, but his team was still in a massive deficit, 12-3, as they swapped to the CT side. MVP PK's pistol round win only delayed the inevitable, they managed to get to eight rounds in total, but NRG didn't look too bothered and closed it out, 16-8, to eliminate the Korean side.