Astralis beat Cloud9 to book semi-final spot at iBP Masters

Astralis have claimed the first playoff spot at iBUYPOWER Masters 2019 after moving past Cloud9 16-9 on Mirage in Group A's winners' match.

The battle for a playoff spot began with a successful B execute by Astralis off the back of a 1v2 clutch by Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif. Following an eco, Cloud9 went for a third-round buy, but the move backfired horribly as they were overrun in an A retake.

Jordan "⁠Zellsis⁠" Montemurro then turned the hero as he picked up four kills after catching Astralis' players off-guard in the B apartments, but there was no follow-up to that round as Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth put his team back in control with a trio of frags.

Astralis kept pressing on, bringing the scoreline to 8-2, before Cloud9 put their foot down to hold back the Danish side. The North American team put together a string of rounds and started to dictate the economy, cutting the deficit to a solitary round before switching to the Terrorist side.

Cloud9 took the lead for the first time in the game after winning a chaotic pistol round and the subsequent anti-eco, but it would not last as Astralis won their first buy, courtesy of a quad kill by Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen.

The game then turned into a one-way street as Cloud9 struggled to make any progress on the map. Astralis kept the Terrorists at bay and prevented any bomb plants, locking down the map without conceding a single gun round in the half.