Complexity stun Astralis on day one in London

Complexity have moved into Group B's winners' match at BLAST Premier Spring Series following a shocking 2-0 victory against Astralis.

The No.1 team in the world began their first match of the year brightly then dulled as they were outfought by a true juggernaut in this two-map series. After a lively start to the series, Astralis, who were returning to action after an almost two-month break, showed signs of rustiness against a fired-up Complexity side and now find themselves staring at elimination as they prepare to face Natus Vincere in Saturday's losers' match.

Complexity's players were on point throughout the series, especially Owen "⁠oBo⁠" Schlatter and Valentin "⁠poizon⁠" Vasilev, with the Bulgarian winning all 11 AWPing duels against Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz. After being humiliated by PACT in the second Europe Minor qualifier, they seem to be improving on all fronts and even had the audacity of laying a Vertigo trap in the veto, which Astralis fell right into.

Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer's troops started the game with such intensity that one had to wonder whether they had a backup plan for their map, Dust2. As the scoreboard showed 5-0 in Astralis' favour after a series of dominant rounds from the Danes, BLAST's official betting partner decided to slash the team's odds to 1.00, a sign that the series appeared to be a foregone conclusion.

And then Complexity woke up. They began to ruthlessly prise the Astralis defense apart after blameF decided to slow things down, with the team taking an impressive nine rounds into the break.

The second half kicked off with a massive quad kill from Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke, who denied a mid-B split from Astralis. That round brought a smile that beamed from ear to ear on the Danish player, something we had not seen from him in a long time, and Complexity continued to steamroll over their stunned opponents, quickly hitting map point. A late comeback attempt from the Danish team was cut short, bringing a surprising conclusion to the opening map of the series.

Astralis came out the brighter of the two sides on Vertigo - a map that the current Complexity roster had purposely avoided in the qualifiers - and raced to a 3-0 lead before their opponents finally found their footing in the game. The European mixture eventually went ahead 4-3 following two great rounds from oBo, who displayed no signs of stage fright in this high-octane match, but Astralis gathered themselves and ended the half up by three rounds.

After switching over to the T side, the Danish team further added to their lead, but Complexity responded with Deagles in hand and a great HE grenade from oBo. With momentum once again in their favour, they enjoyed a spell of dominance as poizon kept Astralis' players at bay with his AWP. k0nfig, too, had something to prove with the 'Big Green' and came into the action in the final stages of the game with some impactful kills to help defeat his compatriots.