s1mple shines as Na`Vi send Astralis to BLAST Showdown

Natus Vincere came back from a map down to defeat Astralis 2-1 and send the Danish team to the Showdown tournament.

The Russian team picked up the pace after a shockingly poor display on Train and responded in style with a convincing victory on Nuke, Astralis' home turf, before completing the reverse sweep in an epic Inferno clash that went the full distance.

Astralis sought a response to Friday's dismal performance against Complexity but could not contain the firepower of Na`Vi's star duo. Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev and Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov carried the team even during some tough moments, with the Ukrainian prodigy, who recently returned to AWPing duties, capping off a fantastic performance with a 30-bomb on the final map.

"It feels insane," s1mple said after the match. "It's a new roster and a big victory for us. Everyone stepped up and the communication went to a higher level."

Much to everyone's surprise, Astralis leave London without a single victory and with much to work on ahead of IEM Katowice, later this month. The early exit also adds the burden of an extra tournament to their calendar as they will have to fight for survival in the BLAST Premier Spring Series through the Showdown tournament, a last-stage qualifier that will be held in June.

Astralis opened up the action with an impressive pistol round, only to be surprised by the Desert Eagle of s1mple in the following round. The Ukrainian's moment of brilliance set Na`Vi up for a 3-1 lead, but the joy would not last long for the team's supporters: Astralis took control of proceedings once they put a double AWP setup in place and won all but two of the remaining rounds of the half.

With 70 per cent of Na`Vi's frags in the first half having come from either s1mple or electroNic, things looked bleak for the CIS giants as they headed to the CT side, and nothing changed after the break. One round was all they muster - and that was in a 1v1 situation which Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth practically threw away - as Astralis continued their domination, putting the game to bed in a 2v4 situation to rub further salt into their opponents' wounds.

Natus Vincere made the most of their CT side start on Nuke and began to build a solid learn from an early stage on the back of a quad kill from s1mple in the pistol round. Any round won by Astralis was quickly countered with a round by Na`Vi, who cruised to an 8-2 lead. Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz then pulled a rabit out of the hat with two entry kills with an SG in a low buy round, powering the Danish team to finally go on a winning streak, but Na`Vi came fighting towards the end of the half to bring the scoreline to 10-5.

Now playing on the CT side, Astralis picked up a much-needed pistol round, but just like on Train, Natus Vincere hit back immediately after. With electroNic leading the charge, the Russian team continued to expand their lead even further and, after a highly-contested period in which rounds went back and forth, finally locked down the map.

A beautiful A hold from device and Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen in the pistol round marked the beginning of a solid run from Astralis in the early stages of Inferno. Na`Vi quickly found themselves chasing a 5-1 deficit, but with some of those rounds having been extremely close, the Russian team were able to reset the CTs' economy after winning a round through brute force thanks to two Desert Eagle headshots by Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev.

Na`Vi continued with that momentum and eventually restored parity at 5-5 following a great clutch from s1mple on the B site, but Astralis gathered themselves and went into the break up by three rounds.

The Danish team came out of the break with renewed impetus and brought the scoreline to 13-6 after a great start to the second half. It looked like Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's troops had the game in the bag, but Natus Vincere kept a water-tight defense for the remainder of the half and went on a dream run, hammering the final nail into Astralis' coffin thanks to a stunning trio of kills from electroNic in pit in the decisive round as the Danes tried to push for overtime.