Astralis move past Complexity in IEM Global Challenge

Playing with Otto "⁠ottoNd⁠" Sihvo as a stand-in, Complexity were unable to truly challenge Astralis in the group stage match.

Astralis have bounced back from the BLAST Premier Fall Finals grand final loss to Vitality that took place on Sunday and showed dominance over Complexity in the opening match of IEM Global Challenge. The European-American-Australian mixture is participating in the final big tournament of the year without their AWPer Valentin "⁠poizon⁠" Vasilev, who is out due to emergency surgery.

The series started on Dust2, a map Complexity has struggled on recently, and was again a big challenge for Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer's troops. Astralis swept them 16-7 before moving to Overpass, which was more of a contest, but still a convincing victory for the Danes, 16-11.

Astralis will take on BIG for a place in the playoffs next, while Complexity will have to fight for their tournament lives against the #1 ranked team in the world, Vitality.

The pressure was on Complexity from the start as Astralis went 6-0 on the T side of Dust2 to kick off things. Two out of the next three went the way of the European mixture, but they weren't able to get into the game fully before the half, still trailing 10-5. On the defense, Astralis never gave their opponents a chance to come back, closing out their pick 16-7 as Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz and Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif shined.

Overpass was a different story, as early on, neither team managed to put their foot down. Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's team finally did that by picking up six in a row (9-4), as Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen was finding success with his play in Underpass. His team was up 11-5 when Complexity won a crucial force buy and started gaining momentum.

blameF's side was on the edge of equalizing when dupreeh's triple stopped Complexity's five-round streak, edging towards victory as device put up another brilliant performance. The 25-year-old star won eight of his 10 opening duels and had 24 kills in total as Astralis locked in the 2-0 with a 16-11 on the second map.