Astralis overcome G2; advance to upper bracket final

The Danish team managed a hard-fought victory to continue their run in the upper bracket.

Astralis are in the upper bracket final of first tournament of 2021 after taking down G2 2-1 in the $1 million BLAST Premier Global Final.

The French-Balkan team won their map pick 16-14 (Dust2), but weren't up to the task on Vertigo, where Astralis put up a strong CT side to win it 16-8. It all came down to Inferno, where G2 had a great start, but Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's men were more clutch and closed it out 16-14.

G2 have another chance at the event, but will have to defeat Natus Vincere in the lower bracket to keep their tournament hopes alive.

Astralis kicked off the CT side of Dust2 2-0 up, but Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač started rolling soon to propel his team forward on their map pick. The Bosnian player had 13 kills and five deaths as G2 grabbed the lead (6-4), and they continued to dominate for the rest of the half.

After an 11-4 advantage, G2 looked good to secure the second pistol, but Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz spoiled their plans with a quad kill to get things going for Astralis. It was 12-8 before Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković locked down the long take with a 4K in the round, seeing G2 reach 15-8. The European team struggled to close it out, allowing Astralis to reach 14, but they finally got over the line with a Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub triple on B (16-14).

A clean pistol round win again set up Astralis for the early lead, this time on Vertigo, but G2 replied with three equally convincing ones as things started going back and forth. Nevertheless, neither side managed to truly stamp their foot down in the first half, with G2 trailing just slightly, 8-7, before switching to the offense. On what is statistically the more difficult side, Astralis wear near-flawless, losing just one round to close it out 16-9.

After two slow maps, kennyS started rolling on Inferno, reaching an 11K-2D scoreline to push G2 to 6-2 lead. That was extended to 8-2 before Astralis stopped the streak, instantly breaking their opponent's bank. That helped the Danes recover the half, 10-5, with a CT-side force win allowing them to close the gap further.

The scoreline reached 11-11 and the teams started trading rounds back and forth, with neither managing to gain a significant lead. But from 14-13 down, Astralis were able to come out on top thanks to crucial triple kills from Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth, Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen, and device in the final rounds, making it a 16-14 win for the Danes.