Bad News Bears handed third defeat at EPL by Astralis

The NA squad will struggle to find any scenarios in which they can qualify for the playoffs following their third loss.

Bad News Bears have been dealt their third consecutive 0-2 series loss at ESL Pro League and now find themselves all but outside of contention for the playoffs at the bottom of the group with just two matches left. The result will come as a relief to Astralis after they fell in a disappointing 0-2 loss to underdogs ENCE on Tuesday, with the Danes now sitting at a 2-1 record ahead of encounters against group favorites Vitality and HEROIC.

It was largely off the back of Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen's impressive numbers that Astralis found success, particularly on the second map of Nuke, where the Danes experienced some issues. Once again the new boy, Philip "⁠Lucky⁠" Ewald impressed, finding himself second on the board across the series with a 1.40 rating and 85 ADR.

Inferno was a real struggle for Bad News Bears, as evidenced by the convincing 16-4 scoreline. After falling behind 1-3 Astralis stamped their authority on the half from their first gun round and did not look back, running up 10 rounds without reply before dropping the last of the half to end it 11-4. Bad News Bears couldn't muster a single CT round and gla1ve and co. quickly closed Inferno, 16-4. Lucky topped the board for the Danish side on the opener, with one spectacular A hold with the AWP on the CT side being one of his highlights.

It was not all one-way traffic in this series, as Nuke was far more competitive. Astralis won their T-sided pistol and converted to a 3-0 lead but immediately encountered resistance on the gun rounds and fell to a 4-7 deficit, with things looking bleak economically for the Danes. However, winning a forcebuy enabled them to drag the score back to a solid 7-8 half.

Astralis looked like they might make a meal of the second half, losing to a force after winning the pistol and slipping to an 8-11 scoreline. Fortunately for Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander and his boys they recovered, and Bad News Bears only mustered two more rounds in the half, finishing the map 16-13.

Bad News Bears will be encouraged by how close they made the second map, fuelled in part by their success in opening kills, managing 15 to Astralis' 14 despite losing the map. It came down to Astralis' far better coordination in mid-late round situations in deciding Nuke, with Bad News Bears struggling to convert a lead in opening kills into a lead in rounds.