Heroic best Astralis in Danish derby, FURIA defeat Liquid

Both games were relatively comfortable for the victors, as now we move into best-of-three play for the rest of the Legends Stage.

We had two comfortable victories to kick off todays play, FURIA besting Liquid on Inferno 16-9 and HEROIC defeating Astralis 16-7 on Ancient.

It is only best-of-threes from here on out, with Liquid and Astralis needing to win their elimination game to even have a chance to make it to playoffs. As for HEROIC and FURIA, they will get a second chance even if they lose their first best-of-three as they are at a 2-1 record.

The main stream game between FURIA and Liquid took place on Inferno, a map that the teams have already met on several times this year, usually with close scorelines.

FURIA took their CT pistol round and converted to a 3-0 lead, before Liquid got guns up and began to take control of the half. It was a mixture of fast paced B hits and some measured defaults that manipulated rotations that brought Liquid success, with Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski in particular impressing in the fragging department.

The Brazilians grew into the half as it went on, particularly once they cracked out the double AWPs, and at 4-7 they put together a streak of their own, winning the remaining four rounds to take the score to a very close 8-7.

Once again, as they moved onto the offensive side, FURIA kicked off the half with a pistol win and conversion, but this time there was no immediate recovery from Liquid as they really struggled to hold banana. Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato seemed to be able to pick up opening kills towards B at will, and FURIA repeatedly punished Liquid’s passive approach, picking up eight rounds to the NA side’s two to finish the map 16-9.

Meanwhile on the second stream, Astralis took on HEROIC on Ancient, and we were in for a one sided affair in this Danish derby. Astralis started on the unfavoured T side and simply got nothing going, HEROIC’s patented CT aggression repeatedly tearing their opponents apart, with Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund in particular impressing, leading to a 13-2 half.

The second half was merely a formality, HEROIC picking up the pistol and another round to immediately get to 15, although Astralis did manage to put up some fight off the back of an impressive 2v3 from Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen and Philip "⁠Lucky⁠" Ewald. As if to encapsulate their weak performance, Astralis did eventually fall to a force buy from HEROIC, the map finishing 16-7.

Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller's reaction after the derby win is worth checking out:

The standings for the Legends Stage are: