Astralis move on to lower bracket final over FaZe

New additions to Astralis once again proved their worth as they powered the Danish side to a hard-fought victory.

Astralis have advanced to the lower bracket final at BLAST Premier Fall, eliminating FaZe from the tournament after a back-and-forth series (Mirage 16-10, Nuke 5-16, Dust2 16-9). Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke and Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer led the way for their new team once more, both averaging 1.20+ ratings across the best-of-three to earn their spot in the next round, in which they will face the winner of Liquid and HEROIC.

Throughout the series, Astralis had an elated home crowd at their backs, an experience blameF described as the craziest of his life. "It feels so surreal, I can't even explain it, it's mental," he said shortly after the match on the broadcast. The 'Boulder,' as he has been dubbed by Conner "⁠Scrawny⁠" Girvan, went on to praise his in-game leader for calling a great game. "There's not a lot of stuff to fall back on because we haven't had that much practice, but gla1ve is doing an amazing job."

Astralis' vetoes have been indicated a change in their map pool all tournament long, and they finally got to show that the fruits of that on the server in their encounter against FaZe, who picked Mirage for the opener, forcing the Danes to play the map for the first time in over two years.

The new Astralis came back from their loss to Vitality to beat FaZe

Despite the core's inexperience on the map, Astralis took Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen and company by surprise, putting up a stellar defense on the back of a fantastic combination from blameF and Philip "⁠Lucky⁠" Ewald, who has continued to prioritize the rifle over the AWP and looked all the better for it as he scored several flashy plays.

A 12-3 first half made it near-impossible for FaZe to have a chance, and the large deficit proved to be their downfall, as not even a 7-1 start to the second half from the European combine was enough to stop Astralis from locking down the first map in the series. After struggling to find the answer to FaZe's mid aggression at first, the Danes adapted to blow the A site wide open and rally to a 16-10 victory.

The roles were reversed on Nuke, and this time it was Astralis who faced difficulty finding openings on the Terrorist side, with FaZe quickly amassing an early lead. Even two consecutive 1v2 clutches going the way of the Danish side did little to stop the karrigan-led machine, who had an amazing performer in Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard as he spearheaded a great defense worth 11 rounds. There wasn't much left for Astralis to do once they also conceded the second pistol round, and soon the series turned to the decider, Dust2.

The CT-sided theme of the series continued, with Astralis getting off to successful start on the back of a hyper-aggressive pistol round strategy in middle and putting together another solid CT half from there on. After the first few gunrounds were traded, FaZe began to falter after a lost 5v3 scenario and never got back on the horse, only salvaging a couple of rounds at the end of the half for four in total.

In a last-ditch effort, FaZe had karrigan and rain combine for five kills in the second pistol round and got within three from their opponents, until Lucky stepped up with a key clutch to get Astralis back in the driving seat. With that and a big quad-kill from k0nfig in a 3v5, FaZe were left scrambling for money, and Astralis closed out the game.

BLAST Premier Fall Final 2021Best of 3

Astralis

Matchpage

2

1

26th November 2021

FaZe

16

Mirage

10

5

Nuke

16

16

Dust2

9

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Kristian 'k0nfig' Wieneckek0nfig	55 - 48	+7	83.2	73.6%	1.23
Benjamin 'blameF' BremerblameF	58 - 44	+14	90.2	68.1%	1.20
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossandergla1ve	44 - 49	-5	73.4	70.8%	1.04
Philip 'Lucky' EwaldLucky	46 - 44	+2	56.6	68.1%	0.99
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	35 - 48	-13	62.9	72.2%	0.85

FaZe	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Håvard 'rain' Nygaardrain	54 - 50	+4	87.8	70.8%	1.18
Russel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenTwistzz	48 - 45	+3	71.3	68.1%	1.03
Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjerolofmeister	44 - 44	0	57.9	69.4%	0.96
Finn 'karrigan' Andersenkarrigan	47 - 55	-8	72.5	65.3%	0.95
Helvijs 'broky' Saukantsbroky	39 - 45	-6	61.1	66.7%	0.89

With Astralis defeating FaZe, Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's squad have also secured the final spot at the closing tournament of the year, the BLAST Premier World Final, through the BLAST standings.

Natus Vincere
HEROIC
Gambit
Vitality

G2
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Liquid
Astralis