Liquid beat Astralis for the first time in two and a half years after domination on Nuke

The Danes go home, unable to bring out the form they had shown in their debut at BLAST Premier Fall Final.

Astralis have been eliminated from IEM Winter 2021 after their 0-2 defeat against Liquid. The Danish squad found themselves in the lower bracket after a tough opening game against Ninjas in Pyjamas and stole their only victory at the event from MOUZ. Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo's squad set up a roadblock on their opponents' map pick of Nuke 16-1 before completing the clean sweep on Mirage 16-10.

Liquid will advance to the lower bracket finals of Group A and will face the winner of Ninjas in Pyjamas vs OG for the last chance to claim a spot in the playoffs.

The B stream saw Liquid take on Astralis to stay alive in the lower bracket of Group A. Starting on the CT side of Nuke, the North Americans set up their barricades over the powerplant to deny the Danish offense any sort of success in an incredibly dominant 14-1 half. FalleN proved crucial for his team's fortunes on the defense, dropping 16 frags before halftime and finding impact in retake situations. Liquid did not lift their foot off the gas pedal, winning the second pistol round before swiftly taking the map 16-1 as the whole team was functioning to near perfection.

Moving into Mirage we were treated to a back-and-forth 8-7 half in favor of the North Americans as neither team was able to create a significant advantage. Astralis conceded the anti eco after their pistol round win, setting the scene for a brittle CT side despite Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer's admirable performance.

The Danes got off to a better start on the second half, but as soon as Liquid brought out the rifles, Astralis were unable to maintain the pressure on the T side. Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski and co. strung together eight rounds in a row on the defense on their way to close the map 16-10 and the series 2-0.