Liquid knock Astralis out of BLAST Premier World Final

The North American roster are ending their time together on a high note as they guarantee themselves a top four finish to close out the year.

Liquid have secured themselves a spot in the lower bracket final of the BLAST Premier World Final after beating Astralis in a two-map series, coming out on top over Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's side following wins on Dust2 and Mirage. The North American roster will look to continue playing spoiler to opposing teams in their last ride together as they will next take on Natus Vincere on Saturday at 19:30 .

Astralis end the year on a sour note, having initially made a strong impression at the BLAST Premier Fall Final only to crash out of IEM Winter in 9-12th place and now have their World Final run cut short following losses to two dead lineups in the form of Vitality and Liquid. In a post-match interview, Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer commented on the team's lackluster T sides, something which he hopes will improve in 2022.

FalleN's AWPing was key in closing out Mirage

Liquid got off to a blistering start on Astralis' map pick, Dust2, multi-kill rounds from Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski and Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo being key in their side pushing up to a 6-1 lead. Wins on the T side for the Danish team were few and far between as they were unable to crack through Liquid's defenses, and further multi-kills from Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince added to a dominant half for the North Americans, who led 12-3 heading into the side swap.

Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth added ten kills to his tally as he scored back-to-back aces in the pistol and ensuing anti-eco, hoping to get Astralis back into the map. However, it was only a handful of rounds that went the way of gla1ve's men before their fate was sealed, the massive lead of Liquid proving far too large of a gap to close as they took things over the line, 16-9.

It was another early lead that kicked things off for Liquid on Mirage, although this time it was only a 3-1 margin before Astralis began to claw back into it, managing to steal away the lead at 7-4. A runaway half it wasn't to be though, and Liquid kept the scoreline close after a crucial 2vs5 recovery helmed by a quad kill from Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic helped them close out their T side down by a single round.

A triple and quad kill from blameF helped Astralis to extend their lead as the second half got underway, but it wasn't long before Liquid began to put up a strong defense. FalleN's AWP was key in shutting down site hits from the Danish team, but Grim and NAF also secured critical frags as Liquid gained momentum, taking back the lead before the Brazilian sniper found two stellar shots in round 29 to help Liquid take the series over the line.

BLAST Premier World Final 2021Best of 3

Astralis

Matchpage

0

2

17th December 2021

Liquid

9

Dust2

16

13

Mirage

16

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Benjamin 'blameF' BremerblameF	39 - 38	+1	78.2	55.6%	1.09
Kristian 'k0nfig' Wieneckek0nfig	37 - 41	-4	76.3	74.1%	1.07
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	31 - 35	-4	64.3	53.7%	0.91
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossandergla1ve	25 - 36	-11	55.7	63.0%	0.79
Philip 'Lucky' EwaldLucky	20 - 39	-19	42.0	57.4%	0.62

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Keith 'NAF' MarkovicNAF	40 - 31	+9	93.3	74.1%	1.26
Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFalleN	38 - 26	+12	68.9	68.5%	1.21
Jake 'Stewie2K' YipStewie2K	36 - 32	+4	74.9	79.6%	1.10
Michael 'Grim' WinceGrim	36 - 31	+5	71.0	72.2%	1.09
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE	38 - 32	+6	73.7	77.8%	1.08