BIG brush Astralis aside in BLAST as syrsoN shines

Round three of the knockout stage has been set, as BIG joined FaZe in the first series of deciding matches.

BIG have earned their place in the third round of the BLAST Premier Spring Groups gauntlet stage after moving past Astralis in a comfortable two-map series (Dust2 16-13, Mirage 16-7). The Germans will take on FaZe next in a match for a spot at BLAST Premier Spring Final, while Astralis await the loser in the Last Chance stage.

BIG stayed true to their home map and picked Dust2 to kick off the series. It was a choice that ended up paying off, but it turned out a much closer affair than the opening stages of the map suggested. The Danes struggled at first, unable to find answers to BIG's offense, but with a Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer quad-kill they began their climb back and made a half of it, after all.

Ahead by just one round at halftime despite , the German side immediately got back on the horse with a second pistol round win and a great combination from the AWPs in the hands of Florian "⁠syrsoN⁠" Rische and Nils "⁠k1to⁠" Gruhne. It wasn't long until they hit map point at 15-9, at which point Astralis couldn't afford any more mistakes and dug their heels in, only to falter five rounds later nonetheless.

BIG got off to a great start on Mirage, as well, and this time they didn't let Astralis back in. It was domination from beginning to end, with syrsoN shining on the AWP as he averaged close to two kills per round.

Denying the Germans a 16-0 victory was the only silver lining for Astralis, as blameF stepped in with a 1v2 clutch to get them on the board after going down 0-13, but beyond that there was nothing to write home about for the Danish squad. Securing their 10th consecutive pistol round victory in the tournament, BIG had little trouble closing out the map despite a brief resurgence from the Danes at the end.