Cloud9 breeze past Astralis to Roobet Cup playoffs

The Danes will play the Group B decider match for another shot at making the playoffs.

Cloud9 have topped the Roobet Cup's Group B with a resounding 2-0 victory over Astralis. The two teams last played on LAN at the Major, where Cloud9 (then under the Players banner) won 2-1. This time around the victory was more resounding, as Vladislav "⁠nafany⁠" Gorshkov and company won both maps, Overpass and Mirage, 16-7.

Cloud9 continues to show great form after taking the title at IEM Dallas and now defeating Complexity in their opening Roobet Cup match before surpassing Astralis for the top seed in the group going into the playoffs.

The series kicked off on Astralis’ map pick of Overpass, but it was Cloud9 who took control on the CT side going on a 9-2 streak before splitting the last four rounds to go up 11-4 at the half.

The Danes won the second pistol round on the defense in hopes that zonic’s law would kick into gear, but it was nothing further from the truth as Cloud9 won five of the next seven to close Astralis' pick out 16-7 with Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khassenov finishing one frag short of 30.

Cloud9 went into their pick, Mirage, full of confidence, although Astralis had recently won on that map by the skin of their teeth against Movistar Riders, 16-14, with Frederik "⁠Fessor⁠" Sørensen in tow substituting in-game leader Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander. This time around, the Danes faltered as the Russians were on another level.

Cloud9 went up 4-1 before a 1vs2 by Sergey "⁠Ax1Le⁠" Rykhtorov got them their fifth round, although the Danes brought it to within one, trailing 7-8 at the switch. A great display by Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov was a big part of his team running away on the CT side as Cloud9 mirrored the first map of the series, finishing it 16-7 to secure their playoff berth.