k0nfig powers Astralis to a sweep over FURIA

Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan and company will have to ride the lower bracket.

Astralis kickstarted their adventure at IEM Cologne 2022's group stage with a 2-0 victory over FURIA, securing their stay in the upper bracket. A vintage performance on Nuke (16-8) gave the advantage to the Danes before another great T side on Mirage (16-13) closed the series in their favor. Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer proved indispensable on the second map, while Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke was a force of nature across the whole series.

The defeat means FURIA will have to face Outsiders in the lower bracket for a chance to stay in the tournament. The Russian squad went undefeated through the Play-In before suffering a loss at the hands of Cloud9 on Thursday.

k0nfig was untouchable in the two maps against FURIA

FURIA did not have a great start to their defense on Nuke. The South Americans immediately conceded the opening pistol, allowing Astralis' T side to come online early. The Danes never gave the Brazilians a chance to get back up, constantly keeping their economy in check, and Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander was a big part of that. After a rough showing in the Play-In stage, the veteran in-game leader was on a roll as he found several frags to facilitate his team's offense, pushing them to a fantastic 10-5 half despite Rafael "⁠saffee⁠" Costa's heroics. After switching sides, a solo M4 on round 17 helped the Danes to convert a force buy, quickly shutting down any hopes of a FURIA comeback while k0nfig powered the defense to a 16-8 victory.

The Danes were on track for another dominant half on Mirage's CT side after gianing an early 6-2 advantage, but FURIA did not give up easily. A hero AK on Yuri "⁠yuurih⁠" Santos unlocked the A bombsite for the Brazilians, giving them the first of a five-round streak and briefly, the lead. Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth and k0nfig both played a solid defensive half for Astralis as they edged an 8-7 scoreline ahead of the break.

After switching sides, it was the Danes who once again came out all guns blazing, taking the second pistol before extending their lead to 15-8 as the Brazilians found no answer to Astralis and k0nfig's aggression. FURIA resisted for while, but eventually gla1ve took that last necessary round on the B site to close the map 16-13 and the series 2-0.

IEM Cologne 2022Best of 3

FURIA

Matchpage

0

2

8th July 2022

Astralis

8

Nuke

16

13

Mirage

16

FURIA	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Rafael 'saffee' Costasaffee	40 - 39	+1	65.5	66.0%	0.98
Andrei 'arT' PiovezanarT	31 - 39	-8	74.4	67.9%	0.96
Yuri 'yuurih' Santosyuurih	32 - 38	-6	77.2	64.2%	0.95
Kaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoKSCERATO	27 - 35	-8	57.2	64.2%	0.85
André 'drop' Abreudrop	25 - 35	-10	55.1	67.9%	0.79

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Kristian 'k0nfig' Wieneckek0nfig	54 - 33	+21	96.4	73.6%	1.52
Benjamin 'blameF' BremerblameF	43 - 26	+17	86.1	75.5%	1.35
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	32 - 30	+2	75.8	79.2%	1.18
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossandergla1ve	31 - 33	-2	76.1	67.9%	1.00
Asger 'Farlig' JensenFarlig	26 - 33	-7	54.0	71.7%	0.84