Farlig shines in Astralis victory over MOUZ

The Danish AWPer produced his second-highest rated series for Astralis to help his team bounce back from an opening loss.

Astralis recovered from an opening loss to Complexity by besting MOUZ 2-0 in ESL Pro League, taking Inferno 16-7 before closing the series with a 16-14 win on Nuke.

The Danes were much improved compared to their opening loss, with Asger "⁠Farlig⁠" Jensen in particular having a standout series and Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke also fragging well; taking a series win without Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer hard-carrying is a positive sign moving forwards.

MOUZ were comfortably outplayed throughout the series, bar the first half of Nuke; a lack of effectiveness in T-side gun rounds was a major issue.

The series began with the MOUZ pick of Inferno, a map selection that had the analyst desk scratching their heads as Astralis won the map against Complexity the previous day. The Danes had to recover from a slow start on their CT side, falling to an 0-4 deficit as Ádám "⁠torzsi⁠" Torzsás came into the map firing on all cylinders. A clutch from Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander got his team on the board, and with Farlig, k0nfig and blameF all posting highlight rounds, Astralis fought back to take a 9-6 lead into the second period.

Astralis won their T pistol and converted to a 12-6 score, giving MOUZ a mountain to climb if they wanted to get back into the map. A retake did find MOUZ a seventh but they offered little resistance otherwise, with Farlig continuing his excellent performance as Astralis strolled to a comfortable 16-7 victory.

Nuke, the pick of Astralis, came next, with MOUZ starting on the favoured CT side. The European squad started brightly, converting a pistol win into a 6-0 lead, but they struggled to end rounds with more than two alive and thus failed to build an economy; when Astralis did manage to win a couple of rounds, they broke their opposition and recovered to a 4-6 score.

MOUZ switched up their approach, becoming more dynamic and proactive in their defence, and the change wrestled back control of the half and earned them a convincing 11-4 lead heading into the second period.

A pistol win and strong conversion gave Astralis a 7-11 score with a solid economic foundation, and the Danes used this momentum to take control of the game; MOUZ did manage to put up some fight, winning a few rounds off the back of half-buys and force-buys, but Astralis marched to a tight 16-14 victory.