HEET shock Astralis to throw Group C into disarray

The Frenchmen’s hard-fought first victory leaves the group wide open, with five teams currently sat on one win.

HEET grabbed themselves a tight 2-1 series win over Astralis to pick up their first win at ESL Pro League, besting the Danes 16-12 on Dust 2, losing Inferno 10-16, before closing the series 16-14 on Nuke.

The win keeps at least some chance of playoff qualification alive for HEET, and it seemed they had finally settled into the LAN environment in Malta as their performance was much improved across the board. Astralis yet again suffered a disappointing loss, leaving them with a tough battle to qualify for playoffs, however Asger "⁠Farlig⁠" Jensen was once again in fine form.

Aurélien "⁠afro⁠" Drapier identified a couple of key reasons for his team's victory in the post-match interview: "I find them really easy to read, on T side they are playing always at the same pace."

He went on to say, "I feel like they could beat us if they were a bit more on point with their aim."

HEET’s map selection of Dust 2 kicked off the series, with Astralis starting on the CT side. The first half largely belonged to the Danes, with Farlig and Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke standing tall more often than not. HEET needed a pistol win and conversion for two of their round wins, a big clutch from Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug allowed them a string of three in the middle of the half, and they grabbed the final round to go into the second period at a 6-9 deficit.

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Force-buy wars commenced at the start of the second half, with Scouts and Deagles ringing true for either side and big plays from afro and Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer lighting up the server. Eventually HEET came out on top, taking economic control and moving into a double-AWP setup that Astralis struggled to break; Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro and co. took that momentum and ran with it all the way to a 16-12 map win, their first of this Pro League campaign.

The Astralis pick of Inferno began with the Danes putting together an effective offense. They won the pistol and converted to put themselves in control and a 6-2 lead, as HEET were unable to answer the methodical approach to taking map control coupled with late executes.

An adjustment from the Frenchmen to more aggressive setups in banana and apartments allowed them to grab five rounds on the bounce, but a late recovery from Astralis earned them a narrow 8-7 lead at the half.

HEET lost the second pistol, allowing Astralis to get to 12-7 and giving themselves a mountain to climb. Key multikills from afro and bodyy did get the Frenchmen to 10 rounds, but sloppy mid-round play was repeatedly punished as Astralis confidently secured a 16-10 victory to send the series to Nuke.

A pistol win and follow-up from Astralis to start their CT side was answered by an upper rush with Tec-9s, and the teams traded rounds in a competitive start to the half. Eventually the Danes settled on their defence and stabilised their economy, with Farlig shining on the AWP, but not before HEET had already secured a solid haul of rounds; the half ended 9-6 in Astralis’ favour.

Astralis took the pistol and used the momentum to run the score up to 12-7, putting them seemingly on the brink of running away with the map, but afro produced some top quality play to haul his team back into contention. Astralis suffered from economic troubles, rarely getting full-buys, but at 12-13 they did get guns up and some key frags from Farlig ended their opposition’s streak.

It was not enough for the Danes as afro continued to menace them with his AWP, helping carry his team to a 16-14 win for their first series victory in his season of ESL Pro League.