Astralis top Group A over ENCE at CAC

The Danes have booked themselves a semi-final spot in Shanghai.

Astralis have eased past ENCE at the CAC to top Group A and move straight into the semi-finals. Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer and company scored identical 10-2 first-half T leads on their pick of Overpass and the decider of Ancient, neutering the effect of a narrow loss on Vertigo to win the series 2-1.

"Our T sides were really good, we were brave and taking the initiative to force opponents to have bad situations," Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz said post-game. "blameF was making really good calls and everyone was trusting him, that's how it should be."

ENCE struggled for fluidity on their defense, and displayed some spurious individualistic decision-making in an attempt to account for the loss of teamplay with Vladan "⁠VLDN⁠" Radević standing in for Paweł "⁠dycha⁠" Dycha.

Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer's side did secure Vertigo — despite a bizarre teamkill from VLDN at what seemed to be a crucial moment — but it was on the back of heroics from Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García and Pavle "⁠Maden⁠" Bošković that did not materialize on the other maps.

For Astralis, the result is a needed one in a tournament where they should be considered among the favorites. Topping Group A, a fairly weak group thanks to ENCE missing dycha, is the perfect way of starting that journey.

ENCE, thanks to their best-of-one win earlier, had already qualified for playoffs but will start one step back in the round of six.

Action began on Overpass, where Astralis set the tone with a flurry of T rounds on the A bombsite. SunPayus and Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz put themselves in situations where multi-kills were necessary but rarely got more than one, as Astralis' trading got them into convertable post-plants. A 10-2 lead ensued as that narrative rang true all half, before a pistol conversion ensured a 13-2 victory.

Vertigo was the most interesting of the three maps, despite another strong start to the map from the Danes. Momentum shifted after SunPayus's magical 1v4, featuring three quick AWP shots before switching to the AK for a one tap on to the flanking blameF.

The game remained close, and at 9-8 VLDN's teamkill in a 4v2 on to Maden — a mistake that gave Astralis a 10-8 lead — appeared to make a 2-0 likely. But, with Maden himself key, ENCE stayed calm on their pick to force Ancient.

That effort, however, was largely in vain: Astralis dominated Ancient from start to finish, much like they had on Overpass. Their defaults proved too effective, and ENCE's two rounds they won on CT side were from an eco stack and a 1v2 clutch from VLDN. In the gun rounds, Astralis simply proved too strong and closed the series out 2-1.