Virtus.pro spoil new Astralis debut

Astralis' new duo, stavn and jabbi, did not have their desired start with the star on their chest.

Virtus.pro are as hard as an opponent for a new team as one could get. The ice-cold Russian squad led by Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali do not fall for any antics and play their own game to a T, which they did in a 2-1 victory over Astralis in their BetBoom Dacha Group B opener.

The Danes, showing off their brand-new signings, Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund and Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard, could not start on the right foot, although they will rest assured in the fact that despite not having had much time together to build chemistry they at times gave the Russian side a run for their money.

The first action that melded the old and the new together was a crossfire lockdown of the B site of Inferno between Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer and jabbi, as they stopped Virtus.pro from hitting the site and expanding their 3-0 lead. A cheeky round by Jame tied things up 4-4 as Astralis were clawing their way back and shifted the momentum in his team's favor. From there on out VP dominated their pick to 13-9.

Mirage was a close affair in the early rounds, with all even on the scoreboard after the first half, 6-6. The Danes then did well on the attack, setting the pace early on to run away with their pick, 13-10, and force the series to go to Overpass for the decider.

David "⁠n0rb3r7⁠" Danielyan was the man of the hour in the final map of the series, leading the scoreboard on both the CT and T sides for his team, which led him to end the map with a 1.71 Rating, 106 ADR, and 90.0% KAST in his team's 13-7 victory. Most impressively, he set the pace on the attack, finding crucial site-opening frags and multi-kills that broke Astralis' back.

Astralis will need to spend some time on the drawing board, as their two new additions struggled greatly in the series, with both stavn and jabbi ending the bout at the bottom of the board in their debut.

Virtus.pro and Astralis are now waiting to play their Group B winners' and elimination matches on Thursday. Their rivals will come from the second opener in the group between FURIA and Spirit.