NertZ puts Astralis on the brink of missing Copenhagen Major

Astralis drop to the 1-2 pool in Romania as ENCE come back to beat GamerLegion.

HEROIC have repeated their Katowice play-in feat of defeating Astralis on Mirage, this time with an even more convincing 13-7 scoreline off the back of an incredible start to the map by Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz.

The Israeli rushed to 14 kills in the first six rounds as HEROIC won the firepower battle, silencing the Astralis individuals that had taken Spirit so close in their 1-0 match last night.

Another loss to Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund and Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard's former squad will add to the mental burden on Astralis, who now have three significant losses to former teammates in their last five matches.

Denmark's No. 1 team now sit 1-2, one best of three away from elimination, though should they win the 1-2 match they will guarantee a spot in the Last Chance qualifier.

The tone was set straight out of the gates as HEROIC won the pistol and Nico "⁠nicoodoz⁠" Tamjidi punished Astralis with a 1vs2 clutch in the first gun round.

Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr was targeted on the B bomb-site and NertZ dominated Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer in Middle to keep Astralis firmly on the back foot.

They did edge their way back into the game, but stumbled in a 4vs2 as NertZ came alive yet again to ensure nine T rounds for HEROIC.

Closing the map out was straightforward too, with another high-impact nicoodoz round on a semi-eco round the final nail in Astralis coffin.

Former Astralis in-game leader Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander is having a better run of things in Bucharest, taking ENCE to the 2-1 pool after a CT comeback from 3-9 down on Overpass.

Frederik "⁠acoR⁠" Gyldstrand impressed with some strong impact on the T side but GamerLegion could not close the map out, allowing time for gla1ve to come up huge in round 20 with superb trigger discipline and in overtime for ENCE to take the map.