Astralis dismantle FaZe to secure playoff berth at IEM Chengdu

device could not have wished for a better debut as an in-game leader.

Astralis demolished FaZe in the Group B upper bracket semi-final at IEM Chengdu (Ancient 13-7, Nuke 13-4) to qualify for the playoffs.

The Danes, who are playing their first tournament with Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz in the IGL role, were visibly the better team against Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's troops and barely broke a sweat during the match, with their four pistol-round wins making their job much easier.

Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund topped the server in the series, and the 22-year-old now sits on a 1.65 rating after three maps played at IEM Chengdu. That marks a massive improvement for the Dane, who no longer has a role overlap with Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer. He previously played three events with a negative rating during 2024, with the highest being a 0.93-rated performance at the RMR.

The result means Astralis will face off against Virtus.pro for a semi-final spot on Wednesday, while FaZe need to win two straight matches in the lower bracket to qualify for the playoffs.

Date	Matches
IEM Chengdu 2024
10/04/2024	Cloud9 07:30 FaZe	Match
10/04/2024	Virtus.pro 10:30 Astralis	Match

device joined the desk for a post-match comment and admitted his team might have an upper hand early on. "It's hard for teams to play us because they don't know our style yet," he began. "But I'm really happy with the performance, we lived up to the things we wanted to do. We know we can achieve really good things, but let's see what we can do without having officials under our belt."

The Danish team also looked like a much more cohesive unit than under their previous leadership, and the Danish AWPer attributes that to a role switch. "Bringing a hard anchor like br0 makes it easier for people to play their natural roles. The two ex-Heroic guys are really good at playing mid-rounds, and from Staehr, I just want some input for his side of the map."

The match began on Ancient, where Astralis got off to a hot 5-0 start before FaZe reeled them back in to secure parity at the switch. The second half began as a brawly back-and-forth affair, but Astralis came out on top 13-7 after they lost just one round on their CT side.

Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr continued his pistol prowess on Nuke by getting a quad kill, and his team converted that to an 8-1 lead. The Danes then won a crucial full-eco round that got them back to winning ways and ensured a healthy six-round lead into the second half, which they kept throughout before eventually closing the map with a 13-4 scoreline.