Sashi stun Astralis in Abu Dhabi

HUNDEN and Lucky got one over their former team after a strong CT side on Nuke in the best-of-one Danish derby.

Astralis' hopes for a flawless YaLLa Compass group stage have come unstuck after a 13-8 defeat at the hands of fellow Danes Sashi.

Sashi, sporting ex-Astralis AWPer Philip "⁠Lucky⁠" Ewald and assistant coach Nicolai "⁠HUNDEN⁠" Petersen, have been one of the most active teams of 2024 with 192 maps played — averaging at 1.22 maps a day.

Since moving from Espionage to Sashi, that grind has coincided with a climb up the rankings from out of the top 100 in January to 30th before the start of YaLLa Compass.

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Sashi's season was already a success after they qualified for the Abu Dhabi LAN and the Esports World Cup, and it is now even better after getting one over the region's top dog in convincing fashion.

Doing so having come so close against The MongolZ earlier, where an 11-8 lead ended in an overtime defeat, is the cherry on top of a great day one for Denmark's latest upset machine.

The map began with a back-and-forth, but Sashi soon erected a wall on defense for a seven-round streak to close the half 9-3.

After the second pistol, Lucky — keen to get revenge of his own after a troubled time in Astralis in 2021 to 2022 — was 16-6.

A CT comeback from Astralis still seemed the likely outcome, but that went out the window after Casper "⁠Cabbi⁠" Jensen's Tec-9 ripped into Secret and the economy turned Sashi's way.

The game had a local LAN feel, with in-game leader Oliver "⁠IceBerg⁠" Berg up in Astralis' faces after each and every round win with some trash talk.

Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard shooting IceBerg's body after a 1v1, and a P90 on Cabbi for the 12-8 Ramp rush, only added to that feeling.

Astralis, despite opening their campaign with an easy win over HEROIC, now have some egg to rub off their faces — and a crucial reminder of the peril of the best-of-ones in round robin.