Virtus.pro head to Spring Final semis over Astralis

Astralis' semi-final streak has been shut down in their last event of the season.

Virtus.pro have emerged victorious over Astralis in the BLAST Premier Spring Final's second quarter-final, recovering from early deficits on both Inferno and Dust2 to secure a 2-0 win in the series.

This win has secured the Russian team a semi-final matchup versus Major champions Natus Vincere, their first meeting since the Copenhagen Major Europe RMR.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024
15/06/2024	Natus Vincere 21:10 Virtus.pro	Match

The Russian side's run in London is their best result in 2024 so far, as a string of poor results had kept Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali's troops away from the stage until now.

While the team has been showing signs of improvement, Jame made clear in a post-match interview that more work still needed to be done. "Of course, we need more time, but I'm happy with this result," he said.

Astralis' defeat at the hands of Virtus.pro draws a close to a mixed season for the Danish side. After the blockbuster signings of Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard and Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund failed to net immediate results, the addition of Alexander "⁠br0⁠" Bro helped to improve the team's placings, but Astralis have since struggled to go beyond semi-final finishes.

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Astralis captain Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz lamented the missed opportunities in both the series and the season as a whole. "We had a chance to win most of the rounds we were playing, we just didn't finish the rounds."

Regarding the season as a whole, device stated: "If you reflect and look at the whole season it's been fine... We want more, and that's why it stings, I think."

Both maps of Astralis' series versus Virtus.pro played out in a similar fashion; the Danish side accruing early 4-0 leads that were soon whittled away by the constricting maneuvers of Virtus.pro.

On Inferno, an 0-4 deficit for the Russian side vanished in an instant, as Evgenii "⁠FL1T⁠" Lebedev powered his team through a ten-round streak that placed Virtus.pro firmly in the driving seat, allowing them to steal away their opponent's pick 13-8.

On Dust2, Virtus.pro secured a streak of eight rounds after their 0-4 start, and this time around Astralis was far keener to keep Jame in check, starting the second half with a streak of six rounds on their own.

Although it looked like Astralis was set to drag the series to a third map, Virtus.pro composed themselves to string together five more rounds, locking down the map 13-10 to put an end to the Danish squad's season.