Astralis breeze past Falcons in seasonal debut

Astralis reigned supreme in their first time back on the server since the previous season ended for the two teams six weeks ago.

The first day at the BLAST Premier Fall Groups came to a close with Astralis locking in a comfortable victory over Falcons in Group B (Dust2 13-7, Ancient 13-9).

Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz and company will next face off against Vitality in the group's upper final in a match that will secure the victor two chances to qualify for the Fall Final, while Falcons fall to the elimination match against GamerLegion.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2024
30/07/2024	Vitality 17:15 Astralis	Match
30/07/2024	GamerLegion 19:30 Falcons	Match

It was the two teams' first time out on the server since Astralis placed 5th-6th at the BLAST Premier Spring Final and Falcons finished runners-up at ESL Challenger Jönköping some six weeks ago.

Astralis reigned supreme in their debut in the new season. They maintained control of Dust2 from start to finish, putting on an aggressive CT side up against a Falcons team struggling to find answers to the stifling style. Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer's team found a brief respite once sides switched, until Astralis caught them off with a couple of B executes as device found a crucial quad-kill in a 2v4 to help end it at a comfortable 13-7 score.

A more competitive first half of Ancient followed. Falcons seized momentum at first on the defense once they had guns in hand, but they were stopped in their tracks by device and Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard, who clutched consecutive 1v2s to end the half at even keel.

jabbi went on to dominate around Middle once on the defense, finding openings and multi-kills galore as Falcons' approaches for control over the highly-contested area failed time and time again. With the 21-year-old on a tear, Astralis went on a 7-1 run on the defense to lock down the series in two.