Astralis survive scare to eliminate FlyQuest

The Danes narrowly avoided another early tournament elimination, needing a vital eco win in the dying stages of Inferno.

Astralis have ensured they stay alive in IEM Katowice Play-in by taking down FlyQuest 2-1, consigning the Aussies to a last-place finish in Poland.

Astralis continued the trend of Train-pickers losing their map to open the series, floundering badly on the T side to the tune of a 2-10 deficit to allow FlyQuest an easy victory. Roles were reversed on Ancient, as this time Astralis dominated on defense to send the series to a decider.

Inferno was a back-and-forth affair, with the first half being split straight down the middle before Astralis moved over to the CT side. The Danes were staring into the face of defeat as the map wore on, sitting at 9-10 down with their economy broken, only for FlyQuest to walk into a stack of pistols at the B site, allowing Astralis to squeak a narrow win.

Astralis stumble into new year

Astralis have been less than impressive since adding Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller to their number late last year, ending 2024 on a real dour note by failing to qualify for Perfect World Major Shanghai as Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz took time off due to "stress-related health challenges". There hasn't been much uptick in their form thus far in the new year with losses to Natus Vincere and MIBR marring their record, and FlyQuest ran them dangerously close in this series with minor margins deciding the final map.

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However, it hasn't been all bad for Astralis. Their Katowice campaign is intact after this win over FlyQuest and they endured two agonizingly close map losses in their series against MIBR, and might have won that series on another day. In terms of individual personnel, device has shown flashes of strong form and Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund has had some good games.

But there are apparent issues. The map pool seems a problem, Astralis have only won their pick in a single series of the four they have played this year, and there are some problems on T side, particularly with overcomplicating rounds. Every game matters in LANs such as these in the days of VRS points deciding invites, and Astralis need every point they can muster to secure more tournament appearances in the near future.

FlyQuest show signs of improvement, but still lack results

In the recent off-season, FlyQuest made the first change in some time to their long-standing lineup, bringing European talent onboard in the form of AWper Iulian "⁠regali⁠" Harjău in an attempt to improve their fortunes.

There have been some signs that it was a worthy upgrade, they beat MIBR in BLAST Bounty and regali has been producing good fragging output and prowess in the clutch, but the Aussie squad are still making fatal errors. The decider of Inferno should arguably have gone their way, they were 10-9 up playing into pistols, but an unforgivable round loss spelled disaster. FlyQuest will be hoping they can turn their improved fragging output into improved results sooner rather than later.