Highlights galore as Astralis send MIBR home

Five overtimes were required in a gruelling series before the Danes ran away with it on the decider.

Astralis and MIBR turned a 1-2 elimination match into an exciting if scrappy must-watch as the Danes emerged victorious from a four-hour match.

The win means quick revenge for Astralis after MIBR beat them 2-0 last month in Katowice as they move into the fifth round playoff deciders at PGL Cluj-Napoca.

Back then, it was Felipe "⁠insani⁠" Yuji at the top of the scoreboard but today MIBR's starlet was quiet as Rafael "⁠saffee⁠" Costa and Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz went blow for blow at the top of the scoreboard with 40 bombs apiece on map one.

The impact of Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr in the early and late round was also key as Astralis finally broke the deadlock on the Nuke decider, with the psychological battle going the Danes way after an exhausting first two maps and some tilting early rounds.

Defeat for MIBR means another poor result since the supposedly blockbuster signing of Lucas "⁠Lucaozy⁠" Neves. Despite a good few months with the team, Lucaozy is far from the version of himself we saw in Fluxo and has a 0.91 rating this year.

Part of that is due to a role overlap with insani, and we have seen flashes of his quality at times, but the fact of the matter is that MIBR remain a tier below FURIA and paiN in their region and are yet to prove their ESL Pro League 20 run was anything more than a flash in the pan.

Date	Matches
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025
14/02/2025	MIBR Finished 0:2 Wildcard	Match
15/02/2025	MIBR Finished 2:0 Imperial Valkyries	Match
16/02/2025	3DMAX Finished 2:0 MIBR	Match
17/02/2025	Astralis Finished 2:1 MIBR	Match

Duel of the AWPs on Mirage

The big story from Mirage was the impact of device and saffee, who combined for 95 kills across the quadruple overtime thriller.

device was the early frag leader, and his 1v3 in the last round of the first half put Astralis on to eight CT rounds.

But the map dragged on, with both sides struggling outside of their AWPers. MIBR were more lax with some disappointing mid-rounds, but Astralis were also poor at times with repetitive B pops forcing them back to a saffee that was quickly catching up to device in kills.

In the chaos of overtime, where the two AWPers fittingly hit back-to-back quad kills, it was Astralis who thrived that little bit more to steal away the map pick of the Brazilians.

Highlight simulator on Nuke

If Mirage was a thriller and Inferno a testament to MIBR's resilience to come back from 11-9 down, Nuke was a horror movie.

At 2-1, Staehr completed a 3v4 retake with an ace and 1v2 clutch in a round MIBR simply had to convert.

Then, Lucaozy fired MIBR to a crucial swing round with an ace on the upper bomb-site.

Only, one round afterwards, he went from hero to zero as he failed to plant the bomb on B.

That round took the wheels off MIBR, with a team nade shortly afterwards from Raphael "⁠exit⁠" Lacerda to kill Lucaozy. Even a saffee 1v2 could not re-ignite them as the series went begging and elimination was sealed.