FaZe demolish Astralis to send them home from BLAST Lisbon

karrigan's troops will face off against the loser of Spirit vs. MOUZ in their next match.

FaZe have eliminated Astralis from BLAST Open Lisbon with a 2-0 scoreline (Train 13-7, Nuke 13-6) to put the Danes' direct Austin Major invitation in doubt.

The Danes thus exit the tournament without a map victory to their name, while FaZe fight on in the lower bracket. Their next test will come against the loser of Spirit vs. MOUZ on Sunday.

Date	Matches
BLAST Open Lisbon 2025
23/03/2025	FaZe 16:10 Spirit	Match

FaZe decided to ban Astralis' usual pick of Inferno and floated Train, and the Danes took the bait to force FaZe into their debut on the new map. Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants's 18 kills powered a dominant 11-1 CT half, and while Astralis' pistol-round victory prolonged the inevitable, FaZe took the series lead after a straightforward 13-7 triumph.

Nuke was up next, and FaZe continued their reign of terror on their map pick. They came out on top in the opening exchanges despite losing a second-round forcebuy, which proved enough for an 8-4 half after a small Astralis resurgence.

The second half followed the same storyline. FaZe won an eco to go up 9-6 and stayed on top from that point on, winning five rounds in a row to secure a 13-6 victory.

Astralis' direct Major invite in jeopardy

Astralis were on the cusp of an Austin Major Stage 2 direct invite ahead of the tournament, but their last-place exit will do little to improve their standing.

The result will likely drop them below 3DMAX to tenth place, while Virtus.pro also have a good chance to overtake the Danes with a good result at BLAST Lisbon.

Astralis will not play any more Valve-ranked matches until the April 7 deadline, with their Major hopes now no longer in their hands.

"We spoke about it before the tournament. One win would be almost enough, but now it's out of our hands. It's just how it is, the pressure of going to a Major is really high," Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz said in a post-match interview.

cadiaN puts up 0.46 event rating

Much has been said about Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller's adaptation to the rifle role, and BLAST Open Lisbon puts up a solid amount of evidence to say the experiment is not working out.

Astralis' stats at BLAST Open Lisbon:

The 29-year-old averaged a 0.46 event rating at the tournament, far and away the lowest-rated event of his career.

cadiaN best map at the tournament was a 0.61-rated performance on Inferno against Vitality, with the Dane not recording a double-digit kill count on any of the four maps.