Astralis earn victory over FaZe in Romania

The Danes are looking to recover their form before a likely appearance at the MRQ.

Astralis may be set to miss out on a direct invite to the Major but have started PGL Bucharest with a bang by beating FaZe 2-1 (Ancient 13-4, Dust2 13-16, Train 13-8).

It's the second win Astralis have to their name against the struggling 2025 FaZe roster, having nabbed third place at PGL Cluj-Napoca in February over the same opponent, and secures them revenge for their battering at BLAST Lisbon.

The Danes survived a scare after fumbling an 11-5 lead on Dust2, and needed to step up to overcome a FaZe opponent that had woken up just in time for map three.

The Train decider was a back-and-forth match all the way, only for Astralis to claim an unlikely eco victory at 8-8 that wrestled the game back in their favor.

But there is no denying that Astralis played the better Counter-Strike over the series, with Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller calling well except the Dust2 fumble and an important victory for the 1-0 pool.

FaZe's stars hide behind the clouds

Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen and Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants may have new viewmodels but it's the same old FaZe we saw today, as the Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski lineup continues to slump.

One of the star trio can usually show their quality, but it is rarely more than one at the same time.

David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský hit the desk as often as he scored a kill (1) in the first half of Dust2, broky had a 0.59 rating on Ancient, and EliGE was a liability on Train with 47 ADR and 17 deaths.

For results to improve in a dangerous 0-1 pool that already features Falcons and The MongolZ, FaZe needs to unlock their stars more consistently.

Like in Cluj, Astralis bounce back

Astralis' win for third place in Cluj came despite losing map one 28-24, the type of overtime loss that usually hurts a team's mentality so much series defeat is assured.

You could say a similar thing here, with all the momentum in FaZe's favor after the Danes choked an 11-5 lead on Dust2.

But cadiaN's troops rallied, with some good variations of pace, flashy Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr entries, and overall quality from Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund and Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz pushing them over the line.