Astralis beat Aurora to secure first big event LAN final appearance since 2019

The Danes' dream run with HooXi continues as they guarantee the organization's best result in years.

Pinnacle Cup Championship 2022. That's the last time Astralis as an organization played in a notable LAN grand final, with a lineup that is indistinguishable from today's.

But to find their last Big Event LAN final appearance, you have to rewind time to pre-COVID times, when Astralis were still at the peak of their powers, winning the BLAST Pro Series Global Final in late 2019 with the GOAT roster.

Five and a half years later, the Danish side is now set to return to a Big Event arena final after beating Aurora in the PGL Astana semi-finals, pulling off a comeback from down 4-8 on Nuke with the perfect defense and dominating the Turks on Train in their first time with Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen on the map.

On championship Sunday, Astralis will go up against the winner of Spirit vs. FURIA for a chance to go one step further in their dream run with HooXi, with Aurora still left to play the third-place decider against the loser before that.

Date	Matches
PGL Astana 2025
18/05/2025	Aurora 10:00 FURIA	Match
18/05/2025	Astralis 14:00 Spirit	Match

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After dominating Natus Vincere and top-fragging all three maps, Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr once again went to the top of the charts in the Aurora semi-final with a 1.42 series rating.

This time, though, it was far from a one-man army. Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund was crucial in Astralis Nuke CT side comeback, where he went 16-4 and dealt 186 ADR to ensure the Danes' 9-0 run on the defense.

On Train, Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz took over after picking up an ace in the pistol round, ending the decider with a 2.13-rated performance.

Aurora left ruing an attempt to punish Astralis' Train

The Turkish team, who went into the match as the clear favorite, will likely look back at the veto with regret. Instead of letting the decider go to Inferno and playing to their own comfort, Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli & co. hoped to punish Astralis on Train, where the Danes had yet to play with HooXi.

However, Aurora themselves went into the match with a 0-6 streak on the map, and went out with a whimper after only getting three rounds on the offense.

stavn shared just how last-minute the preparation for Train was in the post-match interview on PGL's broadcast: "After we won Nuke, HooXi says: 'Everyone, shut the fuck up. Now we talk for one minute, the guys who need to go smoke, go smoke, and then we go practice our grenades before the map.'"