Big rounds by Staehr power Astralis to FPG 2 playoffs over GamerLegion

Kursy's time in GamerLegion comes to an end with a 2-3 Swiss stage exit.

Astralis, the Fissure Playground 1 runners up, will continue the quest for a trophy in Belgrade after beating GamerLegion in the 2-2 Swiss stage decider to advance to the playoffs.

"It hasn't been the easiest tournament for us so far, so I'm happy we got one of the spots in the playoffs," Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard said in the post-match interview on the broadcast.

An opening loss to Aurora was followed by a victory over Virtus.pro, and then a loss to paiN then put the Danes with their backs against the wall, but sweeps against Legacy and GamerLegion got them through with a 3-2 record.

For GamerLegion, who fall just shy of the playoffs, it is a farewell to Jeremy "⁠Kursy⁠" Gast, who will not get his arena debut in Serbia as he is set to be replaced by Milan "⁠hypex⁠" Polowiec before ESL Pro League Season 22.

The series featured two close maps, Overpass and Nuke, with both teams going into the stretch neck-and-neck, but big plays by Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr tipped the scales in favor of the Danish squad.

On Overpass, it was a quad-kill that kept Astralis chugging ahead going into the 20th round, after which they linked three successful attacks in a row to win out.

Staehr quad-kill on Overpass

Another big play by Staehr came on Nuke, and also in the 19th round, as he stopped GamerLegion from winning an economically backbreaking round in a 1vs1 against Oldřich "⁠PR⁠" Nový, after which Astralis once again settled to bring it home.

Staehr 1v1 on Nuke

PR, one of the game's top prospects, had the odd off day, with a 0.73 rating sending him to the bottom of the scoreboard, while Staehr basked in the glow of his huge round swinging plays, as well as solid all-around play that got him 97.4 ADR, to finish the series at the top of the scoreboard with a 1.49 rating.