Danish super team Astralis has secured its spot for IEM Beijing semifinals. This may come as no surprise to some given the notoriety and success this team has seen in CSGO. Astralis won both of its matches today over ViCi and 100 Thieves in 2-0 fashion, but don’t let the scoreline fool you into thinking it was easy.
The maps have been choosen!
The maps are:
– Inferno
– Nuke
– Train📺https://t.co/KpkI2ndJU5#ToTheStars https://t.co/9VyXCOvgyl
— Astralis Counter-Strike (@AstralisCS) November 7, 2019
Astralis vs. 100 Thieves for IEM Beijing
Astralis was no doubt the favorite going into this match. We haven’t seen much from 100 Thieves since the roster was announced sometime last week, giving a huge edge to Astralis who have proven themselves time and time again. If the sheer reputation of Astralis wasn’t enough to hedge your bets on, the map set may do the trick. Inferno was the first map selection, which is arguably Astralis’s best map with a 75.3% win rate. Nuke was the second, which the Danish team holds a 74.7% win rate on, and Train the third with a 64.8% win rate. The odds were in Astralis’s favor at map selection, but 100 Thieves didn’t go down without a fight.
Inferno ended in a 16-10 score favoring Astralis. 100 Thieves managed to take both pistol rounds on this map and won the first five rounds, but Nicolai “device” Reedtz and Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander proved to be too much in rifle rounds. Glav1ve would drop 22 kills this map.
Nuke ended in a 16-9 score favoring Astralis. 100 Thieves took the second pistol round, meaning they won three out of four pistol rounds in this series. Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth had their number though and ended the match with 27 kills and a 105.8 ADR.
If 100 Thieves had managed to sneak a win on maps one or two, they would have had a decent chance of taking map three given that it is one of Astralis’s weaker maps.
Getting sandwiched? No problem for deivce when he got utility! 😎
With the win we secured a spot in the semi-final.
Let's go! 👏#ToTheStars pic.twitter.com/puMtT3QlWB
— Astralis Counter-Strike (@AstralisCS) November 7, 2019
100T show promise
This is one of the first times we are seeing this new 100 Thieves roster in action after their announcement last week. They showed promise against one of the best teams in CSGO, which isn’t a statement to take lightly. This new roster has a long road in front of it, and it’s nice to see it could be one paved with success.
IEM Group Stage resumes on Nov. 8 at 12:00 p.m. SGT.
