Astralis beat Renegades to secure playoff spot

Astralis came back from a map down to beat Renegades 2-1 and claim the first playoff spot at the IEM Katowice Major.

The Australian side faced a must-win game on Mirage - knowing that a loss here would most likely translate into a defeat in the series as the next map would be Nuke, Astralis' turf - and they came out the brighter of the two sides, taking the pistol round with an A hit off the back of a trio of kills by Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward.

Astralis picked the Renegades offense apart in the third round with AUGs to get on the board for the first time in the game. That marked the beginning of a phenomenal run by the Danish side, who cruised to a 12-3 lead - a streak that was only briefly interrupted by an ace from Sean "⁠Gratisfaction⁠" Kaiwai.

Now playing on the CT side, Renegades won a much-needed pistol round after shutting down Astralis' B attempt, and followed that up with another round. The Danes responded in convincing fashion after buying up, which propelled them into a 14-5 lead.

That run was not to last, though, as Renegades came fighting back with AUGs in hand. The Australians boasted a water-tight defence and went on a ten-round streak to hit map point before Astralis secured the final round to force overtime. That last-gasp effort from the Danes would not yield results, though, as AZR's troops secured two rounds in both halves to pick up a convincing victory and take the lead in the series.

Astralis march on to the playoffs

As expected, Nuke turned out to be a tale of two halves. Astralis got off to a dream start on the Terrorist side and took a 6-2 lead after Renegades' round wins on two occasions, one of them in the pistol round. Things were starting to look shaky for Renegades, but then the Australian side went on a seven-round streak with a solid defence, with Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage ending the half with 17 kills and a 109 ADR.

Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz opened up the action in the second half with a quad-kill in the pistol as Renegades attempted a ramp push. That turned out to be the start of a painful half for the Australian side, who simply could not breach the Astralis defence, losing the game without scraping a single round on the T side.

Things quickly fell apart for Renegades on Inferno as the Australian side were caught off-guard by Astralis' defence in the second round after taking the pistol round convincingly. The rest of the half was a complete blowout as the Danes ramped to a 13-2 lead after giving the Terrorists very little room to operate.

Astralis rubbed salt into Renegades' wounds with an aparments push in the pistol round that surprised the two defenders in the site. The Australians side tried to salvage something out of the game, but Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's troops were having none of it and quickly wrapped things up.

IEM Katowice 2019Best of 3 AstralisMatchpage 2 1 21st February 2019 Renegades 17Mirage 19 16Nuke 9 16Inferno 2

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nicolai 'device' Reedtzdevice	71 - 43	+28	88.5	1.41
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussendupreeh	58 - 45	+13	75.9	1.20
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossandergla1ve	52 - 42	+10	78.4	1.18
Emil 'Magisk' ReifMagisk	49 - 42	+7	57.8	1.06
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	46 - 46	0	65.4	0.98

Renegades	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Justin 'jks' Savagejks	52 - 54	-2	70.0	0.97
Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostadjkaem	46 - 53	-7	59.7	0.87
Aaron 'AZR' WardAZR	41 - 56	-15	61.1	0.83
Sean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiGratisfaction	45 - 56	-11	59.7	0.80
Jay 'Liazz' TregillgasLiazz	34 - 57	-23	60.4	0.77

The New Legends stage 3W - 0L Astralis 2W - 0L Natus Vincere Liquid 2W - 1L Ninjas in Pyjamas Vitality AVANGAR MIBR Renegades 1W - 2L FaZe Cloud9 ENCE G2 HellRaisers 0W - 2L NRG Complexity 0W - 3L BIG Aaron 'AZR' Ward Age: 26 Team: Renegades Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 735 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.69 Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander Age: 23 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 1122 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.66 Sean 'Gratisfaction' Kaiwai Age: 22 Team: Renegades Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 563 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.60 Justin 'jks' Savage Age: 23 Team: Renegades Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 732 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.63 Nicolai 'device' Reedtz Age: 23 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.17 Maps played: 1279 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.63 Astralis #1 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif Renegades #8 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiJay 'Liazz' Tregillgas