Astralis brush off Team Spirit, stay alive at the Major

The final match of the first round.

With one spot remaining to be snatched in the Legends top-16, it was time to finish the first stage at PGL Major Stockholm 2021 with a pair of the highest ranked teams before the beginning of the tournament.

Team Spirit and Astralis were ranked #1 and #2 respectively by PGL before the first round of the Swiss stage draw, but both teams ended up facing one another for the last spot in the next stage. Starting on Dust2, the CIS mix opened with a “3-0” before the Danes locked the sites on their defence, coming to halftime with a five round lead. Inexplicable round win by Astralis’s offence with four pistols and a scout allowed them to snowball the economy out of reach for Team Spirit, as the reigning Major winners secured the first map, “16-8”. The CIS “dragons” once again won the first pistol round before Astralis nearly ran them out of the map, getting to a “10-3” score. Spirit still grinded despite facing multiple unfavourable situations, including a “1v4” by “degster”, but at “10-10” the Danes snatched the low buy round and snowballed the map once again for a “16-12” finish, a “2-1” series win and a spot in the next round.

A yet another disappointing exit for Team Spirit but a chance to take a deep breath for the Astralis team and their fans, as the Danes came back from a “0-2” start to the Major and will now reset at “0-0” in the Legends stage in Stockholm.