Astralis dominate in quick 2-0 win over SAW - SAW become first team eliminated
Astralis looked a bit out of sorts in their opening game of BLAST Premier Spring Final presented by Revolut as they fell to NAVI, but they showed again why they are one of the most in-form teams in the world as they took down SAW 2-0.
With an arena berth now booked, Staehr told us that the team is "feeling good" after "two very clean maps and playing a lot better CS" - but how did they get their win?
Astralis hold their composure
Astralis looked to be hot out of the gates on the opening pistol round, but a rush of frantic gunfights and over-peeking soon saw them fail to convert a 5v3.
It was a strange round, and Staehr told us the team realised they were a little too excited after that round.
"We were just too excited, we took some crazy duels and pushed everywhere on the map and we still just kept taking them. We even knew where all of them were so we just shouldn't be that excited to kill them. After that, we said we needed to chill and be more relaxed." - Staehr
Astralis did quickly regain that composure, however, bouncing back instantly with a force-buy win.
The Danes soon built up a big lead. jabbi was the star of their CT side, his 12 kills included this B Site hold.
It was Captain Fantastic device who was the biggest hitter for Astralis, he recorded 20 kills as they took map one 13-6.
Map two was even more comfortable for Astralis, they took the series 2-0 after a quick 13-3 Inferno map.
After the game, we spoke to a rather downtrodden MUTiRiS who told us:
"It feels really bad to be destroyed like that, but I think we were just overthinking in so many situations. It's really bad to play when everyone is uncomfortable. We deserved to lose." - MUTiRiS
Staehr was buoyant, however, and he had his mind already set on breaking the Astralis semi-final curse:
"For sure, I hope to not only make another semi-final but also to go further. I don't want to have a semi-final curse and prove people wrong that we can actually win a semi [laughs] but let's see, everyone here is a tough opponent so you can't be sure." - Staehr