To close out day one of BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2023 we have an absolute banger match up - Astralis vs Falcons.
The debut of Falcons in BLAST Premier, they would have to push past an incredibly strong-looking Astralis team.
With that said, how did the two teams get on?
With fans hotly anticipating the debut of Falcons, they might have been disappointed to see they picked a map like Vertigo. Or at least, we were anyway.
Even if they were excited about the prospects of watching Vertigo, they would have to wait until round four for Snappi and co. to pick up their first round.
Despite getting one on the board, it ended up being a tough half for the Danish IGL - Falcons only managed two more on their CT side as the half ended 9-3 in Astralis' favour.
At least they had this sneaky 3k from BOROS to write home about.
Falcons attempted to mount a comeback on their T side, they opened up the half with a comfortable string of four rounds.
However, it wasn't enough, and Astralis only allowed their opponents one more round before closing out the game 13-8.
With Astralis firmly in the driving seat heading it to map two, it was down to them to give every at the BLAST Studio an early finish by securing a fourth consecutive 2-0 for the day.
Having picked Ancient, there was a decent chance of them doing so, every iteration of Astralis since COVID has been exceptional on the map.
With that in mind, they started out incredibly strong - they won nine rounds in a row before Falcons even knew what had hit them.
Staehr was in fine form, he closed out the first half 17-7 and was even managing to kill players he couldn't see as he helped Astralis bring a 10-2 lead into their CT side.
Eager to not give Falcons a route back into the map, Astralis opened up the second half with two more rounds, both involving them defusing the bomb.
Falcons did manage to pull one back, but their hopes of a comeback were dashed as Astralis secured their all-important 13th.
Thanks to their demolition at the hands of Vitality, Falcons will now be pitted against OG to keep their hopes of making Spring Final alive.
As for Astralis, they will face one of the hardest games they will play all year as they look to deny Vitality a spot in the Group Final.
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