Astralis beat Virtus.pro to qualify for IEM Sydney

Astralis are through to IEM Sydney 2018 following a 2-0 victory over Virtus.pro on Mirage and Inferno.

The grand final of the IEM Sydney 2018 European closed qualifier saw Astralis take on Virtus.pro after leaving behind the likes of Gambit, G2 and Ninjas in Pyjamas in the previous stages of the single-elimination bracket.

The battle for a spot in Sydney kicked off on Virtus.pro's map pick, Mirage, but it was the Danish side who got off to a flying start as CTs, losing only the first gun round before continuously shutting down their opponents to grab an 11-1 lead.

Astralis then lost the last three rounds of the half, but they would hit 14 rounds fairly quickly after picking up the second pistol. From that point, although the Poles kept trying to turn the game around, Astralis remained calm and collected, with Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz helping his team to seal the deal, 16-13, with a fast quad-kill.

gla1ve's Astralis are back in Sydney after finishing in 3rd-4th place last year

Starting out as Terrorists on their map pick, Inferno, Astralis managed to win the first pistol round thanks to an ace from Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif in a 3v5 situation. From there, the Danes further increased their lead to 7-0.

That was when Virtus.pro's defence came to life, with Michał "⁠MICHU⁠" Müller and co. losing only five more rounds to reduce the deficit to 5-10 by half-time. In the second half, however, Astralis swiftly hit 13 rounds following their fourth successful pistol of the series.

Just like on the previous map, Virtus.pro strung three rounds together before Astralis were able to grab their first with guns. But this time around, Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's men did not let their opponents win more than eight rounds before finishing things off to book their spot at IEM Sydney 2018.

IEM Sydney 2018 Europe Closed QualifierBest of 3 AstralisMatchpage 2 0 30th March 2018 Virtus.pro 16Mirage 13 16Inferno 8

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Emil 'Magisk' ReifMagisk	44 - 31	+13	86.0	1.30
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussendupreeh	43 - 30	+13	79.1	1.26
Nicolai 'device' Reedtzdevice	42 - 35	+7	82.0	1.18
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	35 - 31	+4	76.5	1.15
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossandergla1ve	25 - 31	-6	60.5	0.91

Virtus.pro	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Janusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiSnax	36 - 36	0	78.5	1.00
Paweł 'byali' Bielińskibyali	36 - 36	0	71.0	0.91
Michał 'MICHU' MüllerMICHU	31 - 40	-9	61.9	0.90
Filip 'NEO' KubskiNEO	28 - 38	-10	63.2	0.85
Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskipashaBiceps	27 - 39	-12	57.1	0.74

The 16-team list for the $250,000 event currently looks as follows:

SK	FaZe
Renegades	MOUZ
Cloud9	Natus Vincere
fnatic	Astralis
GG:Origin Qual.	NA Qual.
Asia #1	Asia #2
Asia #3	Oceania #1
Oceania #2	Oceania #3

Virtus.pro #13 Filip 'NEO' KubskiJarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskiJanusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiPaweł 'byali' BielińskiMichał 'MICHU' Müller fnatic #4 Robin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonMaikil 'Golden' Selim FaZe #1 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenOlof 'olofmeister' KajbjerLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard Emil 'Magisk' Reif Age: 20 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 646 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.64 Nicolai 'device' Reedtz Age: 22 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.16 Maps played: 1066 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.63 Astralis #7 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif Natus Vincere #6 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievDanylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' Sharipov Renegades #11 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadKarlo 'USTILO' PivacNoah 'Nifty' Francis MOUZ #3 Tomáš 'oskar' ŠťastnýChris 'chrisJ' de JongMiikka 'suNny' KemppiMartin 'STYKO' StykRobin 'ropz' Kool SK #8 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaRicardo 'boltz' PrassMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de Melo Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander Age: 22 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 909 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.66 Gambit #16 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevMihail 'Dosia' StolyarovRustem 'mou' TelepovDenis 'seized' KostinAbay 'HObbit' Khassenov G2 #9 Kenny 'kennyS' SchrubNathan 'NBK-' SchmittDan 'apEX' MadesclaireOscar 'mixwell' CañellasAlexandre 'bodyy' Pianaro Michał 'MICHU' Müller Age: 21 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 1026 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.68 Ninjas in Pyjamas #10 Patrik 'f0rest' LindbergChristopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundDennis 'dennis' EdmanWilliam 'draken' SundinFredrik 'REZ' Sterner Cloud9 #2 Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaTarik 'tarik' CelikTimothy 'autimatic' TaJake 'Stewie2K' Yip