Astralis Debut Their Six-Man Approach To Win DreamHack Masters Winter EU
Astralis and mousesports, both spearheaded by the best and most renowned Danish in-game-leaders, made their way to the Grand Finals of DreamHack Masters Winter EU. As one of the last events of 2020, it provided a special opportunity for teams to prove themselves before the winter break. But some squads have definitely enjoyed this event more than others.
Heroic, for instance, have continued their weak form first displayed during the BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown. Losing to mousesports there, they have now suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of GODSENT. This obviously doesn’t bode well going into the IEM Global Challenge, which is scheduled for mid-December. Cloud9 are still not at a level where they can confidently take down Top 20 opponents in Europe. In retrospect, their victory over Complexity at the Fall Showdown looks even less convincing, given that Benjamin “blameF” Bremer and his men have now repeatedly lost to weaker teams.
Aside from a stunning upset in the Opening Match, Astralis confidently made their way through the bracket. But mousesports took the direct route and only dropped two maps on course for this last match. But standing in the Grand Finals, they met a much more challenging foe than they could possibly have anticipated.
ASTRALIS ANNOUNCE THEIR RETURN TO THE TOP
On Train, Astralis absolutely crushed them on a 16-5 scoreline. After mousesports had struggled so much in recent time, this felt like a statement loss that would send them spiralling. However, they immediately bounced back on Inferno and swiftly secured a 16-3 win. After trading their map picks, Astralis eventually secured Nuke on a 16-13 scoreline, only outgunning their opponents by an insanely small margin. This meant that, on Vertigo, mouz stood with their backs against the wall. If they lost this map, they were out of the Grand Finals for good.
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So they definitely made this map count. Astralis looked to be the better team early on, but Finn “karrigan” Andersen called a great T side for his team. On top of that, Robin “ropz” Kool secured a mass of critical kills that eventually brought them to overtime versus the Danes. Trading rounds and waiting out several tech pauses, Astralis eventually clinched the win on a 22-19 scoreline, making them the winners of DreamHack Masters Winter EU. It felt as though mousesports had a legitimate chance to win this trophy, so should they be disappointed?
Disregarding who eventually won the Grand Finals, this was a huge achievement for both mousesports and Astralis. The mouz boys have been in a slump for the better half of this year, and they’ve been fighting so hard to finally post a great result. The BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown was definitely a great start, but their only real competition there was Heroic. The event served as a qualifier for a much bigger tournament, so there was no real pride in making first place in their portion of the Showdown bracket.
But with DreamHack Masters Winter EU, things were different. Apart from Vitality and Natus Vincere, all the great European teams were in attendance and really made mousesports and Astralis sweat for their money. Over the course of the tournament, karrigan and his boys have repeatedly proven their worth against top teams, which bodes well for the upcoming BLAST Premier: Fall Finals.
PROPS TO ROPZ
If Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) only consisted of Vertigo’s B Site, then ropz would surely be the world’s best player. He anchored this position on the CT side and delivered so many crucial kills for his team. Astralis consistently failed to enter this site because of him, and he even continued to deliver impact frags in the second half. When overtime came along, he clutched and kept them alive.
The introduction of Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen to the Grand Finals was certainly a nice touch and kept mousesports guessing. In the Semi-Finals, he had put up a strong performance and had secured a 1.16 rating. He probably could have got even more out of the match, but there were virtually no opportunities for him to prove himself. After all, FURIA already collapsed within 22 rounds on Nuke.
Click to enlargeUnfortunately, he really didn’t deliver in this Grand Finals. He was brought in on Nuke again, where he only posted a 0.86 rating and secured 15 kills in total. Given how close the scoreline was, this was definitely not enough. Fortunately, Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz and Emil "Magisk" Reif were there to do the heavy lifting.
Both teams can be content with their placements at this tournament, but Astralis and mousesports are still somewhat of a mixed bag. Trading their first two picks, they showed incredible inconsistency even on their home maps. What’s even worse is that the two Grand Finalists of the most recent tournament, IEM Beijing, weren’t even in attendance. Tomorrow already, Astralis will be going up against one of them. Natus Vincere will prove to be a much bigger challenge than anything this event had to offer. Should the Danes survive, Vitality are likely waiting for them in the next match. So even after this exhausting Grand Finals, the pressure is still on for them.
Images via @AstralisGG
