Astralis stomp OpTic, qualify for ESL One New York playoffs

Astralis defeated OpTic Gaming 2-0 today to advance to ESL One New York playoffs.

This was the second time in the tournament that Astralis won the Danish derby. Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander and crew faced OpTic in the first round and similarly demolished them.

OpTic picked Nuke for the first map of the series, which proved to be an unwise decision. The map has been one of the best for Astralis. In fact, they achieved a 31-game win streak on it at LAN tournaments earlier this year. Astralis dominated it from the start, won the first round 12-3 and closed the game at 16-6. Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen and Nicolai “device” Reedtz combined for 41 kills.

The series headed out to Dust II, which isn’t a bad map for Astralis either. They had a comfortable first half and won it 10-5 in their terrorist side. OpTic seemed to have a chance in the second half after they won the pistol round, but Astralis stole the following round with a force-buy. That pretty much crushed OpTic’s hopes and Astralis eventually won the game 16-7. Gla1ve led by example on this map as he top-fragged with 21 kills.

Astralis will play against Team Liquid tomorrow. Both teams haven’t faced each other since the StarLadder Berlin Major, which the Danes won and eliminated Liquid in the quarterfinals.

The ESL One New York semifinals will kick off tomorrow at 12pm CT with Astralis vs. Liquid.