Astralis beat Vitality 2-0 today in IEM Katowice’s Group A upper bracket semifinals.
With this win, the Danes are now only one victory away from qualifying for the semifinals. Vitality, on the other hand, will have to play two elimination best-of-three series in the lower bracket.
After a balanced first half on Overpass, the first map of the series, Astralis dominated Vitality on their T side and won 16-9. Dupreeh was a crucial part of the Danes’ win. He had several multikills and finished with 29 frags and only 15 deaths.
The second map, Vertigo, was more exciting for the viewers since Astralis took the map to overtime despite being behind 12-6 at one point in the game. The match only ended after the second overtime when Astralis found the pace to close out the game 22-19. Magisk was the top fragger with 39 kills, but RpK from Vitality carried the rest of his team with 35 frags.
With their playoff spot already guaranteed, Astralis will try to top their group to qualify directly into the semifinals and have one extra day to rest and prepare to play at the Spodek Arena. The Danish powerhouse look stronger than they were at the BLAST Premier Spring Series when they failed to qualify for the finals.
Although this is a tough loss for Vitality, the team at least seems prepared to reach the playoffs too. But they can’t afford to lose any games from now on. Their star, ZywOo, didn’t have his best day today. Vitality will need him to step up if they want to make a deep run at IEM Katowice.
You can keep track of the IEM Katowice results here.
