Denmark’s strongest Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team will be playing in yet another grand final.
Astralis kept its win streak against Na`Vi going in the semifinals of StarSeries Season 3, winning the confrontation in two straight maps.
Despite the form of the Ukrainian roster in the earlier stages of the event, including the squad’s victory against Fnatic in the quarterfinals—Astralis shut down Na`Vi constantly on Overpass in the first game of the series. A dominant 11-4 scoreline after the first half meant Na`Vi would have to dig deep in order to stand a chance, but the Danish duo of Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, and Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth denied any chance of a comeback from the Ukrainian side.
Things didn’t get any better for Na`Vi in the first half of, what came to be the final map of the series, Nuke. Instead, Astralis mirrored the 11-4 score of the first game of the series—meaning Na`Vi would once again have to stage a comeback against the reigning Valve Major champions.
While Na`Vi’s performance saw them take more rounds during the second half than in the previous game, Astralis’ lead was still so substantial that the Danes could afford to drop a number of rounds, and secured the final game of the series with a convincing 16-10 scoreline.
This means that FaZe Clan and Astralis will battle each other for the second time in roughly a month in yet another international LAN final, after Astralis defeated FaZe in the final of IEM Katowice last month. The battles between the two teams will set the tone for what is shaping up to become one of the major CS:GO rivalries of 2017.
