Heroic best Astralis in all-Danish derby at BLAST Spring Groups

René "⁠TeSeS⁠" Madsen and Rasmus "⁠sjuush⁠" Beck joined forces with lethal precision in the server to send Astralis down to the last-chance knockout stage.

Heroic secured bragging rights after reigning supreme in the Danish derby versus Astralis at the BLAST Premier Spring Groups. Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller and company had a false start after conceding Inferno 10-16 to start the series, before completing the reverse sweep with comfortable 16-4 victories on both Mirage and Vertigo en route to a 2-1 victory.

The calm and collected map wins on Mirage and Vertigo will serve as much-needed confidence boosters for Heroic, who are now set for a lower-bracket rematch versus Evil Geniuses after being stunned by the North American ensemble in the tournament's opening game. TeSeS and sjuush were Heroic's standout players on paper with 1.36 ratings each, but it was Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard who was the team leader on Vertigo, his well-executed lurks being a thorn in Astralis' side all map long.

Astralis, now knocked down to the do-or-die knockout stage, will need a flawless run from here on out if they're to clinch a berth to the $425,000 BLAST Premier Spring Final. While Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz's superlative 1.53 rating was enough to power his side to victory on Inferno, he slowed down in the latter two maps, where he put up incredibly lacklustre 0.46 and 0.68 ratings, respectively.

The brawl between the Danish powerhouses started on Inferno, Astralis' pick. Heroic instantly looked right at home initially despite sporting a meagre 20% win rate on the map over the past three months, and jumped out to an early 5-1 lead thanks to strong team-wide performances on the CT-side. A crucial quad-kill display in the eighth round by device provided his team with a platform to get back into the game; the side used his momentum-shifting heroics to chain together a spree of rounds and bring the map to a dead-even 5-5 stalemate. Potent site executes by Astralis characterised the remainder of the half, with Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's men successfully detonating the bomb three rounds on the trot to lead 8-7 at the interval.

The second half of play bore witness to a sublime performance from device, who had been relatively quiet up until this point. An initial three-round spree from Heroic to regain the lead, 10-8, was quickly overturned, with the Danish marksman's impeccable aim and world-class precision spearheading an unstoppable eight-round streak; the four-time Major-winning core used device's beatdown to full effect, going on to close the map out the map with ease, 16-10, and force a trip to Mirage.

Heroic rebounded in clinical form once Mirage rolled around, a 1vs3 clutch from cadiaN being the highlight in helping the world's No. 1 team to push up to a 6-1 lead to start their T-side effort. This monopoly on the game continued to be felt as the half progressed, with superior mechanical skill and repeated B splits from Middle being Heroic's go-to strategy to walk up to a commanding 11-4 advantage by the interval. Astralis' owed the majority of their thanks to Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer, whose team-leading 11 kills often came in at pivotal moments to earn his side some much-needed round wins just when Heroic looked poised to completely run away with the game.

Alas, Heroic continued to sit firmly in the driver's seat once on the CT-side, not conceding a single casualty until the fourth round of the half to cruise to match point 15-4 completely unopposed. At this stage, what was left was purely a formality, with Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund gunning down two Astralis players in round 20 to lock in an overpowering 16-4 map victory and send the series to the decider of Vertigo.

Heroic kept their foot on the gas at the outset of Vertigo, disregarding Astralis' initial pistol-round victory by going on a four-round run of their own to build up their finances. A 3k hold of the A Ramp by gla1ve helped get Astralis back on the board, but Heroic had already found the winning formula in the form of jabbi's perfectly timed lurks, which worked time and time again to extend their buffer over their countrymen to six rounds, 8-2. Multi-kill rounds from sjuush and TeSeS rubbed salt into the wound, as the world's best team exerted even more pressure onto Astralis in the latter stages of their T-side to be up by a whopping nine rounds at halftime.

Much like the opening half, Heroic responded to Astralis' win in the pistol round with a force-buy triumph of their own. With the wind in their sails, cadiaN's men wasted no time in adding the four rounds they needed to their tally, closing out the map 16-4 and sending their fellow Danes down to the knockout stage in the process.