Astralis oust NIP to BLAST Showdown

Astralis are now heading into a do-or-die match against OG on Sunday.

With a 2-1 victory in the Knockout Stage, Astralis have ousted Ninjas in Pyjamas from the BLAST Premier Spring Groups (Overpass 11-16, Mirage 16-7, Ancient 16-10).

Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen's team is now relegated to the BLAST Showdown, where they will have another chance to qualify for the Spring Final. The team was forced to use a stand-in, Max "⁠maxster⁠" Jansson, halfway through the event after Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser withdrew due to "unforeseen personal circumstances," and went on to lose two consecutive series en route to their elimination.

Astralis are now set on a collision course with OG in a do-or-die match for a spot at the BLAST Premier Spring Final, taking place on Sunday at 18:30 .

Playing in their debut with Christian "⁠Buzz⁠" Andersen and for the first time on LAN with Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz, Astralis continued to look out of sorts when they entered the series against Ninjas in Pyjamas but recovered well from their opening loss on their own pick of Overpass.

The ever-present Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer played a key role in that recovery, topping the scoreboard in their following two map wins with a 1.82-rated performance in a comfortable victory on Mirage and 1.31 in a closer affair on Ancient.

Having played a rough debut up to this point, Buzz played his best series so far at the Groups with a 49-50 score (0.94 rating), stepping up in a couple of key moments early on Ancient in particular to help his team clinch the series.