Astralis survive ATK scare to stay alive at EPL

ATK suffer a last-place exit after a tough string of matches.

Astralis defeated ATK in the eighth-place decider of ESL Pro League S17 with a 2-1 scoreline. They won their pick of Overpass (16-8) before a loss on Mirage (8-16) meant a third map was required. Astralis found themselves 4-11 down on Inferno but came back to secure an overtime victory, 19-15.

"You never think you're out of the game, but it felt really bad." Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz admitted in the post-match interview. "Everyone in the team felt a lot of pressure, we had a lot to lose."

Astralis stay alive in the triple-elimination tournament with the victory, requiring two more to book their place in the EPL playoffs. Their first test will come against the loser of Spirit versus Natus Vincere on Sunday at 12:30 , with a fourth-place decider match awaiting them if they are to be victorious.

On the other side of the server, this is the end of the road for ATK. The underdogs will feel somewhat hard done by, considering they faced three top 20 teams in their campaign due to the high volume of upsets in the group. The international squad won a map against ENCE, faced Liquid after they were cast down to the lower bracket, and took Astralis to the brink. A highlight for the squad was no doubt Michael "⁠Swisher⁠" Schmid's individual performance, who held his own against higher-ranked squads and averaged a 1.11 rating across eight maps of play.

The match started on Astralis' pick of Overpass, where ATK got off to a good start by winning the pistol and following conversion to go 4-0 up. Astralis were able to keep the rounds close despite losing and that paid dividends in the middle portion of the half, when ATK were constantly forced into making compromises when assembling their buys. A lack of weaponry, utility, and defuse kits meant their defense was far from impenetrable, as device's triple-kill on B tied up the scores at 6-6. The Danes took the lead for the first time in the last round of the half, going into their defense ahead by the slimmest of margins.

Once the sides switched, so did the momentum of the game. Christian "⁠Buzz⁠" Andersen secured the pistol with a triple and Astralis put together a dominant CT side after that, allowing ATK just two plants in the entire half. Astralis won seven in a row to reach map point at 15-7 before a couple of overconfident peeks meant they lost their first round of the half. The misplay did little to change the outcome of the match, as they won the next with a stalwart B defense and closed out the map 16-7. Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer was unsurprisingly the star of the show, putting up 124 ADR to help secure a comfortable win for Astralis.

Astralis began Mirage by running out of time for the defuse in the opening two rounds but got on the board with a third-round forcebuy. Their defense was hot out of the gates and they soon found themselves 6-3 up in what looked to be a repeat of Overpass' second half. This time around, though, ATK got back into the game and strung together six rounds in a row, Aleksandar "⁠CacaNito⁠" Kjulukoski putting the final touch on their recovery with a flashy 1vs4 clutch.

CacaNito won another clutch in the opening exchanges of the second half — a 1vs1 against Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth, to keep his team ahead after they lost out in the pistol round. That round revitalized the ATK side as they put together a flawless CT half from that point onwards, closing out the map 16-8 and moving the series onto the decider of Inferno.

The third map began with an Astralis pistol-round win, but that was as good as it got for the Danish side. ATK won the second-round forcebuy after a CacaNito quad-kill and never looked back after that, going up 9-1 before losing another round. Even that proved to be just a blip for the international team's defense, as they immediately returned to winning ways and closed out the first half 11-4. Swisher put up an incredible 21 kills on the defense, continuing his impressive form at the tournament.

Astralis needed a good start to the second half and got just that, winning the opening exchanges after Buzz and blameF combined for a force-buy victory to keep them alive. They reduced the deficit to two rounds and looked in control, but it was still ATK who were the first to reach 15. They failed to convert the two match points, losing a particularly gut-wrenching 3vs5 retake on B that moved the map into overtime.

Once in overtime, ATK looked completely broken. They failed to secure a single round on the T side to lose the map 19-15 and suffer a last-place exit from EPL, with their lack of experience a vital part of their loss.