Astralis Overcomes BIG’s Last Push
After 3 very intense games, Astralis ended up sending BIG back to Germany, securing one of the last spots at the 2022 IEM Cologne main event. Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke was the standout player for Astralis on the first two maps, Nuke and Dust2, while Benjamin “blameF” Bremer managed to put up an amazing performance on Overpass, putting the last nail in the coffin for BIG. This was a big disappointment for all the BIG fans out there, as they failed to put up a performance similar to the one in Roobet Cup, where they took down FaZe in the grand finals and secured the $150,000 USD bag.
To be fair, they were forced to play with substitute Nils “k1to” Gruhne in place of Josef “faveN” Baumann, though a lot of analysts believed that they would make it into the main stage in spite of that. The Danish squad secure the first victory of the match on Nuke, when Asger “Farlig” Jensen picked things up with 7 kills in 2 key rounds towards the end to match k0nfig’s effort and ultimately allow an impressive CT comeback, 16-14 on their map pick..
In Dust2, Astralis had the upper hand throughout the first half on CT, and things were looking extremely good for them. But a 3-0 start in the 2nd half for BIG made us question if Astralis would be able to sweep the German squad. Astralis made a small comeback and won 4 in a row, but without hesitation, BIG struck back and won 7 in a row, securing the 2nd map. Overpass was much more one-sided than the other 2 games. The Danes took an early lead and never let go of it, even if some of the BIG players tried to stop them, their efforts were in vain.
It’s hard to say if Astralis is going to go far into the bracket just because of how inconsistent they’ve been recently. Let’s not forget that they dropped their first match of the tournament in the play-in stage against 00 Nation, a team that is far from being a strong contender. Now they’ll be going up against FURIA, a team that can catch even the very best teams off guard.
FURIA Lost Brazilian Derby Against 00 Nation in Valencia
Unlike Astralis, Furia qualified directly to the 2022 IEM Cologne main stage, but not long before that, they were defeated by 00 Nation very early on in the ESL Challenger at DreamHack Valencia. They went home without securing a single win in the tournament, which was quite surprising considering that they were favorites to win it all. The Brazilians’ woes continue after yet another surprise exit following their 2 shaky losses to 9z at the recent Roobet Cup.
In their first map against 00 Nation, FURIA came out of the gates swinging on Ancient, producing a 7-0 lead behind their superior utility usage and individual skill. 00NATION were finally able to get the ball rolling on their side, winning six out of the next seven with the lone dropped round coming at the hands of Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato’s quad-kill in the 10th round. 00NATION pulled ahead and finished Ancient off with 7 consecutive round wins, completely turning things around despite the early deficit, securing the lead in the series.
The 2nd map was a whole different story. If you have been around the CSGO betting scene, then you know that Vertigo is a FURIA classic by now, but unfortunately for them, they ended up getting outclassed by the opposition. 00 Nation carried all their momentum from their first victory and completely neutralized FURIA’s attempts to get to the bomb site. This was even more surprising to see because we all know just how good FURIA is on this map, carrying a 72% win rate on Vertigo before this series. They ended up losing 8-16 and exiting the tournament altogether in 7-8th place.
IEM Cologne is going to be one of FURIA’s last chances to demonstrate that they can be considered one of the best in the world. It’s been a while since we’ve seen this team succeed in a world-class tournament, PGL Major Antwerp being the last one and they didn’t get past the quarterfinals against Team Spirit.
FURIA vs Astralis Game Information
- Date: Friday, July 8
- Time: 6:30am ET
- FURIA vs Astralis Live Stream: Twitch
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FURIA vs Astralis Predictions
These two teams come in very similar form, having somewhat disappointing performances throughout the past couple of months. In the past few months, FURIA has won 4 maps out of 5 against Astralis, and some were in a very convincing manner.
The thing is that we haven’t seen FURIA play at this event yet, and that is something that might work against them. Astralis on the other hand had some very recent shaky performances against both BIG and 00 Nation, which might raise some concerns, but we know the potential of their firepower.
In most CSGO betting sites Astralis are the favorites to win this match, and it’s for a good reason. Even if FURIA dominated Astralis early on in the year, the Danes have shown a lot of improvement throughout the tournament, and we all know that they are capable of pulling off nice performances in moments like these. We’ve plenty of CSGO odds for you to consider.
