The international side has confounded all expectations with their dominant run through the bracket, only dropping a single map throughout the entire event.
ropz and co. shock the world
No one but the most dedicated fans had the karrigan-less mousesports on the list of likely candidates to win this event. The pickup of Cristopher “dexter” Nong to replace the veteran IGL was widely seen as a downgrade, but it seems like it’s high time to reevaluate this assumption after this impressive run.
The team entered the tournament as the eight-ranked team of the sixteen-team field, with David ”frozen” Čerňanský and Robin “ropz” Kool dominating the tournament-wide scoreboards on their way to victory.
Their grand final match against NiP was a close-fought affair, with the international side mounting an effective comeback after a 13-16 defeat on Overpass with convincing wins on Nuke (16-6) and Inferno (16-9) to take home 1600 RMR points.
NiP and device make a deep run after controversy
Despite falling short at the final hurdle, this has to be considered a good initial showing from the Swedish outfit. Their slow and problematic start against Anonymo leading to a controversial rematch could have unbalanced a side still light on protocols thanks to their recent signing of Nicolai “device” Reetz, but they made it to the grand final of Flashpoint 3 in the end, taking out Heroic and G2 among the way. These impressive scalps suggest that the team has real potential and will likely be a contender in upcoming European CS:GO tournaments.
Of course, this also means that device has outdone his old team at the first meaningful event since his high-profile departure. Astralis ended up finishing in sixth place after 2-0 defeats to mousesports in the upper bracket semi-final and the corresponding lower bracket match against Heroic. The Danes also narrowly lost their fifth-place decider against BIG in a three-map affair after the German side successfully mounted a comeback on Dust 2 to push the series to a Vertigo decider.
