Astralis survive Apeks scare to keep Brazy Party hopes alive

Astralis scraped through in the Brazy Party 2023 quarter-final to book a spot in the semi-finals against 9INE, after beating Apeks 2-1 in a scrappy affair. The Danes were staring at defeat in the series decider but managed to hold on as their star players dev1ce and blameF stepped up massively to see his team through to the semi-finals.

The final quarter-final game saw the action start on Apeks' pick of Mirage. Astralis took the pistol but it was Apeks who tied up the score taking the force buy. It was a stellar half from jL, whose strong showing saw Apeks keep the half competitive with Astralis taking a slender 8-7 lead. Apeks tied the score at 8-8, taking the pistol in the second half. Crucial clutches from blameF and dev1ce made sure Astralis held the advantage on their T side but the Danes threw away a 5v3 advantage on the very final round of regulation to head to overtime.

Mr. Consistent stepped up once again for the Danes

Astralis took the first two rounds in overtime, but Apeks managed to squeeze in one round to avoid the clean-sweep in overtime. On their CT side, Astralis finally managed to close the map at 19-17 with Astralis' veterans dev1ce and gla1ve ending on the top of the scoreboard with 32 and 28 kills.

The second map of the series was played on Astralis' pick of Overpass and it was the Danes who took the pistol, starting on the T side. Apeks bounced back on their force buy as nawwk came in with a stellar deagle 4k to tie the score. The force-buy helped Apeks string together 9 rounds before Astralis put their second round on the board. Apeks eventually finished the half 12-3, with Astralis struggling to keep up with their opponents. Apeks turned around a 2v4 on the pistol but Astralis managed to put a couple of rounds together on their defence with their heavy hitters dev1ce and blameF stepping up. The Danes though dropped round 25 to a weak buy and that saw Apeks wrap up the map 16-12.

Apeks secured the pistol starting on the T side of Ancient for the series decider with jkaem having a strong opening half to give Apeks a 8-7 lead at the break. dev1ce kicked things off in the second half with a 3k which saw Astralis tie things up starting on their CT side. Astralis won the opening three rounds of their T side to take the lead for the first time on the map, but Apeks bounced back with 5 consecutive rounds, putting in a stellar defence with clinical retakes. jL came in with a massive 1v2 which gave Apeks the lead at 13-11. Astralis managed to hold on to take the match the distance and pushed the match to overtime, tying things up on the final round with dev1ce once again making sure Astralis didn't give up.

Astralis drew first blood on overtime and secured two rounds on their T side in overtime. Astralis eventually wrapped up the map 19-17 with dev1ce ending the series with an incredible 1.32 rating and 88 kills.

Brazy Party 2023

Bo3

Apeks

1 - 2

Astralis

All maps

Apeks	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 2.0
Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad	81 - 75	+6	88.0	68.7%	1.19
Justinas 'jL' Lekavicius	75 - 67	+8	81.8	67.7%	1.10
Martin 'STYKO' Styk	64 - 69	-5	73.2	63.6%	0.98
Tim 'nawwk' Jonasson	59 - 61	-2	64.9	66.7%	0.92
Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski	54 - 65	-11	64.2	72.7%	0.88

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 2.0
Nicolai 'device' Reedtz	88 - 62	+26	91.2	72.7%	1.32
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander	69 - 67	+2	74.3	73.7%	1.09
Benjamin 'blameF' Bremer	69 - 63	+6	78.4	65.7%	1.08
Christian 'Buzz' Andersen	56 - 69	-13	64.3	69.7%	0.89
Alexander 'Altekz' Givskov	55 - 73	-18	63.4	67.7%	0.80