Astralis Lose ‘16-1’ on a CS:GO Map for Second Time in History

Astralis were handed a shocking ‘16-1’ defeat on a CS:GO map for the second time in history yesterday on 21 Feb at IEM Katowice 2021, courtesy of Russian esports organization Team Spirit. The Danish organization faced off against an in form Spirit in the upper bracket finals of ‘Group-A’ and things did not bode well for them at all. Despite claiming a victory on the first map Inferno, Astralis failed to win the best-of-three matchup. The Danes only managed to secure an additional 14 more rounds across the next two maps - Train and Dust 2, where Team Spirit showcased some ruthless CS:GO action.

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Astralis lose ‘16-1’ on Dust 2 after more than 2 years

The Danish powerhouse who had cruised to the upper bracket finals after defeating both mousesports and Evil Geniuses by a ‘2-0’ scoreline, were forced to a crawl by the Team Spirit lineup who handed Astralis their second ‘16-1’ scoreline defeat since inception.

Astralis had started off well by defeating Spirit on their own map pick Inferno, but the CIS based organization fought their way through Overpass to equalize the series at ‘1-1’. The decider took place on Dust 2, a map on which Astralis had a 60.5% win rate in the last 12 months which on paper meant that they still had a good fighting chance.

However, the map turned out to be a huge disaster for the Danish side as their objective quickly changed from winning the map to winning a round. Spirit who were playing as CT in the first half completely overwhelmed Astralis, finishing the half with a ‘15-0’ scoreline that consisted of 14 rounds where Astralis could not even plant the C4.

Following this insanely dominating first half, Astralis were playing with an aim to save their face and to avoid a ‘16-0’ whitewash which they somehow managed to achieve. The last time Astralis had lost ‘16-1’ to a team was at DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 against North, coincidentally even that game taken place on Dust 2.

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Astralis all time record on Dust 2 is honestly not too good. They have played the map a total of 144 times and have a 63.9% win rate on it. A closer look at the stats points out that 2018 has been the best year for them on the map, as they secured a 85.7% win rate on it by winning 18 out of 21 times that year.

Though both the teams have qualified for the playoffs, Spirit has directly made its way to the semifinals while Astralis is scheduled to go up against Virtus.pro in the quarterfinals on 26 Feb.