Astralis have claimed their place at the BLAST Bounty Season 2 Finals following a 2-1 triumph over HOTU in the online stage. The Danish squad took the series 13-1 on Cache, dropped Nuke 7-13, and closed out Ancient 13-10.
The result marks sweet revenge for Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen's roster, who had previously fallen to HOTU on these exact same maps during Wednesday's StarLadder StarSeries Fall Europe qualifier.
This tournament will mark Filip "NEO" Kubski's first LAN appearance for the organization after joining as team captain in the off-season. Despite securing qualification, Astralis' path wasn't entirely smooth – they narrowly defeated Nemesis in their opening match and showed vulnerability on their Nuke selection.
The series opened with Astralis absolutely dismantling HOTU on Cache, storming to a commanding 13-1 scoreline. Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard delivered a career-defining performance with a 2.52 rating, while Victor "Staehr" Staehr complemented him brilliantly with a 1.92 rating in a flawless CT-side display.
HOTU fought back on Nuke, with Aleksandr "dwushka" Pakhnevich rebounding from an 0-8 start on Cache to help his team dominate 13-7. The CIS squad effectively dismantled Astralis' default strategies and secured a 9-3 first half. David "n0rb3r7" Danielyan's consecutive multi-kills sealed the map for HOTU.
Ancient proved to be the decider, packed with dramatic clutch rounds. HOTU jumped to a 5-0 lead thanks to an improbable 1v3 clutch. The momentum shifted when Love "phzy" Smidebrant pulled off a crucial 1v3 that swung the series in Astralis' favor. Jabbi sealed the deal with nine multi-kills and a stellar 26-16 kill-death ratio, propelling his team to Malta.
