Astralis battle past paiN to make Bounty semis

HooXi's troops advance to their first LAN semi-finals since PGL Bucharest.

Astralis have locked up a spot in the semi-final stage of the BLAST Bounty Season 2 Finals with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over paiN , exacting revenge for the two-map loss in Stage 2 of the Cologne Major.

The Danish-majority roster had to come back from a map down after losing the opening map of Nuke. They went on to pick up overtime victories on Inferno and Mirage to seal a spot in the next stage, where they will certainly face a much sterner test.

Despite getting the victory in the end, Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen 's will certainly be kicking themselves for how sloppy they looked at times. They wasted ten map points across the last two maps, gifting the Brazilians a way back into those games before closing them out in overtime.

"The energy was crazy in this game," Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr told James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks after the match. "I love it."

"They played really well and had some good rounds, and that's why we went to overtime. You started sweating a bit, but then you have some breathing room. We have full money, you don't have to stress out the money, which was very nice. And I then think we were pretty comfortable in how we should play."

paiN spent most of the first half of Nuke playing catch-up as Astralis enjoyed a strong start on the CT side and didn't let their opponents string rounds together. Rodrigo "⁠biguzera⁠" Bittencourt 's side improved as the half wore on and went into half-time with a respectable six rounds after a late run.

Astralis came out of the break looking sharp and quickly hit double digits after a flawless pistol and a swift recovery from a failed conversion. But the rest of the game was all about paiN 's resolute defense as the Brazilians went on a dominant 6-0 run, led by Vinicius "⁠vsm⁠" Moreira and João "⁠snow⁠" Vinicius .

Astralis looked much more comfortable on their map pick of Inferno as they strolled to an 8-2 lead on the T side before paiN won two in a row to keep the scoreline competitive. The Brazilian team refused to throw in the towel and fought back from five map points — two in regulation and three in overtime —, but their efforts were in vain as Astralis secured the map in double OT with key clutches.

HooXi 's troops carried that momentum into Mirage, where they raced out to a commanding 6-0 lead. Just like on Inferno, paiN showed incredible fighting spirit, refusing to give up even when they were down 7-12, but their resistance was once again broken in overtime.