Yesterday evening, Astralis took on mousesports in a Bo3 for the ESL Pro League Season 12 Europe in one of the most anticipated matches of the day: Astralis (GS#11) versus mousesports (GS#20).

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The Bo3 began on Dust2 (mousesports pick), the controversial classic that puts CT at a decided disadvantage of needing to drop utility to cross over to B.

Astralis began on CT while mousesports took T, offering three demolitions within the first six rounds which offered four points for the European team before Astralis could right their economy, taking a strong second quarter with five of the seven rounds going to the Danes with two by way of defuse.

The second half saw mousesports showing why they picked D2 for the opening map on CT, putting up five consecutive rounds after dropping the economy as the pistol took an Astralis demolition to close out. Mousesports managed to collect eight while Astralis took only 5 on T following tight entry frags from Mouse, leaving the first map at (12:16).

Device collected three triple-kills twice on the AWP against full buys from Mousesports, consistently keeping Astralis in contention while Es3tag offered a 1v2 post-plant clutch to the Danes; unfortunately a case of too little, too late.

The second map was Astralis’s pick, and they of course opted for Nuke; a map that they formerly were considered one of the weakest team on the vertical map has grinded themselves into one of the best teams on the map.

Astralis began with a statement as they took the T mantle (and bomb) to a solid (11:4) in the first half with four demolitions and seven eliminations. Then the teams switched sides, and mousesports took a liking to the vent as they dove through squeaky multiple times in rapid succession; mousesports took seven points of the first eight rounds in one of the rapid comebacks that Counter-Strike is known for.

Astralis managed to take the second half, but barely, eking out the necessary five wins before mousesports could get their twelve that they needed. More than once, the casters noted how close the map was becoming after an arguable run-away success for Astralis’s T. Nuke ended at (16:14) in Astralis favor, bringing the teams to the final map.

Inferno was the decider, and the teams both looked comparable as they loaded into the final measure of the day pitting the Danes against the more varied European mousesports.

Astralis began with CT on Astralis and managed to put forth a close offering in comparison to how their CT measured in the first two maps; it ended with a close-as-can-be (8:7) in favor of Astralis as the teams traded round wins throughout the first half.

The second half began with a strong statement from Astralis, however, managing the first five rounds of the third quarter in demolitions varied between A and B sites, forcing out erroneous rotations from mousesports with utility and a few sacrifices. The fourth quarter continued in favor of Astralis, where they managed to put on an additional eight points to the tally with mousesports managing two, leaving the scoreline at (16-9).

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Es3tag had a fantastic match on the Astralis roster, and looked increasingly comfortable as he maintained the highest kill differential throughout all maps at +13 with 56-43 (and 25 headshot kills). Gla1ve similarly has continued to look more comfortable on the Danish team since his leave of absence. Conversely, this match could have easily slid further into mousesports favor with a mere additional kill or two at strategic moments, resulting in a drastically different scoreline.