‘Chiu on This’ is a short and regular opinion blast

One of the opening matches of the day at IEM Chicago was between Astralis and MVP PK. Astralis are a massive favorite winning the tournament whereas MVP PK struggle to get out of the Asian qualifiers. So I wasn’t expecting anything from this match. Even moreso when the map that ended up being chosen was nuke. Nuke is Astralis’ home map, the one that helped them create the Age of Astralis. They are currently undefeated on it and the last two times they played it were against Na`Vi at the Major and NIP at Istanbul. Both are considered to be good nuke teams, but neither had a chance against Astralis. Na`Vi got smashed 6-16 and only get 2 T rounds. NiP fared better going 11-16, but only managed 4 T-rounds. Na`Vi go their 2 rounds by winning a pistol and a forcebuy. NiP won a forcebuy after losing the pistol and ran three straight rounds before getting banged out.

In this match, Astralis won 16-8, but the astounding thing is that MVP PK were able to run up to 7 rounds against Astralis on their T-side. This is amazing considering that they lost the pistol and the followup round. So after reviewing the game, I’ve come to the conclusion that it comes down to their tactics and how they setup the game.The foundation of the tactic comes from their nade usage. Like many teams, they use the standard yard smokes, but they also use a smoke to cover vent and they molly hut.

This is the base of their strategy and it sets up two players: XigN and solo. XigN is sent into vent to do a deep lurk while solo plays a secondary adaptive lurk on yard. This I’ve dubbed it double daggers as this tactic is meant to surprise the enemy from angles that they don’t see coming. This particular tactic has four variations from this game alone. The first was used in the opening round where they send no one down vent. They just use the smokes to imply someone went down there and leave solo on yard. Gla1ve decides to rotate from yard to secret in anticipation for this potential flank and solo backstabs him. From there MVP PK play the rotations.

The second variation is used in the next round where they use the same nades and then do a fast upper split.

The third variation is used in the following round where they use the same nades, but sneak in XigN. They then spend the entire round using their nades and causing distractions as XigN sneaks all the way into ramp room. He then flanks Xyp9x and MVP immediately take lower in a well practiced fashion. Later on in the half, MVP PK run the same tactic again, but Dupreeh has already adapted and kills XigN. However solo has completely changed his position and has pushed all the way to secret. This completely catches dev1ce off guard and gives MVP a chance to win the round. They nearly do, if not for Dupreeh’s fast flank to hit the main pack of MVP players.

The fourth variation I saw was in reaction to Dupreeh killing XigN. In the 12th round of the half, they use the third variation. Dupreeh kills XigN again and then falls off. They then use that space created by XigN to have zeff sneak into vent and while the pattern is similar to the third variation, it completely surprises the Astralis side since it feels like they removed the lurker in vent off the board.

Overall I was impressed with what MVP came up with for Astralis as I haven’t seen this style of play executed in this particular manner before. It was a great half that MVP that showcased what tactics, team play, and preparation can do even against the best in the world.

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