SK move past Astralis in the semi-final of EPICENTER after a thriller series, taking the 2-0 victory in the end (16-11 Train, 19-17 Mirage).

SK started on their strong foot thanks to Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo's USP-S 3K that yielded them the CT pistol win, and then cleaned up the follow-up rounds, making the score 3-0 on Train. Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen stole the first buy round with three kills that opened up the A site as he made his way in from ivy, but Astralis couldn't secure the next one, as the Brazilians held the composure and retook the A site in a 3v4 (5-1).

Astralis were then reset, SK capitalized on that and picked up a few easier rounds—which ended up being the story of the first half. dupreeh opened up things through ivy again in round 11, Astralis won that to make it 8-3 and then had to wait for another two rounds for the 24-year-old to show up and open up the round for his team.

The Danish side finished off the first half with five rounds, but losing the second pistol round to Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga's triple didn't allow them much breathing room on the defensive side (13-5). Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's team was able to stabilize and do work when the rifles rolled in, as Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz often picked up opening frags with the AWP. The score came to 13-10 in favor of SK when the Brazilian side finally got into a good afterplant situation, but fer's overaggression ended up being their demise.

In an unlikely round where SK had just pistols and some utility, Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo managed a hero play as he wrapped from ivy to A. Astralis were unable to retake the site and that opened the floodgates for the Brazilians, who closed it out from there.

coldzera was the main man in SK's Mirage comeback

Astralis finally got a good start on Mirage, with a 3v5 recovery from the hands of Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth and Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye in round 5 allowing them to take a massive, 8-0 Terrorist side lead. However, SK made the most of their round losses, often saving and picking up exit kills, which lead to Astralis's bank being broken when the FalleN-Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David double-AWP setup paid dividends in round 9.

SK got three in a row, but Astralis regained control quickly, with Xyp9x continuing to have a great game as his team abused the A site defense, while the team's in-game leader gla1ve added quite a bit to the fragging department as well.

Finishing the first half 4-11 down, SK could've had an early foothold in a match after winning the Terrorist pistol and the following anti-force buy, but Xyp9x—with a saved CZ-75—stopped the approach towards short and device clutched out the round against two low-HP players.

Astralis extended their lead to 14-6, but SK were once again dangerous in the gun rounds, slowly bringing the match back. coldzera's fragging and Ricardo "⁠boltz⁠" Prass's A site lurks proved hard to deal with for Astralis, who had to rely on another Xyp9x-powered round to get to match point.

SK brought it back to 15-14 and, in yet another clutch-afterplant situation in this game, FalleN and coldzera were triumphant, taking it into overtime. In the added rounds, it once again came down to the A site defense and the post-plants, but the Brazilian side was able to take over their momentum and close out the map 19-17 for a 2-0 in the series.

EPICENTER 2017 Best of 3 SK Matchpage 2 0 Astralis 16 Train 11 19 Mirage 17