Aurora reached the playoffs of PGL Bucharest after making a comeback against Astralis, having lost the opening map. Odds that the game was in favor of neither before dev1ce was substituted with Ruggah for a medical emergency shifted it heavily in favor of the Turkish side, but that did not make a dent in the competitive spirit of the Danes, who made Aurora work for it till the very end.
VETO
- Astralis removed Dust2
- Aurora removed Ancient
- Astralis picked Nuke
- Aurora picked Train
- Aurora removed Inferno
- Astralis removed Overpass
- Mirage was left over
Map 1: Nuke; Pick: Astralis; Winner: Astralis
Starting the map with one star down, Astralis surprised Aurora with a confident pistol round, racking up 2-0 on their offense before losing on the first gun round. Despite losing out on their best player, Astralis continued with their momentum and managed to recover in the first half with a respectable 7-5 scoreline. CT side was where the difficulties would lie without their star AWPer, or so did Aurora think. Solid defense laid out by the Danish side choked the Turks into giving away the lead they had coming into the half, which paved the way for their defense to close out a surprising win with a 13-10 scoreline. 24 kills from Jabbi helped pull the weight of Dev1ce’s absence to give his side an early lead in the series.
Map 2: Train; Pick: Aurora; Winner: Aurora
Starting on defense, Astralis pulled off another surprise to go 5-0 up before Aurora hit the board. Winning their first offensive round in the 6th round of the map, they managed to put together a few rounds and end the half with a competitive scoreline of 7-5 in favor of the Danes. The offense of Train is where the absence of dev1ce was felt as Astralis failed to manage anything besides a single gun round, thus enabling Aurora to end the map with ease. 23 kills from Wicadia, helped Aurora level the scoreline and take the series to the final map of the day.
Map 3: Mirage; Pick: Decider; Winner: Aurora
Aurora hit the scoreboard with a force buy conversion in the second round. Snatching the momentum away, Aurora found themselves on the verge of putting up a solid defense when Astralis bested them in several rounds to level the scoreline 6-6 before closing the half. Winning the pistol, Aurora remained flawless for the first 6 rounds of their offense, leading them to hit a series point before Astralis started mounting a comeback. Having managed 10 rounds on the map, Astralis were on the verge of pushing the game to OT when Aurora stopped their comeback right on its tracks to close out the series.
The new Astralis line-up was starting to get into shape, and this event was their prime chance to grab a trophy, given the lack of top teams. The medical emergency could not have come at a worse time, given that they had a shot against Aurora and the absence of dev1ce heavily cost them dearly. It goes without saying that they did push Aurora to their very limits, but the result could have easily gone their way had their four-time Major-winning sniper been on the mouse.