Astralis Take Down ENCE to Stay Alive at IEM Katowice 2022

The Danes were able to survive in a close series that ended 2-1 in their favour.

By
Mohd Laraib
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astralis vs ence

Astralis beat ENCE 2-1 in the lower bracket to eliminate the international roster from IEM Katowice 2022. ENCE almost beat NaVi yesterday, battering them on Nuke in the process but a second consecutive close loss sees them bow out of IEM Katowice. Astralis started with a loss on Mirage but fought back on Overpass and Ancient with huge impact from blameF and k0nfig respectively, on the 2 maps.

MAP VETO

  • ENCE removed Inferno 
  • Astralis removed Vertigo 
  • ENCE picked Mirage 
  • Astralis picked Overpass
  • ENCE removed Dust2 
  • Astralis removed Nuke 
  • Ancient was left over

MAP 1: Mirage (Astralis  16-19 ENCE)

MAP 2: Overpass (Astralis 16-12 ENCE )

MAP 3: Ancient (Astralis 16-13 ENCE)

We kicked off on ENCE’s pick of Mirage and they were ready to exploit Astralis’ inexperience on the map since it was their original permaban for more than 2 years. The danes won the pistol but ENCE had the spoils when the guns came out, they won 3 consecutive rounds, thrice in the half to end with 9 T rounds. Astralis did manage 2 consecutive rounds twice but they were never in control.

On the T side, Astralis started well and a vintage 1v3 Ace clutch from Xyp9x saw them even the score out.

But ENCE didn’t back down and with AWPer hades taking over the map, Astralis ran ragged. Both the sides went back and forth and Astralis came back from 15-12 down to take it to overtime. But the comeback ended there as they couldn’t do the same in OT and won only 1 round while ENCE took the 4 needed to close the map 19-16.

Overpass started, this time with Astralis in control and blameF leading the charge. A 4-0 start quickly turned into a 4-6 trail as IGL Snappi started reading his Danish counterpart pretty well. But out of the last 5, the Danes won 4 rounds to secure at least a 1 round lead going into the next half.

CT side Overpass has been blameF’s bread and butter even when he was on Complexity. He was no different today as after the initial flurry of rounds thanks to the pistol, ENCE found only a round here and there. He locked down the A site with ease, racking up 15 kills in each half to win the game for his side 16-12, with a 1.68 rating to boot.

Ancient was the deciding map and it was close yet again. A fine start from ENCE was quickly mopped up by Astralis as the 5-2 lead was followed by an  8-5 scoreline. Lucky and k0nfig  on the A site/donut position and blameF on the B site locked ENCE out of the half after a slow start. 

A 9-6 half was followed by a force buy battle between ENCE and Astralis. spinx and co. finally strung more than 1 together and were back at even keeling at 11-11.  It was now a different Former complexity gaming members turn to step up as k0nfig took ENCE by the horns, entry onto the A site again and again as he went 19-10  on the T side to help find the much-needed 16 rounds for his side. 

Astralis were made to sweat as the game was close throughout but they held on and won out the game, with good calls from gla1ve to end Ancient 16-13.

NO SPODEK ARENA FOR ENCE

ENCE are out of IEM Katowice 2022 in 13-16th alongside OG, Copenhagen Flames, and Team Liquid. Astralis live another day and will play the loser of FaZe vs fnatic tomorrow.