k0nfig powers Astralis to a sweep over FURIA

Astralis kickstarted their adventure at IEM Cologne 2022’s group stage with a 2-0 victory over FURIA, securing their stay in the upper bracket. A vintage performance on Nuke (16-8) gave the advantage to the Danes before another great T side on Mirage (16-13) closed the series in their favor. Benjamin “⁠blameF⁠” Bremer proved indispensable on the second map, while Kristian “⁠k0nfig⁠” Wienecke was a force of nature across the whole series.

The defeat means FURIA will have to face Outsiders in the lower bracket for a chance to stay in the tournament. The Russian squad went undefeated through the Play-In before suffering a loss at the hands of Cloud9 on Thursday.

FURIA did not have a great start to their defense on Nuke. The South Americans immediately conceded the opening pistol, allowing Astralis‘ T side to come online early. The Danes never gave the Brazilians a chance to get back up, constantly keeping their economy in check, and Lukas “⁠gla1ve⁠” Rossander was a big part of that. After a rough showing in the Play-In stage, the veteran in-game leader was on a roll as he found several frags to facilitate his team’s offense, pushing them to a fantastic 10-5 half despite Rafael “⁠saffee⁠” Costa‘s heroics. After switching sides, a solo M4 on round 17 helped the Danes to convert a force buy, quickly shutting down any hopes of a FURIA comeback while k0nfig powered the defense to a 16-8 victory.

The Danes were on track for another dominant half on Mirage’s CT side after gianing an early 6-2 advantage, but FURIA did not give up easily. A hero AK on Yuri “⁠yuurih⁠” Santos unlocked the A bombsite for the Brazilians, giving them the first of a five-round streak and briefly, the lead. Andreas “⁠Xyp9x⁠” Højsleth and k0nfig both played a solid defensive half for Astralis as they edged an 8-7 scoreline ahead of the break.

After switching sides, it was the Danes who once again came out all guns blazing, taking the second pistol before extending their lead to 15-8 as the Brazilians found no answer to Astralis and k0nfig‘s aggression. FURIA resisted for while, but eventually gla1ve took that last necessary round on the B site to close the map 16-13 and the series 2-0.