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We continue to follow the action at PW Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B. The qualifying championship continues and soon we will know the names of all the participants of the main final event of the year - Shanghai Major 2024.
While some teams (like Passion UA and BIG) are fighting for the Major in a 2-0 basket, a couple of teams from 0-2 - B8 and Astralis - are preparing for the match for life. The format of the meeting is bo3.
We're trying to figure out which team will leave the championship today and lose all chances to play at the Shanghai tournament.
Let's go.
Astralis Form
Let's open the Astralis vs B8 match with the analysis of Astralis form. The legendary Danish club in a new wrapper will play the first number one with odds to win at around 1.5.
The Danish club has had a difficult period. They tried their best to "return" to the TIR-1 scene, but they constantly fell short: Astralis finished top-20 at ESL Pro League Season 17 and top-14 at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR B.
At lesser tournaments, however, Astralis fared well. The world's most titled team finished Top 2 at Brazy Party, won CCT South Europe Series #4 and finished Top 4 at Pinnacle Cup V.
Returning to the S-Tier Championships, Astralis took Top 6 at IEM Masters Dallas 2023 and Top 8 at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups.
Prior to the BB Dacha, Astralis attended a number of other events. Those were ESL Pro League Season 18 and Roobet Cup 2023, where the once stellar Danes finished in the Top 16.
Just before the Long Convergence, BB Dacha Astralis finished in the Top 4 at CS Asia Championship 2023 and Top 8 at BLAST Premier: Fall Finals. The swing in performance is primarily due to roster manipulation.
- Astralis roster: Staehr, stavn, jabbi, CadiaN, br0.
Before IEM Katowice 2024 they played at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024. At the end of the championship the Danes made it to the top 6 and it was enough to get to the BLAST Premier: Spring Final. The IEM Katowice 2024 Astralis failed in the dust and dust: took the top 32, not passing the Play-In stage.
Then there were two attempts to get to the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, but both were unsuccessful: TOP-11 at European RMR B and TOP-6 at European RMR Decider put an end to Astralis' participation in the home Major.
In the first match of IEM China 2024 Astralis played against steel helmet, as Monte could not make it to China. And if Monte had played there, the score would have been obviously not so crushing as 13-2 in favour of Astralis. Although, judging by the match with FaZe, where Astralis were a head and shoulders above FaZe, shutting down the top 1 team in the world with a score of 2-0, maybe Astralis are very energised for IEM China 2024. In the play-offs of the championship Astralis met FaZe Clan again, but this time they were weaker and lost with the score 1-2 and left the tournament.
Astralis visited ESL Pro League Season 19, where they reached the TOP-4, where in the match for the grand final Ledge and Vitality. Later, they had an identical result at CCT Season 1 Global Finals and YaLLa Compass 2024.
At BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2024, Astralis played in Group A, where they finished in the top 3. They made it to the play-offs Ledge or Vp and left the tournament at the Top 6 stage. Later Astralis played at IEM Cologne 2024, where they finished top-12.
At the ESL Pro League Season 20 Long Season they were defeated by Fnatic (1-2). Next was a match against CoL (0-2). They finished ESL Pro League Season 20 as ignominiously as they started - losing to CoL and leaving the tournament at the TOP-28 stage.
After such poor results Astralis continued their attempts to return to the TIR-1 stage. For this purpose, they played at BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024, where they took TOP-8 and at Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2024, where they were TOP-12. As you can see, the attempts were not successful.
Astralis did well in the group stage of BLAST Premier: World Final 2024, leaving behind MOUZ, FaZe and NaVi. After winning Group A, Astralis directly qualified for the semi-finals. However, that was the end of their journey through BLAST Premier: World Final 2024, and Spirit made it to the grand finals.
Astralis Long Sogpegged at PW Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B with a loss against 9 Pandas, followed by Ledgeili and Sashi Esports
Astralis Mapple
Astralis has two 100 per cent maps. They are Nuke with 9 wins in 14 matches, and Anubis with 5 matches and 4 wins.
They also play Ancient (66% wins in 3 matches). Still playing Mirage (9 matches, 4 wins). Vertigo with 2 wins and 3 losses and Overpass (2 wins in 7 matches).
Do not play Inferno.
B8 Form.
We continue our analysis of the match B8 vs Astralis with an analysis of B8's form. In this match they will play as the number two side with odds to win at around 2.4.
B8 can be characterised as a real workhorse. The team is at the crossroads between TIR-3 and TIR-2, but they are consistently "shining" at some pretty big tournaments. It also plays a lot, as is often the case with TIR-2 teams on the Counter-Strike competitive scene.
During the season 2024 B8 had several big achievements by the standards of the club. The team finished in the top 4 at RES Eastern European Masters: Spring 2024 and a similar place at RES European Series #2. In the middle of the year there were also victories at TIR-B tournaments. Thus, B8 became the champions of CCT Season 2 European Series #2 and Elisa Invitational Spring 2024, and also won CCT Season 2 European Series #5.
Unfortunately for B8 and their fans, the victories at the aforementioned tournaments did not turn into a stable win streak. At the same CCT the team finished top-8 at Series #12 and top-8 at Series #13.
- B8 lineup: cptkurtka023, npl, esenthial, headtr1ck, baz, alex666.
Before playing at ESL Challenger Katowice 2024, the team played at YaLLa Compass 2024, where they had bad luck and finished in TOP-18. Next was an appearance at CCT Season 2: European Series #12, CCT Season 2, European Series #13 with TOP-8.
Just before the Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B they played Elisa Masters Espoo 2024, where they took TOP-4 and ESL Challenger Katowice 2024, where they took TOP-2.
At PW Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B, the B8 Long team started with a defeat by Spirit, which is quite a logical result. Then they lost to Aurora, who are above B8 in the HLTV rankings.
B8 Mapple
B8 has two 100% maps. They are Nuke with 9 wins in 14 matches, and Anubis with 5 matches and 4 wins.
They also play Ancient (66% wins in 3 matches). Still playing Mirage (9 matches, 4 wins). Vertigo with 2 wins and 3 losses and Overpass (2 wins in 7 matches).
Inferno are not playing.
History of head-to-head meetings B8 - Astralis
Previously, the teams have not played each other in head-to-head meetings.
Predicted result of Astralis vs B8 at PW Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B
In this match I expect a roughly equal fight. We can see that Astralis look terrible without device, going 0-2 in the net without much chance, while playing against passable teams. I think B8 will take the map, and then we'll see.
Bottom line: +1.5 total on B8.
paiN Gaming
Nemiga GamingWatch match
