Astralis beat HOTU 2-1 to reach BLAST Bounty Finals

Astralis defeated HOTU 2-1 in the BLAST Bounty Season 2 online stage to qualify for the Season 2 Finals. The three-map series ended 13-1 on Cache, 7-13 on Nuke and 13-10 on Ancient, and the result confirms Filip “NEO” Kubski will make his first LAN appearance leading Astralis after joining in the off-season.

The series opened on HOTU’s map pick, Cache, where Astralis won 13-1. Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard recorded a 2.52 rating on Cache, the second-highest-rated map of his career, and finished the series with a 59-36 K-D, 98.4 ADR and a 1.48 rating. Victor “Staehr” Staehr posted a 1.92 rating on Cache and ended the match with a 45-36 K-D and a 1.25 rating.

HOTU won the second map, Nuke, 13-7. Aleksandr “dwushka” Pakhnevich recovered from a slow Cache to be a major factor on Nuke as HOTU built a 9-3 lead at half through successful Outside defaults and Upper control. David “n0rb3r7” Danielyan produced consecutive multi-kills after the break to secure the map; he finished the series 47-41 with an 87.9 ADR and a 1.24 rating. DWushka closed the series with a 39-37 K-D, 73.3 ADR and a 1.18 rating.

Ancient decided the tie and featured several clutch plays. HOTU opened Ancient 5-0, including a 1v3 clutch that caster Mohan “launders” Govindasamy had described as having “0% chance” seconds earlier. Astralis responded with a 1v3 from Love “phzy” Smidebrant and a second-half pistol round win that helped them complete a 13-10 map victory. Jabbi produced nine multi-kills on Ancient and totaled a 26-16 K-D on the map.

Across the series, Gytis “ryu” Glušauskas finished with a 34-35 K-D and a 1.00 rating, while Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen went 29-36 with a 0.94 rating. HOTU contributors included Kim “frontales” Argunov (36-37, 60.6 ADR) and Dmitry “mizu” Kondratev (33-44, 65.8 ADR).

Astralis previously had narrow results in the Bounty online stage, including a close opening win over Nemesis and inconsistent map performances. The team will appear on the BLAST Bounty Season 2 Finals LAN roster following this qualifying victory.