Astralis flunk out of home Major in upset defeat

With an underwhelming performance against 9 Pandas, Counter-Strike 2 organisation Astralis will be missing the PGL Major Copenhagen in their home market Denmark, despite serious investments into its team.

An unlikely underperformance

It's an upset for the ages. With a clean 2-0 loss against the Russian team 9 Pandas, one of the most decorated organisations in professional Counter-Strike and the largest team in Denmark, has failed to make the Major. Despite all its efforts to build a so-called Danish super team, Astralis will not be playing on stage at the Royal Arena.

Throughout the RMR B, the qualifier for the event, the team had struggled to find form, only beating Nexus and a weakened Monte, losing to IEM Katowice champion Team Spirit, ENCE, and HEROIC, sending them into the last chance qualifier where the upset loss against 9 Pandas occurred.

"The context is staggering, they signed all the players they wanted, they built their version of a Danish dream team. Yet they failed to qualify as one of the 24 teams heading into the Major and didn't even make it to the IEM Katowice Group Stage," wrote former pro player and broadcast analyst Jacob "Pimp" Winneche.

He concluded that "there is no hiding from the fact that this is an absolute disaster for Astralis, and a big loss for Danish Counter-Strike as a whole." 

Building for a victory

In preparation for the Major at home, the organisation had recruited the Danish rising stars Martin "stavn" Lund and Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard from rival organisation HEROIC in a controversial move that cost the team a reported 14 million Danish Krone [~1.9 million € / ~ 1.6 million £].

With their early exit, Astralis failed its chance to recuperate its investment through the substantial revenue share through team-themed in-game item sales. According to a report by hltv.org, the last major organised by BLAST in Paris had paid out over $110 million [~101 million € / ~87 million £] to the 24 teams.

"Nothing mattered more than this. I’m crushed trying to find any words to put on what happened. The biggest sorry to our fans & the organization who believed in us. 

"It’s an impossible pill to swallow not being a part of the celebration of Counter-Strike in Copenhagen," shared four-time Major winner Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz on Twitter. 

The main event of the PGL Major Copenhagen is set to begin on March 17th, with the opening stage concluding in the Grand Final on March 31.