Astralis miss third Counter-Strike Major in a row after they bail out of Copenhagen RMR

Close but no cigar.

Astralis' dev1ce competing during the European RMR for Copenhagen Major.
Photo by PGL

Astralis had high hopes ahead of the European RMRs for the Copenhagen CS2 Major with its star-studded roster. But the organization will miss out on its third Valve-sponsored tournament in a row after being eliminated in the Last Chance Qualifier.

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After going 2-3 in the European RMR B, where Astralis defeated Nexus and Monte but lost to Spirit, Heroic, and ENCE, the Danes dropped to the LCQ. There, a single team out of six can win a single last ticket to the CS2 Major. But dev1ce and his crew won’t be even fighting in the second stage of the LCQ, as they were disqualified by 9Pandas in the first one.

Astralis had a close series against the Russian team. On Overpass, which was their pick, they narrowly lost with a 13-11 scoreline, and hoped to even out the series on Nuke. Unfortunately for them, 9Pandas showed a stellar offensive on the T side, where they gathered a stunning eight rounds. It took them another nine to close out the map with a 13-8 scoreline.

CS:GO player blameF playing at the BLAST Paris Major Europe RMR for Astralis
BlameF has failed to qualify for the Major for the third time in a row. Photo by Michal Konkol via BLAST

While 9Pandas march forward in the LCQ, where they will face at least one opponent tomorrow, Astralis are out. It’s a major disappointment for the roster who picked up two young stars, stavn and jabbi, in November. None of the new additions showed up in the tournament, though. In the European RMR B, jabbi and stavn both posted a rating below one, according to HLTV.

This will be Astralis’ third Major miss in a row after the team placed 12-14th in RMR events for both BLAST.tv CS:GO Paris Major 2023 and IEM CS:GO Rio Major 2022. The team will have a lot of time to make substantial changes or fix their mistakes, though, with their next pivotal tournament being IEM Chengdu. The Chinese event is scheduled to begin on April 8.

Author
Image of Mateusz Miter
Mateusz Miter
Freelance Writer at Dot Esports. Mateusz previously worked for numerous outlets and gaming-adjacent companies, including ESL. League of Legends or CS:GO? He loves them both. In fact, he wonders which game he loves more every day. He wanted to go pro years ago, but somewhere along the way decided journalism was the more sensible option—and he was right.