Astralis eliminated top-ranked Team Liquid from the StarLadder Berlin Major on Friday, posting a 2-0 sweep in the quarterfinals of the $1 million Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament.
In other quarterfinal action, NRG Esports beat Natus Vincere 2-0 to set up a Saturday semifinal meeting with Astralis. The other semifinal will feature AVANGAR, a 2-1 winner over Team Vitality, and Renegades, a 2-0 victor over ENCE.
The quarterfinals, semifinals and final are all best-of-three, with the winner pocketing $500,000 and the runner-up earning $150,000.
Astralis selected Vertigo as the opening map, then led 8-7 at the midpoint before pulling away for a 16-8 victory. Liquid led 9-6 after the first half on Overpass, but Astralis stormed back to secure a 16-13 win.
Astralis rode a balanced attack, as Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz led the team with 48 kills while Emil "Magisk" Reif had 47 and Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen added 46. Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski and Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken each had 39 kills for Liquid.
NRG advanced behind a pair of tight map wins over Natus Vincere, 16-12 on Dust II, then 19-17 in overtime on Mirage.
On Thursday, AVANGAR opened with a 16-9 decision on Mirage before Vitality leveled the match with a 16-11 win on Inferno. The decisive map, Dust II, went to AVANGAR, 16-10.
Renegades routed ENCE 16-5 on Mirage before closing out the series with a 16-12 win on Nuke.
-- Field Level Media