Astralis have secured a place in IEM Sydney's last-four stage after breezing past fnatic in Group B's upper bracket final.

Astralis got off to a dream start on Overpass and set the tone from the first moment as they stormed to an 8-1 lead on the offensive side. It was only then that fnatic were able to put their foot down and hold back the Danes, cutting the deficit to three thanks a great half from Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell, who picked up 19 kills.

The second half began with Astralis shutting down the B site in comfortable fashion to move further into the lead. The Danish team remained in control in the gun rounds, constantly catching fnatic's players off-guards with timely flanks, and quickly hit map point.

A triple-kill from Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson then breathed some new life into fnatic's players, but the recovery was short-lived, as Astralis re-asserted their dominance and locked down the map.

Astralis put up an all-round performance against fnatic

The next map, Cache, quickly turned into a bloodbath. fnatic won the pistol round but were stunned by Astralis' force buy in the following round. The rest of the half was an apt demonstration of just how scary the Danes look right now as they steamrolled their opponents to pick up a 13-1 lead.

A 1v2 clutch from Jonas "⁠Lekr0⁠" Olofsson in the final round of the half offered little cause for optimism for fnatic's fans, and things then went from bad to worse for the Swedes as they lost the pistol round to a fast A execution from Astralis.

The Danish team could not follow it up, however, as they were caught off-guard by fnatic's A stack. The Swedish team put together a string of rounds to put some pressure on Astralis' players, who would not let a comeback happen, winning back-to-back rounds to book a semi-final place.

IEM Sydney 2018Best of 3 AstralisMatchpage 2 0 3rd May 2018 fnatic 16Overpass 9 16Cache 7

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Emil 'Magisk' ReifMagisk	41 - 26	+15	89.7	1.41
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussendupreeh	42 - 30	+12	87.7	1.36
Nicolai 'device' Reedtzdevice	40 - 27	+13	84.9	1.30
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossandergla1ve	33 - 26	+7	82.0	1.27
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	36 - 26	+10	76.8	1.14

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Jonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonLekr0	34 - 34	0	64.7	0.96
Jesper 'JW' WecksellJW	35 - 41	-6	80.3	0.92
Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ	29 - 40	-11	77.0	0.86
Robin 'flusha' Rönnquistflusha	21 - 40	-19	62.1	0.64
Maikil 'Golden' SelimGolden	16 - 38	-22	40.5	0.50

Astralis will play again only on Saturday morning, in the first match of the day, while fnatic will fight for survival in the tournament on Friday, against FaZe, in one of the two-quarter final encounters.

Astralis #1 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson Age: 24 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 1101 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.63 Jesper 'JW' Wecksell Age: 23 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 1321 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.68 fnatic #3 Robin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonMaikil 'Golden' Selim FaZe #4 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenRichard 'Xizt' LandströmLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard Jonas 'Lekr0' Olofsson Age: 24 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 564 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.67